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



2025

Pensions and the Politics of Retirement Age Reform in China

Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics, New School for Social Research
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Raising legal retirement ages, also known as retirement age reform, is politically contentious worldwide, but it should be more easily pursued in non-democratic regimes that can effectively deter opponents from…



2025

The Authoritarian Commons: Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China

Shitong Qiao, Professor of Law, Duke University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Based on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews, Qiao’s new book The…



2025

TBA

Yanbai Andrea Wang, Assistant Professor of Law, Penn Carey Law
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2025

David Nelson Rowe, China, and How the History of IR’s New Right Was Lost

Robert Vitalis, Professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
- Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

“Simply put, China was an integral part of what made the “New Right” new. –Joyce Mao

“Twenty years is about the length of time it takes a group of academics to storm the ramparts, take the…



2025

China and Climate Change: Transnational Science, Politics, and Policy in Historical Perspectives

Zuoyue Wang, Professor of History, California State Polytechnic University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2025

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
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

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 prerogative…



2025

TBA

Jie Yang, Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2025

The Future of the South China Sea Dispute: Perspectives from the Philippines

Justice Antonio Carpio, Supreme Court of the Philippines
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

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…



2025

TBA

Elizabeth Wishnick, Senior Research Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Past Speaker Series



2012

The New China

William Overholt, Harvard Kennedy School
ANNS 111, Annenberg Building

In the past decade China has changed almost beyond recognition. China’s leadership has changed from charismatic, entrepreneurial figures to administrators. A trend toward centralized power has been reversed by the…



2012

Chinese Law Reform: Its Recent Past and Uncertain Future

Stanley Lubman, Berkeley Law School, University of California; Senior Fellow, Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law
Silverstein Forum, first floor of Stiteler Hall

Professor Lubman reviews the problems that law reform has encountered since the millennium, especially emphasizing the continuing tightness of control by the Party-State over the courts, the extensive power of…



2012

Chinese Naval Strategy in the South China Sea: An Abundance of Noise and Smoke, but Little Fire

Lyle Goldstein, Associate Professor, China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI), U.S. Naval War College & Visiting Fellow, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
ANNS 111, Annenberg Building

Dr. Goldstein discusses his survey of official and quasi-official Chinese-language naval literature to provide new insights regarding Beijing’s evolving strategy in the South China Sea. Contrary to conventional…



2012

Demystifying the Chinese Economy

Justin Lin (林毅夫), former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank
JMHH260, Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Wharton School

Dr. Lin will discuss China’s achievements in the reform era, analyze prospects and challenges for China’s future growth, and envision China’s status in the multi-polar growth world in the coming 20 years. He will…



2012

What’s Next for China?

The Effect of the Leadership Transition for Chinese Politics, Economics, Foreign policy, and US-China Relations
 
Silverman Hall Room 240B (Lunch Served)

 

In Autumn 2012, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will hold its 18th National People’s Congress.  The Chinese president, Hu Jintao, prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and the other seven…



2012

Eva Pils, Chinese University of Hong Kong

The Crackdown on China's Human Rights Lawyers
 
Silverman Hall Room 240B

Eva Pils is an associate professor and director of the Centre for Rights and Justice at the Faculty of Law of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her scholarship focuses on human rights and China, with…



2012

East Asia Law Review Talk

Contending Conceptions of Ownership and Property in Urbanizing China
Eva Pils, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Tanenbaum 345, Penn Law School

In the wake of China's great urbanisation process, many of the tens of millions of Chinese rural and urban citizens affected by evictions and expropriations have engaged in complaints, protest and resistance.…