Over the past three decades, China has become a major trade partner and investor for Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine. The region is also an important component of the BRI New Eurasian Land Bridge, providing alternative access to Western Europe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is shaking up China’s plans and prospects in this part of Eurasia. With the cl…

Speaker: Stephen Kaplan, Associate Professor of Political Science and Economic Affairs, George Washington UniversityDiscussant: Laura Alfaro, Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business SchoolThis book explores how China’s state-led capitalism affects national level governance. China, as the world’s largest saver, has more …

Speaker: Cheng Li, Director, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings InstitutionModerator/Discussant: Elizabeth J. Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government and Director of the opens in a new windowHarvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard UniversityCheng Li is the director of the John L. Thornton China Center and a senior fellow in the Foreign Poli…

Speakers:Ashley Esarey, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of AlbertaJoanna Lewis, Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program (STIA),Georgetown UniversityMary Alice Haddad, John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Chair and Profes…

Speaker: Xuefei Ren, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Michigan State UniversityXuefei Ren is a comparative urbanist whose work focuses on urban development, governance, architecture, and the built environment in global perspective.She is the author of three award-winning books: Governing the Urban in China and India: Land Grabs, Slum C…

Speaker: Evan Medeiros, Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies and the Cling Family Senior Fellow in US-China Relations, Georgetown UniversityEvan S. Medeiros is a professor and Penner family chair in Asia studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has published several books and articles on East Asia, U.S.-China relations,…

Speaker: Eugenia Lean, Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures; Director, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia UniversityBy examining two early legal cases featuring the alleged counterfeiting of Xiangmao Honey Soap, this talk shows how the Chinese language and linguistic practices in Chinese commercial culture often stymie…

China is constantly in the global media limelight due to its growing presence and influence throughout the world. Journalists reporting on this rising superpower play a crucial role in explaining the complexities of its domestic developments and international activities to local publics. This is a formidable task, made even more difficult by the in…

Speaker: Joan Judge, Professor, Department of History, York UniversityWhat can we learn from intellectual detritus? Focusing on cheap print, vernacular daily-use knowledge, and common readers in the Long Republic (1895-1955), this talk argues that the books an age discards as slipshod and unscientific, and the readers it disparages as superstitious…

Speaker: Scott Rozelle, Helen F. Farnsworth Senior Fellow and the co-director of the Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Stanford UniversityScott Rozelle is the Helen F. Farnsworth Senior Fellow and the co-director of Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford I…

Speaker: Michel Hockx, Professor of Chinese Literature, University of Notre DameOn July 30, 1979, Deng Xiaoping addressed the fourth national conference of Chinese writers and artists. Towards the end of his speech he stated, to collective sighs of relief, that “the Party’s leadership of literature and the arts does not mean issuing orders, nor req…

Speaker: Naima Green-Riley, Ph.D. Candidate and Raymond Vernon Fellow, Department of Government, Harvard University; Former Consular Officer, US. Consulate General, Guangzhou, ChinaThis event is part of our Critical Issues Confronting China public lecture series.Por Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

China’s Hengtong Group—leading a consortium of telecom companies from Hong Kong, Pakistan, and East Africa—will soon complete installation of the Pakistan East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) cable. Spanning the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, this cable will connect the three most populous continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, or what Ha…

The Stone and the Wireless: Lyrical Media and Bad Models of the Feeling WomenMa Shaoling is an Assistant Professor of Humanities (Literature) at Yale-NUS College. She was born in Taiwan, grew up in Singapore, and spent ten years in the United States where she obtained her PhD (University of Southern California, Comparative Literature), and subseque…

Speaker: Bill Bikales, Principal and Lead Economist, Kunlun AssociatesBill is a Harvard-trained economist and Asia specialist and has worked at the most senior level of government in Mongolia on comprehensive fiscal reform and restructuring insolvent bank and power sectors, and at grass roots level in rural China on increasing poor women’s uptake o…

Speaker: Fang Xiaoping, Assistant Professor of History, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.During the 1961-1965 period, a cholera pandemic ravaged the southeastern coastal areas of Mao’s China which was already suffering from lingering starvation, class struggles, political campaigns and geopolitical challenges of the…

Speaker: Kellee Tsai, Dean of Humanities and Social Science and Chair Professor of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyThe structural transformation of China over the past several decades has given rise to a fundamental tension between the pursuit of social stability and authoritarian resilience. On the one hand, repre…

There is an intense debate among experts over the likelihood of a near-term Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Senior US military officers have warned that a PRC military action could take place in the next six years. Such dire predictions are largely based on estimates of PLA capabilities. But even if China can seize and control Taiwan, will it do so? As…

Speaker: Jeffrey Lehman, Vice Chancellor and Professor of Law, NYU ShanghaiJeffrey Lehman is the Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai, where he oversees all academic and administrative operations. Lehman is an internationally acclaimed leader in higher education, having served as dean of the University of Michigan Law School, the 11th president of Corne…

Speaker: Pang Laikwan, Professor of Cultural Studies, Chinese University of Hong KongThis paper focuses on the wide popularity of the meme and buzzword jiucai, garlic chives, on China’s internet to investigate the cultural and political subjectivity of the ordinary Chinese citizens in a time of fierce competition simply to survive, largely known as…

Speaker: Isabella Weber, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts AmherstChina has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country’s rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. This book uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms tha…

Speaker: Ruth Mostern, University of PittsburghThis talk showcases Ruth Mostern’s new book: The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History (Yale University Press, 2021). The Yellow River explains how environmentally transformative human activity has shaped the whole watershed and constituted the relationship between people and the river since Ne…

Speaker: Yeiling Tan, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of OregonProfessor Yeling Tan discusses her book, Disaggregating China, Inc: State Strategies in the Liberal Economic Order. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 represented an historic opportunity to peacefully integrate a rising economi…

Panel Participants:Sara L. Friedman, Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies, Indiana UniversityRussell King, Professor of Geography, University of SussexSarah Lamb, Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanistic Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology, Brandeis UniversityAndrea Louie, Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State UniversityNicole N…

Speaker: Laurence Coderre, Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies, New York UniversityWhereas the contemporary era in China is often depicted in terms of rampant, ideologically vacuous commodification, the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) is typically cast as a time of ubiquitous politics and scarce goods. Indeed, with the exception of the likeness…

Speaker: Zhang Meng, Assistant Professor of History, Vanderbilt UniversityPart of the Environment in Asia lecture seriesIn the Qing period, China’s population tripled, and the flurry of new development generated unprecedented demand for timber. Standard environmental histories have often depicted this as an era of reckless deforestation. The realit…

How significant were the events of June 1989 in the broader span of recent Chinese history? How does the aftermath of the Beijing massacre help to explain events since then, including what is happening in Hong Kong today? How deep is the state-imposed amnesia about Tiananmen? What is the future of June Fourth Studies? Join authors Jeremy Brown and …

Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, five men have principally shaped the ruling Chinese Communist Party and the nation: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping. David Shambaugh analyzes the personal and professional experiences that shaped each leader and argues that their distinct leadership…

PanelistsJaw-Nian Huang, Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Development Studies, National Chengchi University, TaiwanLawrence Zi-Qiao Yang, Assistant Professor, Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, TaiwanKevin Wei Luo, Doctoral Fellow, Hou Family fellow in Taiwan Studies, Harvard Unive…

How did the People's Republic of China popularize basic legal knowledge after its founding in 1949? Jennifer Altehenger, Jessica Rawson Fellow in Modern Asian History and Associate Professor of Chinese History at the University of Oxford, explains how China's party-state attempted to mobilize ordinary citizens to learn laws during the early years o…

Speaker: Luke Patey, Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International StudiesAt a time when many are fixated on US-China strategic competition, how will China’s relations with the rest of the world shape its future power? From its Belt and Road Initiative linking Asia and Europe, to its “Made in China 2025” strategy to dominate high-tech indus…

Speaker: Wang Jisi, Professor in the School of International Studies and president of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Peking UniversityWang Jisi is a professor in the School of International Studies and president of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies(IISS), Peking University(PKU). He is honorary president of …

Speaker: Xiaotong Feng, Ph.D. Candidate, Communication University of China; Fairbank Center Visiting ScholarDiscussant/Moderator: Michael Szonyi, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History; Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard UniversityIn the past few years, even the most optimistic scholars will not deny that Chin…

Speaker: Jessica Chen Weiss, Associate Professor of Government, Cornell UniversityHow does China’s domestic governance shape its foreign policy? What role do nationalism and ideology play in Beijing’s regional and global ambitions? The Chinese leadership has been at once a revisionist, defender, reformer, and free-rider in the international system—…

Speaker: Martin K. Whyte, John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Sociology, Emeritus, and former director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard UniversityAs the People’s Republic of China has pursued economic development over the decades, a central dilemma concerns how to treat its massive rural population, and the exte…

Speaker: Angela Zhang, Director of the Center for Chinese Law and Associate Professor, The University of Hong KongIn this webinar, Angela Zhang will discuss her new book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation (Oxford University Press). This book examines the unique ways in which China regulates and is r…

Speaker: Taomo Zhou, Assistant Professor of History, Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeImmediately north of Hong Kong, Shenzhen is China’s most successful Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Commonly known as the “social laboratory” of reform and opening, Shenzhen was the foremost frontier for the People’s Republic’s adoption of market principles…

Speaker: Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy, Cornell University; Senior Fellow and New Century Chair in International Economics, Brookings Institution; Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research.This lecture will discuss China’s economic prospects, policies, and reforms, and their implications for its role in intern…

Speaker: David Dollar, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Global Economy and Development, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings InstitutionChina has gotten COVID-19 under control and is poised to bounce back strongly with 8% growth in 2021. But in the medium term, it faces daunting domestic and external challenges. On the domestic side, demographic …

Speaker: Chang-Tai Hsieh, Phyllis and Irwin Winkelried Professor of Economics and PCL Faculty Scholar, The University of Chicago Booth School of BusinessWe use administrative registration records with information on the owners of all Chinese firms to document the importance of “connected” investors, defined as state-owned firms or private owners wi…

Speaker: Sheena Greitens, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public AffairsSheena Chestnut Greitens is an associate professor at the LBJ School, as well as a faculty fellow with the Clements Center for National Security and a distinguished scholar with the Strauss Center for International Security and Law…

Speaker: M. Taylor Fravel, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyModerator: Andrew S. Erickson, Professor of Strategy, U.S. Naval War College China MaritimeStudies InstituteM. Taylor Fravel is the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science an…

Speaker: E. Elena Songster, Professor of History, History Department, Saint Mary’s College of CaliforniaThe giant panda stumbled into ambassador work. Profoundly successful, its diplomatic roles multiplied and evolved, but its persistent existence as an animal repeatedly reframed its role as a diplomat and beyond. Songster discusses findings from h…

Speaker: Anne-Marie Brady, Professor, University of Canterbury, New ZealandProfessor Brady is a specialist of Chinese politics (domestic politics and foreign policy), polar politics, Pacific politics, and New Zealand foreign policy. She is a fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker. She is founding and executive editor of The Polar Journal (Taylor and Franc…

Speaker: Jean Oi, William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics, Department of Political Science; Director, Stanford China Program, Stanford UniversityChina’s rapidly growing local government debt (LGD) is now branded a “grey rhino,” a known threat that has received little attention. Why did Beijing let LGD get so out of hand? What are the sources of …

Speaker: Kerry Ratigan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Amherst CollegeChina is widely known for its strong central government, but the center needs the provinces to implement policies using their knowledge of local conditions. However, provincial priorities sometimes conflict with those of the center. Drawing on research conducted for he…

Speakers:Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Head, China Studies Centre, Riga Stradins University; Head, New Silk Road Program, Latvian Institute of International AffairsBjörn Jerdén, Director, Knowledge Centre on China , Swedish Institute of International AffairsLuke Patey, Senior Researcher, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, Danish Institute for Intern…

Some states have always maintained a sense that they have a mission in the world well beyond the maintenance of domestic order, the United States, France and Britain among them. Japan, China and the Koreas also inherited a strong sense of purpose in the modern era, from Meiji modernization to Mao’s “Three Worlds” and the Belt and Road Initiative, i…

Speaker: Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, St. Cross College, University of OxfordDiscussant: Jie Li, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities, Harvard UniversityLECTURE 2 OF 3: AN ERA OF EMOTION?One factor that defines Chinese engagement with the world today is its highly emotional character, in terms of…

Speaker: Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, St. Cross College, University of OxfordDiscussant: Odd Arne Westad, Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs, Yale UniversityLECTURE 1 OF 3: HOW NEW IS THE NEW ERA?China’s leaders speak today of a “new era” – but East Asia has seen a range of “new eras” in the modern …