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# The Institutions China Chose
- URL: https://theinstitutionalist.jetri.com/the-institutions-china-chose-2/
- Published: 2026-08-20T05:00:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T05:00:49.000Z
- Author: Shreyasi Singh
- Tags: Newsletter

*China did not build most of its leading universities from scratch. It placed the weight of the state behind century-old institutions. The results are now visible to the world.*

When people talk about the world's great universities, they still instinctively reach for the same names: Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT. Yet the most consequential university-building story of the last three decades happened elsewhere. 

In 2003, when the first Shanghai Rankings were published, no Chinese university appeared among the world's top 200\. Today, Peking University and Tsinghua University sit among the global top twenty. China has overtaken the United States in output across many of the world's highest-impact scientific journals. More than seventy Chinese universities now appear in the QS World University Rankings.

In May 1998, at Peking University's centenary celebrations, Jiang Zemin declared that China needed universities with world-leading standards. What followed was not a broad-based reform effort. It was a sequence of increasingly concentrated bets.

***Read the full story:*** [***The Institutions China Chose***](https://theinstitutionalist.jetri.com/the-institutions-china-chose/)

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**UPCOMING EVENTS**

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e1/e2/e1e21761-39df-46cb-91d9-75e753319ad6/content/images/2026/08/Ep-10-Thumbnail--1--1.png)

This year’s admissions cycle has been unlike any in recent memory.   
Each application, accepted offer, and declined seat tells us a story about student preferences, amidst visa uncertainties, rising costs, more global campuses in India, and AI changing both prep and admissions.  
  
The upcoming episode of **Jetri Dialogs** hosts [Sheetal Vora](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheetal-vora-2a892313b/?ref=theinstitutionalist.jetri.com), [Ali Imran](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-imran-4631601/?ref=theinstitutionalist.jetri.com) and   
[Dr. Vishal Talwar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/talwarv/?ref=theinstitutionalist.jetri.com), in conversation with Shreyasi Singh, to decode what the 2026 admissions cycle reveals about student choice, and what institutions should do next.  
  
Join us on August 27, 2026  
5.00-6.00 pm IST  
📍Zoom, with Q&A

[Register Now](https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5617869604253/WN%5FHurpjFTgTWidt8lLvJS-Rg?ref=theinstitutionalist.jetri.com)

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