Speaker Series

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



2024

Political Centralization under Xi Jinping: Strategic Adaptation by Local Cadres

Jessica Teets, Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Xi Jinping has been centralizing policymaking and supervision of local cadres beginning in 2016. Using survey data of 1,500 cadres in 28 provinces, we analyze the impact of these institutional changes on local cadres…



2024

TBD

Chen Yifeng, Associate Professor, Peking University Law School
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2024

High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy

Angela Zhang, Associate Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Co-sponsored by Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition, Penn Carey Law.

Professor Zhang discusses her new book…



2024

Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarian Rule in China

Jeremy Wallace, Professor of Government, Cornell University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2024

Markets with Bureaucratic Characteristics: How Economic Bureaucrats Make Policies and Remake the Chinese State

Yingyao Wang, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Professor Wang will discuss her forthcoming book titled Markets with Bureaucratic Characteristics: How Economic Bureaucrats Make Policies and Remake the Chinese State, by Columbia University Press. Her book…

Past Speaker Series



2013

Recent Structural Change of the Chinese Economy and Japan-China Relations

Kiyoyuki Seguchi, Research Director at Canon Institute for the Global Studies
Fisher-Bennett Hall 345, CSCC conference room

 The structure of the Chinese economy changed dramatically between 2005 and 2009.  It changed from an export-investment leading economy to a domestic-demand leading economy.  Before 2004 China was a huge factory…



2013

'Feeding Frenzy': China, Africa, and the 'Great Land Grab'

Deborah Brautigam, Professor and Director, International Development Program, Johns Hopkins University/SAIS 
ANNS 110, Annenberg School of Communication

What role does China play in the recent rush for land acquisition in Africa? Conventional wisdom suggests a large role for the Chinese government and its firms and a focus on China's own food security. This talk…



2013

Judicial Review and Constitutionalism in China: A Discussion with Wang Zhenmin (Tsinghua University)

Wang Zhenmin, Dean and Professor of Law at Tsinghua University Law School
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett Hall 345

Chinese courts do not have the power of constitutional judicial review.  Courts do have limited powers of judicial review (for example, of specific administrative actions).  And mechanisms…



2013

Educational Issues for Minority Populations In Western China

Delegation visit, Dean Sude and Professor Teng Xing, Minzu University
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett 345

12:00-1:00pm: "Research on Educational Policies for Ethnic Minorities with Cultural Sensitivity----Cases from Ethnic Minority Areas in Western China."
Speaker: Professor Sude, Professor and Dean of the School…



2013

Fragmented Liberalization:

Sub-National Government Autonomy and the Auto Industry in Post-WTO Era China
Seung-Youn Oh, Ph.D.Postdoctoral Research FellowCenter for the Study of Contemporary China
Fisher-Bennett Suite 345, CSCC conference room

How effective are international agreements and multinational corporations in promoting liberalization in emerging economies such as China? Focusing on China’s burgeoning automotive…



2013

Politicized Challenges, De-Politicized Responses:

Political Monitoring in China’s Transitions
Professor Hualing Fu, University of Hong Kong and Bok Visiting International Professor at Penn Law
ANNS 111, Annenberg Building

Regime strategies for maintaining political control are evolving in contemporary China. The Chinese Communist Party faces increasingly politicized challenges today. The CCP’s response has been a paradigmatic shift…



2013

Public Opinion Barometer:

How to Aggregate and Analyze Fragmented Online Information in China
Guoming Yu, Associate Dean of School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China and the Director of the Public Opinion Research Center
Annenberg School for Communication, 3620 Walnut St, Room 500

Baidu (www.baidu.com), as the top Chinese web services company, covers more than 95% of internet users in China. There are more than 4 billion search requests via Baidu…



2013

China's New Leadership: People and Priorities

Alice Miller, Stanford University, Hoover Institution
401 Fisher-Bennett Hall

The recently closed 12th National People's Congress completes a generational transition in China's leadership that began with the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party last November. Who are China's…



2013

China’s National Security Strategy and East Asian Security

Xia Liping, Dean and Professor of School of Political Science & International Relations at Tongji University, China.
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett 345

It was the first time when China put forward the concept of China’s national security strategy in the White Paper on China’s National Defense in 2004.  China’s national security strategy and China’…



2013

Ethnic Minority Experience in China’s Urban Labor Market and the Lessons Learned for Other Jurisdictions

Reza Hasmath, Lecturer in Chinese Politics at the University of Oxford, and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett 345

This talk looks at contemporary ethnic minority experiences in China’s urban labor market by focusing on describing the ‘ethnic penalty’ that emerges when analyzing the relationship between the educational and…