According to the 2016 China Statistical Yearbook, China has about 110 university presses and 3,650 research and development institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, and China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics. Some institutions, such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, have their own publishing wings. But the majority of the research findings are often channeled through university presses for publication. Among these academic and university presses, the most influential are the following:

● Beijing Normal University Press

● Central Radio & TV University Press

● China Renmin University Press

● Chongqing University Press

● East China Normal University Press

● Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

● Fudan University Press

● Guangxi Normal University Press Group

● Nanjing University Press

● Peking University Press

● Shaanxi Normal University General Publishing House

● Shanghai Jiaotong University Press

● Social Sciences Academic Press

● Tsinghua University Press

● Xi’an Jiaotong University Press

● Zhejiang University Press

The most aggressive in recent years is Guangxi Normal University Press, which has made M&A its main growth strategy. It bought Melbourne-based Images Publishing Group in 2014. Barely two years later, it acquired London-based ACC Publishing Group and established its Central European operation via a strategic agreement with the Croatian publisher Djecˇja Knjiga.

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) and Tsinghua University Press are the most familiar to overseas publishers. FLTRP, which was founded by Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1979, publishes in more than 40 languages and collaborates with major international educational publishers. It has consistently ranked among China’s top three publishing houses in terms of sales turnover.

Tsinghua University Press, an integral part of China’s most prestigious university (#3 in Asia in the Times Higher Education 2017 ranking), publishes nearly 3,000 new titles annually, along with 20 journals in various subjects. Nano Research, jointly published in English with Springer Nature, is one of the press’s most influential scientific journals.

Established in 1955, China Renmin University Press is the country’s oldest university press. Along with East China Normal University Press, which was founded two years later, it is one of two university presses that existed in China prior to its 1980s economic reform.