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.
Past Speaker Series
It Takes Two to Tango: Autocratic Underbalancing, Regime Legitimacy, and China’s Responses to India’s Rise
Oriana Skylar Mastro, Assistant Professor of Security Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Why has China yet to respond strongly to improving and expanding Indian military capabilities, in particular along the disputed border? This article posits a new mechanism that discourages appropriate balancing…
Access to Elite Education, Wage Premium and Social Mobility: The Truth and Illusion of China's College Entrance Exam
Ruixue Jia, Assistant Professor of Economics, UC San Diego
This study examines the returns to elite education and the implications of elite education on mobility, exploiting an open elite education recruitment system – China’s College Entrance Exam. We conduct annual…
Who Governs Multiethnic China?
Sara Newland, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Villanova University
While China’s provincial-level minority autonomous regions—and in particular Tibet and Xinjiang—receive substantial media attention, the sensitivity of ethnic politics in China makes these regions difficult to study…
The Origins and Dynamics of Crony Capitalism in China: Insights from 260 Cases of Collusive Corruption
Minxin Pei, Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna College
Corruption in the post-Tiananmen era exhibits distinct characteristics not found in the 1980s, such as astronomical sums of money looted by officials, their family members, and their cronies in the private sector,…
A Conversation with the Honorable Kevin Rudd:
U.S. Policy under Xi and Trump
Featuring the Honorable Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia; President, Asia Society Policy Institute. Moderated by Wharton School Dean Geoff Garrett.
Presented in partnership by the Penn Wharton China Center, Perry World House, Center for the Study of Contemporary China and the Wharton China Business Society.
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? …
