Statement on Misattribution of AEI China Tracker Data
October 23, 2023
Press coverage of the 10th anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative has included data misattributed to either Christoph Nedopil Wang or the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University. These data were taken from AEI’s China Global Investment Tracker. They rely on AEI’s methodology, global regions, and economic sectors. The Tracker long pre-dates Green Finance and Development Center work and each of our semi-annual updates pre-date updates from Christoph Nedopil Wang.
AEI’s China Tracker dates back to 2005 and was first published in 2009. As the only comprehensive, original database of outbound Chinese investment and construction, it also includes a data file with all individual transactions.
For the past several months, Nedopil Wang and the Green Finance and Development Center appear to have repeatedly presented the Tracker’s data without proper citation. For example, this report appeared a week after our July update. It mentions the Tracker once as a data source, does not provide a proper citation, and then almost entirely replicates Tracker data. Afterward, it appears as the source in multiple media reports.
Please do not attribute numbers concerning the BRI to Nedopil Wang or the center at Fudan. AEI considers the integrity of its data paramount and will be in touch about any misattributions of China Tracker data.
If you have questions, please contact AEI’s Director of Media Relations, Phoebe Keller at [email protected] or 202.420.0155.
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