Each year, the CSCC invites leading experts to Penn to present their research and share their knowledge about contemporary China. Typically scheduled for Wednesday afternoons 4:30-6 pm, speakers will deliver their remarks and then entertain questions from the audience. Attendance is open to the entire Penn community. Announcements about upcoming talks will be posted on the CSCC website and disseminated via the Center’s listserv. To be added to the listserv, please visit our signup page https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cscc-announce.
Upcoming Speaker Series
China and Climate Change: Transnational Science, Politics, and Policy in Historical Perspectives
Zuoyue Wang, Professor of History, California State Polytechnic University
In the burgeoning field of historical studies of climate change, few studies exist that focus on Chinese policy making and US-China scientific interactions in the early years. In this talk I review Chinese public…
A Case for Dualism in the Chinese Legal System
Hualing Fu, Professor of Law, Warren Chan Professor in Human Rights and Responsibilities, University of Hong Kong
The Chinese legal system embodies a unique duality under a constitutional trinity: the Communist Party's leadership, responsiveness to popular demand, and legality. The Party's dominance is central, and its…
Guanchang Meixue: Heart Distress and Aesthetic Attunement in China’s Bureaucracy
Jie Yang, Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University
The “aesthetic turn” in both political thought and mental health care centers around Western aesthetics and Euro-American psychology. This paper attempts to indigenize both by focusing on “bureaucratic aesthetics” in…
The Future of the South China Sea Dispute: Perspectives from the Philippines
Justice Antonio Carpio, Supreme Court of the Philippines
Co-sponsored by Perry World House.
The South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea remain geopolitically fraught locations. The People’s Republic of China has successfully militarized the region…
TBA
Elizabeth Wishnick, Senior Research Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Past Speaker Series
The Rise of China and the Changing Nature of Power in the 21st Century
Adam Liff, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Indiana University
This talk engages two basic questions: What makes China’s rise to “great power” status in the 21st century different from those of the past, and what does that mean for the potential for international conflict…
The Return of Ideology: The Search for Regime Identities in Post-Communist China and Russia
Cheng Chen, Associate Professor of Political Science, University at Albany, SUNY
This study examines post-communist Chinese regime’s ideology-building project in comparison with that in Russia, as evidenced by their respective identity and cultural politics as well as developmental strategies. …
How Far is China from the Rule of Law?
He Haibo, Professor of Law, Tsnghua University School of Law
He Haibo is Professor of Law at Tsinghua University School of Law. He is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School’s Program on East Asian Legal Studies. Professor Jacques deLisle will serve as…
Shocks, Skills, and Political Instability in Authoritarian Regimes: A Theoretical Analysis and Application in Maoist China
Victor Shih, School of Global Policy and Strategy, UCSD; Pengfei Zhang, School of Economics, Peking University; Mingxing Liu, Institute of Education Finance Research, Peking University
Non-democracies are seen as inherently unstable because of the high frequency of irregular and often violent leadership turnovers. We investigate the underlying logic of stability and instability in authoritarian…
China's Foreign Policy in the Xi (and Trump) Era
Isaac Stone Fish, Senior Fellow, Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations
Since Donald Trump's surprise election victory, Beijing has grown increasingly assertive. If Trump ushers in a new era of American isolationism, will Beijing fill the vacuum left by the retreat of American power? …
Two Years After the Umbrella Movement: The Evolving Crisis in Hong Kong
CEAS Issues in Contemporary East Asia Colloquium with Michael Davis
Michael C. Davis, Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong
After an "umbrella movement" and a constitutional crisis that has stolen global headlines over much of the past couple years where does Hong Kong stand today? Many question are raised about the success or failure…
Xi's China, Trump's America: How Much Risk for Asia?
Arthur Kroeber, Gavekal Dragonomics; Brookings-Tshinghua Center for Public Policy
In the past month the world's two biggest economies have undergone major political changes. The United States chose as its next president Donald Trump, who during his campaign pledged to wage a trade war against…
China’s Perception of World Order
James Zhaojie Li, Tsinghua University Law School
Lunch provided, co-sponsored by Penn Law School International Programs
China’s Green Development and the Rule of Law
Alex Wang, Assistant Professor of Law , UCLA
For many years, environmental protection seemed a mere afterthought in China. As its economy exploded, China’s skies darkened and the rivers ran black. By just about any measure, China had become quite simply the…
Information for Autocrats: Representation in Chinese Local Congresses
Melanie Manion,Vor Broker Family Professor of Political Science, Duke University
Drawing on qualitative fieldwork and data analysis of original probability surveys of 5,130 local congressmen and women and their constituents, Melanie Manion shows how and why the priorities and problems of ordinary…
