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



2023

Xi Jinping’s Power Concentration and Implications for Chinese Foreign Policy

Suisheng Zhao, Professor of International Studies, University of Denver
- CSCC Conference Room, 133 S. 36th St, Room 418

Xi further consolidated his power and becomes an all-powerful empire at the CCP 20th National Congress. How has the lineup changed the CCP elite politics? How has Xi reached this point of power? What are the foreign…



2023

China in Xi’s Third Term: Personnel, Priorities, and Policy

Cheng Li, Director and Senior Fellow, The John L. Thornton China Center, The Brookings Institution
- CSCC Conference Room, 133 S. 36th St, Room 418

Cheng Li is the director of the John L. Thornton China Center and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is also a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.…



2023

Is there an European way when dealing with China?

Philippe Le Corre, Senior Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute
- CSCC Conference Room, Room 418, 133 S. 36th St.

While US-China relations have reached yet another low point in 2023 thus far, Chinese leaders have been trying to engage with the EU. Still, war in Ukraine is making a rapprochement very unlikely within the…



2023

China's Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order

Isaac Kardon, Senior Fellow for China Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- CSCC Conference Room, Room 418, 133 S. 36th St.

In his new book China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order, Isaac Kardon examines China’s laws and policies to…



2023

Due Diligence and Corporate Transparency in China

David Barboza, Co-founder, The Wire Digital Inc. 
- CSCC Conference Room, 133 S. 36th St, Room 418

David Barboza is the co-founder of The Wire Digital Inc., a New York-based news and data platform focused on China and global supply chains. The startup consists of a digital weekly news magazine, called The Wire,…



2022

Japan’s Strategic Review and a Taiwan Crisis

Sheila Smith, John E. Merow Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
- CSCC Conference Room, 133 S. 36th St, Room 418

2022 is expected to be a watershed year in Japanese strategy. North Korean missile launches and China’s expanding military power have intensified Japanese concerns about their security. But it is tension across the…



2022

The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China’s Economic Rise

Shelley Rigger, Brown Professor of Political Science, Davidson College
- CSCC Conference Room, 133 S. 36th St, Room 418

Professor Rigger discusses her new book "The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China’s Economic Rise". How did…



2022

Clash of the Titans? Development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies in the U.S. and China

Nan Jia, Associate Professor of Management and Organization, USC Marshall School of Business
- Virtual Talk via Zoom

Professor Nan Jia's Bio

As one of the most important technology advancements in our era, Artificial intelligence (AI) stands to fundamentally…



2022

Micro-institutional Foundations of Capitalism: Sectoral Pathways to Globalization in China, India, and Russia

Roselyn Hsueh, Associate Professor of Political Science, Temple University
- Rm. 200, Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics (PCPSE), 133 S. 36th St

Professor Roselyn Hsueh discusses her new book, Micro-institutional Foundations of Capitalism: Sectoral…



2022

Daring to Struggle: China's Global Ambitions Under Xi Jinping

Bates Gill, Professor of Asia-Pacific Security St​udies, Macquarie University;  Executive Director, Center for China Analysis, Asia Society Policy Institute
- CSCC Conference Room, 133 S. 36th St, Room 418

Professor Bates Gill discusses his new book Daring to Struggle: China's Global Ambitions Under Xi Jinping(Oxford…