Conducting research on Chinese society and politics has become a demanding endeavour in recent years.
There have been two major factors of disruption for social scientists: travel restrictions during Covid had
their toll on field research, while escalating geopolitical rivalry has resulted in cutbacks in funding for
cooperation projects and created a climate of distrust. As a consequence of the latter, knowledge security
has gained prominence, signalling that the open research environment might not be sustainable. There are
no easy answers as to how to conduct China research and China cooperation. In the volatile research and
cooperation landscape, scientists face several challenges. The following text highlights some of the
insights – three main aspects of knowledge production on China – gathered at the WG4 workshop at the
Paris CHERN conference in September 2022. Since then, these concerns have only gained relevance.