
China After Jiang: A Book Talk
Gang Lin and Xiaobo Hu discuss the new book they have co-edited
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
10383 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Jiang Zemin’s retirement and Hu Jintao’s coronation as Party general secretary and state president initiated the first power transition in the history of the People’s Republic of China that was unprompted by either the death of the top leader or a political crisis. This seemingly smooth transition provides a window into other, even more basic features of the Chinese polity. Informed by documents released around the time Jiang Zemin left office in November 2002 and interviews with Chinese officials, the authors of China after Jiang use the occasion of political elite change to get at more fundamental institutional changes, both those under way well before Jiang stepped down and those still urgently needed if China is to remain stable and prosperous in the 21st century. Underneath their analyses lies an assumption that, while personalities come and go, institutions survive.
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Gang Lin is program associate in the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Asia Program. He served as president of the Association of Chinese Political Studies from 1998 to 1999. He has co-edited Transition toward the Post-Deng China (2001) and Prospects for Cross-Taiwan Strait Developments (2000); co-authored Taiwan’s Political Transition (1997); and contributed numerous articles and book chapters on Chinese politics and cross-Taiwan Strait relations.
Xiaobo Hu is associate professor of political science and China program director at Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina. He served as president of the Association of Chinese Political Studies from 1997 to 1998. His research interests include the political economy of property rights and transition in China. His publications include Transition towards Post-Deng China (co-editor, 2001); Problems in China’s Transitional Economy: Property Rights and Transitional Models (1998); Interpreting U.S.–China–Taiwan Relations: China in the Post–Cold War Era (co-editor, 1998); and Cross-Strait Relations toward the 21st Century (co-editor, 1998).
For more information please contact
Richard Gunde
Tel: 310 825-8683
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies
