UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China

By University of Pennsylvania

What's UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China about?

In-depth conversations on Chinese politics, economics, law, and society with faculty, visitors, and guest speakers at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Study of Contemporary China. Hosted by CSCC Research Scholar Neysun Mahboubi. For more information on the Center, visit https://cscc.sas.upenn.edu

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UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China episodes:

01.01.2023
Reporting From a Rising China – Edward Wong
Western media presence in China has been vastly reduced since February 2020, the consequence both of political tensions and the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Chinese government finally begins to dismantle its “zero-Covid” policy in December 2022, the prospect of Western...
04.08.2022
U.S. Human Rights Policy Towards China – Amy Gadsden
While the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang and Hong Kong lately have been the subject of particular scrutiny from U.S. policymakers, systematic attention to China’s human rights practices, more broadly, has been a consistent feature of U.S. policy towards China...
12.15.2021
China's Overseas NGO Law – Mark Sidel
In recent years, and especially under the administration of Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has “securitized” all manner of relationships between its citizens and outsiders. An important marker of this trend, which continues to generate intense concern, was the 2016...
11.16.2020
China's Rise and IR Theory – Yan Xuetong
No foreign policy topic currently garners more attention in the United States than its relationship with China, especially in light of China’s rise over the past few decades as an economic, technological, military, and strategic power and rival. In this...
06.02.2020
China’s Domestic Security Under Xi Jinping – Sheena Chestnut Greitens
One of the hallmarks of Xi Jinping’s tenure as China’s leader, since 2012, has been the notable strengthening of the state’s coercive architecture, through which it endeavors to control Chinese society. In particular, Xi Jinping’s administration has substantially restructured the...
12.06.2019
Unpacking the Present Crisis in US-China Relations – Ryan Hass
Whatever the likelihood or implications of a potential truce in the US-China trade war, it seems clear that the overall relationship between the two countries has lately entered into a new, more harder-edged phase, defined by competition and perhaps even...
10.24.2019
The Rule of Law in Hong Kong (Part Two) – Johannes Chan
Dramatic protests in Hong Kong over the past four months, initially over a now-withdrawn draft law that would permit extraditions to mainland China, have brought to worldwide attention broader fears amongst Hong Kong residents that their city is losing its...
06.15.2019
The Rule of Law in Hong Kong (Part One) – Johannes Chan
Dramatic protests in Hong Kong this month, over a draft law that would permit extraditions to mainland China, underscore broader fears amongst Hong Kong residents that their city is losing its distinctive legal and political characteristics, that were supposedly to...
05.24.2019
How to Be a Sensitive China Watcher – Kaiser Kuo
Today, the reality and consequences of China’s rise have come to dominate news headlines the world over. Along with China’s growing wealth and power have come new tensions, with the United States and other countries, that further require better understanding...
04.26.2019
Chinese Governance Under Xi Jinping – Victor Shih
Despite little foreshadowing before he took office, President Xi Jinping has emerged as perhaps the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. This was reinforced in March 2018 when China’s National People’s Congress voted overwhelmingly to abolish presidential term limits,...
04.12.2019
Diagnosing China's State-led Capitalism – Yasheng Huang
As Chinese economic growth slows to its lowest rate in 30 years, there is rising concern (including among some Chinese scholars and officials) about the long-term viability of China's distinctive form of state-led capitalism, sometimes characterized in terms of a...
04.04.2019
Local Governance and Accountability in China – Dan Mattingly
How do autocratic regimes secure political obedience, and implement unpopular policies, without always resorting to outright coercive tactics? In a provocative new book, Yale University political scientist Dan Mattingly argues that, in China, state power exercised through local governments relies...
03.22.2019
Property Rights and Economic Development in China – Susan Whiting
At least since China’s 1994 fiscal and tax reforms, land-backed development has served as the greatest source of revenue for Chinese local governments—potentially almost 1 trillion US dollars in total this year—as well as a powerful engine both for rapid...
03.14.2019
The Evolution of Workers’ Rights in China – Mary Gallagher
Economic reform since the late 1970s, as well as the dynamics of globalization unleashed in full by China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, have significantly complicated the relationship between the Chinese Party-state and Chinese workers. Some of...
03.06.2019
Rights Lawyering in China – Teng Biao
Over the past 16 years, there has emerged in China a community of self-identified "rights defense" (weiquan) lawyers, akin to "cause lawyers" in the United States, who select cases and frame legal advocacy with a goal of achieving wider societal...
02.26.2019
Gender Inequality in China – Yun Zhou
Chairman Mao famously proclaimed that “women hold up half the sky,” and there are many ways in which women’s status, rights, and opportunities have improved under CCP rule. That said, patriarchal ideas about the role of women have continued to...
02.19.2019
China’s One-Child Policy – Wang Feng
The Chinese government is currently in the process of dismantling the family planning policies which it introduced in the 1970s, and developed alongside its program of reform & opening over the past 40 years—which are most famously associated with the...
02.13.2019
Taiwan and the Global Order – Shelley Rigger
What explains Taiwan’s outsized presence in our news headlines, especially over the first two years of the Trump administration? What can be learned from its raucous process of democratization over the past thirty years? How will it continue to forge...
02.07.2019
Overreach and Overreaction: The Crisis in US-China Relations – Susan Shirk
The following is a live recording of the 2019 Annual Public Lecture at Penn’s CSCC delivered by Susan Shirk, and introduced by the Center’s Director, Avery Goldstein. The event took place on January 31, 2019. Music credit: "Salt" by Poppy...
11.05.2018
Civil Society and Civic Engagement in China – Bin Xu
Amidst various commentaries on the 10th anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, this past summer, a prominent theme has been the sense of possibility for civil society in China that was initially generated by the outpouring of social volunteerism, unprecedented in...
10.09.2018
Internet Culture and Politics in China – Guobin Yang
Current headlines about how authoritarian regimes have come to harness and even weaponize the internet may obscure how this technology, at one time, was more typically understood to be a democratizing force, across a range of different contexts. In the early...
07.02.2018
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – Natalie Lichtenstein
Launched by China in June 2015, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank ("AIIB") currently has eighty-six members and, with $100 billion in capital, has lent around $4 billion to infrastructure projects throughout Asia. The AIIB's very creation is an important marker...
05.08.2018
China & North Korea Relations – John Park
As the nuclear standoff between North Korea and the United States dominates global headlines, the relationship between North Korea and China, though little understood, has attracted ever greater interest. In this episode, the Harvard Kennedy School's John Park, a leading expert...
03.29.2018
China's Economy & The 19th Party Congress – Damien Ma
China's economy is currently the world's second largest, by GDP, and is generally expected to overtake the U.S. economy within the next decade. In this episode, the Paulson Institute's Damien Ma, a leading expert on Chinese economic trends, discusses with...
12.20.2017
Chinese Politics & The 19th Party Congress – Joseph Fewsmith
China’s 19th Party Congress, held in October 2017, drew significant anticipation and attention, not only among professional China watchers, for its domestic meaning and foreign policy signals, at a time when the PRC is staking out a new role on...
11.07.2017
Trump's Visit to China – Avery Goldstein, Jacques deLisle, Amy Gadsden
President Trump's November 2017 visit to China, and four other Asian countries, comes at a charged time in US-China relations, when its perennial challenges and opportunities appear in particularly sharp relief. In this episode, Penn experts Avery Goldstein, Jacques...
10.17.2017
China & India Relations – Oriana Skylar Mastro
China and India share many historical similarities, as well as a complicated relationship shaped by political differences, growing economic ties, ongoing border disputes, and regional competition more generally. In this episode, Georgetown University Professor Oriana Skylar Mastro discusses the Sino-Indian...

What's UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China episodes:

Reporting From a Rising China – Edward Wong

U.S. Human Rights Policy Towards China – Amy Gadsden

China's Overseas NGO Law – Mark Sidel

China's Rise and IR Theory – Yan Xuetong

China’s Domestic Security Under Xi Jinping – Sheena Chestnut Greitens

Unpacking the Present Crisis in US-China Relations – Ryan Hass

The Rule of Law in Hong Kong (Part Two) – Johannes Chan

The Rule of Law in Hong Kong (Part One) – Johannes Chan

How to Be a Sensitive China Watcher – Kaiser Kuo

Chinese Governance Under Xi Jinping – Victor Shih

Diagnosing China's State-led Capitalism – Yasheng Huang

Local Governance and Accountability in China – Dan Mattingly

Property Rights and Economic Development in China – Susan Whiting

The Evolution of Workers’ Rights in China – Mary Gallagher

Rights Lawyering in China – Teng Biao

Gender Inequality in China – Yun Zhou

China’s One-Child Policy – Wang Feng

Taiwan and the Global Order – Shelley Rigger

Overreach and Overreaction: The Crisis in US-China Relations – Susan Shirk

Civil Society and Civic Engagement in China – Bin Xu

Internet Culture and Politics in China – Guobin Yang

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – Natalie Lichtenstein

China & North Korea Relations – John Park

China's Economy & The 19th Party Congress – Damien Ma

Chinese Politics & The 19th Party Congress – Joseph Fewsmith

Trump's Visit to China – Avery Goldstein, Jacques deLisle, Amy Gadsden

China & India Relations – Oriana Skylar Mastro