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

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 new book titled Markets with Bureaucratic Characteristics: How Economic Bureaucrats…

Past Speaker Series



2019

End of an Era: How China's Authoritarian Revival is Undermining Its Rise

Carl Minzner, Professor of Law, Fordham University
- 133 S. 36th St, Rm. 250, Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics

In conversation with Neysun A. Mahboubi, Research Associate, Center for the Study of Contemporary China

Cosponsored by the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy



2019

Testing Legislator Responsiveness in Single-Party Regimes: A Field Experiment in Vietnam with Possible Lessons for China

Edmund Malesky, Professor of Political Science, Duke University
2nd Floor Forum, Perelman Building, 133 S. 36th St.

This research aims to establish whether targeted provision of constituent preferences increases the responsiveness of delegates to the Vietnamese National Assembly (VNA). Utilizing a randomized control trial (RCT),…



2018

Quid Pro Quo, Knowledge Spillovers and Industrial Quality Upgrading

Judith and Marshall Meyer Lectures on China’s Economy
Jie Bai, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics, Rm 100, 133 S. 36th St.

Are quid pro quo policies effective in facilitating knowledge transfers to developing countries? We study this question in the context of the Chinese automobile industry where foreign firms are…



2018

Escaping Import Competition and Downstream Tariffs in China

Ann Harrison, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics, Rm 100, 133 S. 36th St.

This research proposes and provides evidence for a new source of gains from trade: Firms invest in product differentiation to escape import competition. In the data and in the model, these investments are associated…



2018

Contesting Cyberspace in China: Online Expression and Authoritarian Resilience

Rongbin Han, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, University of Georgia
CSCC Conference Room, Perelman 418, 133 S. 36th St.

The talk will be focusing on the struggles over online expression in China in order to answering the following question: Why has the rise of Internet thus far failed to disrupt the Chinese party-state, as many have…



2018

The Political Beliefs of Chinese Officials

Greg Distelhorst, Mitsubishi Career Development Professor in International Management, MIT
Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics, Rm 100, 133 S. 36th St.

What are the stated beliefs of officials in China’s single-party regime? Can they express different views on policy, and if so, do their disagreements reflect deeper ideological orientations? We study these questions…



2018

Manipulating Globalization: The Influence of Bureaucrats on Business in China

Ling Chen, Assistant Professor, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics, Rm 100, 133 S. 36th St.

Although China is a global manufacturing titan, the "made in China" model has begun to wane. Starting in the 2000s, China shifted from attracting foreign investment to promoting domestic firms. This shift led…



2018

(CANCELLED) Migration, Social Institutions, and Popular Resistance in Rural China

Yao Lu, Associate Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
CSCC Conference Room, Perelman 418, 133 S. 36th St.

How does migration shape collective resistance in migrant-sending communities (rural China)? This study integrates perspectives from social movements and migration to develop a framework in which migration…



2018

2018 CHINA Town Hall

U.S.-China Relations: Can We Avoid Calamity?
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice, 66th U.S. Secretary of State and Former National Security Advisor; Douglas Spelman, Senior Advisor, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
- Rm 200, Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics, 133 36th St, Philadelphia PA

Join communities across the United States in a national conversation on China. Featuring an interactive national webcast at 6pm with former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor…



2018

Barriers to Entry and Regional Economic Growth in China

Judith and Marshall Meyer Lectures on China’s Economy
Loren Brandt, Professor of Economics, University of Toronto
Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics, Rm 100, 133 S. 36th St.

The non-state manufacturing sector has been the engine of China's economic transformation. Up through the mid-1990s, the sector exhibited large regional differences; subsequently we observe rapid convergence in…