The Future of Democracy in China
VIEW EVENT DETAILSWhat are the prospects for democratic reform in China? Some experts believe that thirty years of successful economic reforms, bringing unprecedented prosperity and giving rise to a new middle class, will inevitably lead to political opening. Others argue that this very success has made the ruling Communist Party's hold on power stronger than ever. Still others claim that growing social and economic tensions and instability may lead to China's fragmentation or even collapse. Please join our distinguished panel for a discussion of China's remarkable transformation and its political future. Speakers: Minxin Pei is an adjunct senior associate in the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government and Roberts Fellow and the director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Dr. Pei is the author of several books and numerous articles on China and US-China relations. He is a frequent commentator on BBC World News, Voice of America, and National Public Radio and has written op-eds for the Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek International, and International Herald Tribune, and other newspapers. Harry Harding is Dean of the University of Virginia's Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. The author of numerous books and articles on China and US-China relations, Dr. Harding is a vice-chairman of the Asia Foundation, a director of the Atlantic Council of the United States, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, and a member of the Board of Governors of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross director of the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations. Previously, he worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, covered the war in Indochina as a journalist, and was a professor and dean at the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. He has served as a commentator for network news programs and been a correspondent and consultant for many PBS "Frontline" documentaries and an Emmy award-winning program for "60 Minutes." Schell is the author of fourteen books, including nine about China, and has written for numerous magazines, including The China Quarterly and The New Yorker. Jonathan R. Stromseth (moderator) has been The Asia Foundation's Country Representative to China since 2006. Based in Beijing, Dr. Stromseth oversees a broad range of programs in China focusing on governance and legal reform, environmental protection, disaster management, and U.S.-China relations. Co-Sponsored by The Asia Foundation and World Affairs Council of Northern California