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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · 21d

New paper on “Legal Internalism” posted. Co-authored with Shyam Balganesh. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · 25d

The desire to make the RMB internationally attractive partially explains the Chinese government’s continued hesitation to significantly increase the money supply (which then feeds directly into current waves of deflation). I’m not sure that’s worth it. www.economist.com/china/2025/0...

China is ditching the dollar, fast

Officials believe that the yuan has finally come of age

www.economist.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Sep 2

Just a reminder that, since 2009, China has held a military parade in Tiananmen Square roughly once every 5 years to commemorate major anniversaries, and yet in that span it has invaded, bombed, or otherwise militarily attacked exactly 0 countries.

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Aug 1

It seems like, well, an opportune time to push this paper again. We find qualitative similarities in how the Chinese and American governments produce economic statistics, but even we couldn’t anticipate how quickly those similarities would strengthen…

The Law of Information States: Evidence from China and the United States — Virginia Journal of International Law

www.vjil.org

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Jul 15

This paper Is finally out! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Does Legality Produce Political Legitimacy? An Experimental Approach | The Journal of Legal Studies: Vol 54, No 2

Abstract This article studies whether pure legality, stripped of normative components that are central to the rule of law, can convey perceived legitimacy to governmental institutions and activity. Th...

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Jun 25

First draft completed! The writing took six months, but the substantive research took about 7 years, spanning multiple article and essay projects (none of which will supply actual text for this book, given Harvard UP’s publishing preferences). Should be out at some point in late 2026.

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Jun 20

Just one of many reasons why we never use student edited journal placements as a proxy for quality when making hiring decisions (and if you’re a school that considers yourself intellectually serious but does use these proxies—shame on you)… freebeacon.com/campus/exclu...

Exclusive: Harvard Law Review Axes 85 Percent of Submissions Using Race-Conscious Rubric, Documents Show

When the Washington Free Beacon published documents showing how the Harvard Law Review selects articles based on race, the law review insisted those documents had been taken out of context.

freebeacon.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Apr 4

For a decade, I’ve been arguing with economists over whether ideology can override economic rationality in large enough doses to fundamentally alter the course of human history (I argue yes, most economists I know are skeptical). As of today, I believe I’ve won the argument.

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Mar 9

Some data on the Chinese judicial cases database that so many social scientists now use. Quantitative empirical studies of Chinese courts are probably going to be stuck in 2017-2020 for the next decade or two…

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Feb 6

At this rate I’m not sure DOGE is really going to achieve its stated goal of reducing total federal government employee count, simply because there will soon be so many lawsuits and so many restraining orders that they might have to double the staff count at DOJ…

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Jan 21

An EO (e.g., Trump’s EO seeking to “end” birthright citizenship) that delays its own implementation for 30 days from the date of issuance is obviously anticipating being quickly sued (which has already happened tonight) and stayed (which will happen within a few days) in court.

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 29

Credible (or rather, formerly credible) commitments, once broken, are incredibly difficult to restore. This will take years of policy-based and institutional therapy, if there is indeed the political will for it. www.ft.com/content/de2c...

Beijing seeks to curb ‘shakedown’ detentions of Chinese executives

Senior figures at more than 80 listed companies were held by local authorities in 2024, FT analysis finds

www.ft.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 26

Needless to say, this is not a normative defense of any particular hierarchy, just a detached sociological analysis.

Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 26

Final SSRN upload of 2024: a symposium essay forthcoming in YJLH that muses about why some forms of social hierarchies, however morally dubious, tend to be more historically prevalent and stickier than others. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"Natural Hierarchies"

This essay examines the socioeconomics of status hierarchies: how they respond to external demands, and how, in terms of institutional structure, they make them

papers.ssrn.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 24

(Qualitatively similar, but not quantitatively.)

Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 24

Second SSRN post of the week, this one on how governments produce information—and what the law can do to optimize that process. Perhaps surprisingly, core political incentives and institutional mechanisms are broadly similar across the U.S. and China. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Law of Information States: Evidence from China and the United States

Government could not function-legally, administratively, or politically-without producing information about the population, the economy, crime, elections, publi

papers.ssrn.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 23

New paper posted to SSRN, a few more to come later this week. The primary claim in this one is that legality and authoritarianism can be politically and administratively synergistic. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Legality and Legitimacy in Authoritarian Regimes

Conventional legal and political theory tend to assume that authoritarian regimes have an inherently uneasy relationship with law: that strong legal systems fun

papers.ssrn.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 19

Pretty good research on the (lack of) relevance of the USNews rankings for essentially the only thing they should theoretically influence: student matriculation decisions.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Decline & Fall of the US News Rankings

Have the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings become irrelevant? The ostensible purpose of the US News law school rankings is to give prospective la

papers.ssrn.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 14

The Rosalind Picard incident from yesterday’s NeurIPS conference keynote would normally be grounds for a Title 6 complaint and investigation.

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 12

Whatever stimulus effect emerges from these rate cuts, it’s likely to flow more to debt refinancing by local governments and SOEs than to consumption or new investment. That said, devaluing the RMB is necessary, and frankly should have already happened. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/b...

China Pledges More Stimulus to Shore Up Flagging Economy

At a meeting to set the party’s economic policy agenda, China’s leadership said it would borrow more and cut interest rates in a bid to bolster growth.

www.nytimes.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 12

When I left to drop my kids off at school, I thought for sure that the final Ding-Gukesh game was headed for a draw. Came back, and within minutes Ding had committed an irreparable blunder. It’s a brutal game sometimes, but congratulations to the new king. Quite the series.

Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Dec 3

Judging from the amount of posts here on the SK martial law declaration, it’ll be a while before this site can really compare to the other place in terms of political information…

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Nov 27

If true, this would be… unbelievably embarrassing (third one in a row). If it triggers a more systemic anti-corruption campaign in the armed forces to clear the rot, that would probably set back near-term battle-readiness by quite a lot.

www.ft.com/content/6414...

China’s defence minister placed under investigation for corruption

US officials say probe is part of wider operation to uncover graft in People’s Liberation Army

www.ft.com

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Nov 23

It’s now the 20th Anniversary of this episode, and it’s still the greatest college prank of all time. This also happened to be the only time I went to a Y-H Game in Cambridge. So worth it, even if the game itself was utterly forgettable.

youtu.be/T4kai4FL0MQ?...

Harvard Says "WE SUCK"

YouTube video by cinematikwoo

youtu.be

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Taisu Zhang @zhangtaisu.bsky.social · Nov 21

Yeah a certain segment of the history field likes to establish superiority on that basis, none more ambitiously than this article though. It’s a really cool read.

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