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
Pensions and the Politics of Retirement Age Reform in China
Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics, New School for Social Research
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…
The Authoritarian Commons: Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China
Shitong Qiao, Professor of Law, Duke University
Based on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews, Qiao’s new book The…
TBA
Yanbai Andrea Wang, Assistant Professor of Law, Penn Carey Law
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
“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…
China and Climate Change: Transnational Science, Politics, and Policy in Historical Perspectives
Zuoyue Wang, Professor of History, California State Polytechnic University
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 prerogative…
TBA
Jie Yang, Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University
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
Viewing History from the Inside: Key Episodes and Crises in US-China Relation, 1985-2020
John Culver, Former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, retired CIA analyst, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow
John K. Culver is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) senior intelligence officer with thirty-five years of experience as a leading…
The Art of Useless: Fashion, Media, and Consumer Culture in Contemporary China
Calvin Hui, Class of 1952 Distinguished Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, College of William & Mary
My book, titled The Art of Useless: Fashion, Media, and Consumer Culture in Contemporary China, argues that popular and media…
National Committee on US-China Relations CHINA Town Hall 2023: Onsite Panel & National Live Webcast Watch Party
Nicholas Burns, U.S. Ambassador to China (webinar) & Naima Green-Riley, Junyi Lv, & Weirong Guo (onsite at Penn)
Co-sponsored by Foreign Policy Research Institute
Current U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns will be the featured speaker for CHINA Town Hall 2023, a national conversation on how the…
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Law & Political Economy in China's New Era
Tamar Groswald Ozery, Assistant Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The talk will discuss the role of formal law in governing markets during China's "Legalized Politicization Era" (2010–present), the current era of market development in China. In this present era, the authorities…
Making China Policy in Washington
Ryan Hass, Senior Fellow, Director, China Center; Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, Brookings Institution
A new CSCC series presents speakers with experience in the processes that shape US policy on China who provide insider perspectives as they reflect on their work, their contribution to the understanding of…
Rule by Campaign: Do Laws on the Books Matter in China?
John Wagner Givens, Associate Professor of International Studies, Spelman College
Does rule of law govern behavior in China or do campaigns, scandals, and social media hold more sway? Drawing from a unique dataset of 15 million observations, we delve into environmental issues, suing the…
Global Development: A Useful Notion?
Zha Daojiong, Professor of International Studies, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University
“Development” is traditionally a contested notion in studies and practices of international political-economic exchange. What sense can be made of proposition from China, including its “Global Development Initiative…
Crossing the Strait? PLA Modernization and Taiwan
Phillip Saunders, Ph.D., Director, Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University
Drawing upon the new book Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan, Dr. Saunders will discuss China’s…
The Informal Rules of the Chinese Communist Party
Ewan Smith, Associate Professor of Public Law, University College London; Hauser Global Fellow, New York University Law School
Professor Smith discusses his recent China Quarterly article "On the …
The Regulation of Prostitution in China: Law in the Everyday Lives of Sex Workers, Police Officers, and Public Health Officials
Margaret Boittin, Assistant Professor of Law, York University
Professor Boittin discusses her book, The Regulation of Prostitution in China: Law in the Everyday Lives of Sex Workers, Police Officers, and Public Health Officials, forthcoming with Cambridge University…
