Over the past 30 years Communist Party leaders have transformed China into an economic powerhouse. At the same time they have shown scant interest in opening up the country's political system. Much hinges on the question: Can this marriage of economic growth and authoritarian, one-party rule work for the next three decades?

Minxin Pei, named one of the world's top 100 public intellectuals in a Foreign Policy magazine poll, will address this question in his February 11 lecture, Will China Democratize? His lecture kicks off the 2010 BP Lecture Series: "Prospects for Democracy: China, North Korea, and Afghanistan."

Pei is a professor and director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College and an adjunct senior associate in the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on democratization in developing countries, economic reform and governance in China, and U.S.-China relations.

His books include From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union (Harvard University Press, 1994) and China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy (Harvard University Press, 2006). He also contributes regularly to such journals as Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs and to the op-ed pages of Financial Times, New York Times, and the Washington Post. His recent Foreign Policy cover story, "Think Again: Asia's Rise," takes issue with the conventional wisdom that we are entering a period of Western decline and Asian ascendancy.

Dr. Pei was born in Shanghai and is a graduate of Shanghai International Studies Institute. He has a doctorate from Harvard University.