The New Chinese Empire
Will the PRC encounter the fate of the Soviet Union, or will be become a superpower? Ross Terrill discusses China's future.
Friday, April 23, 2004
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
4357 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Ross Terrill will discuss, with reference to his new book The New Chinese Empire, how the Chinese state affects China's domestic policy, foreign policy, and future prospects. He will argue that Mao, Deng, and Jiang Zemin borrowed from the past to modernize China under autocracy, hold onto to a far-flung realm, and keep the Communist Party in power. The issue of empire is in the air. Some say post-Iraq America is imperial; reassessments appear of the British empire as an early bird of globalization. Is the PRC an empire? Understanding the Chinese state helps determine whether Beijing will encounter the fate of the Soviet Union, or whether it is bound for Superpowerdom, and whether culture, economics, or politics will be uppermost in shaping China's coming years.
Ross Terrill is an author, China specialist, and Associate in Research at Harvard's Fairbank Center. He was raised in rural Australia, of schoolteacher parents. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1962 and served in the Australian Army. He won a Frank Knox Fellowship to Harvard University and took a Ph.D. in political science in 1970. He was appointed to the Harvard faculty on completion of his doctorate. While teaching at Harvard in the areas of political thought, Chinese politics, and international affairs, he wrote 800 Millon: The Real China (Dell, 1972), Flowers on an Iron Tree: Five Cities of China (Little Brown, 1975), The Future of China: After Mao (Delacourt, 1978), and Mao: A Biography (1981; 2000). He was for a decade a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly and won the National Magazine Award for Reporting Excellence and the George Polk Memorial Award for Outstanding Magazine Reporting for writings on China. Over recent years his books include The Australians (Simon & Schuster, 1987), Madame Mao: The White-Boned Demon (1992; 2000), and China In Our Time (Simon & Schuster, 1992).
Terrill has testified numerous times before committees of the United States Congress. He has been a special commentator for CBS News, four times on the "Today Show," a number of times on ABC's "Nightline," a guest on "Firing Line" and a commentator on NPR's "All Things Considered." Within China, his "Mao" in a Chinese edition has sold more than one million copies. His newest book is The New Chinese Empire, and What It Means for the United States (Basic Books, 2003).
For more information please contact
Richard Gunde
Tel: 310 825-8683
gunde@ucla.edu
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies
