Constitutionalism & Political Reform in China
A talk by Cao Siyuan
Monday, February 24, 2003
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
11377 Bunche Hall
UCLA
In 1980, when he was a graduate student at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Cao Siyuan proposed and eventually drafted the country’s first bankruptcy law. People could not see the need for such a law because they assumed the government would never let its own enterprises go bankrupt. Some twenty years later, things have changed dramatically and thousands of companies have been allowed to go under, although the government still occasionally tries to protect inefficient, inept, and failing state companies. In May 1989, when students were protesting in Tiananmen Square, Cao called on the government to hold an emergency session of the National People’s Congress to repeal martial law. That resulted in a year in prison. Cao continues to push for reform from within the system.
Cao Siyuan is the director of Beijing Siyuan Merger & Bankruptcy Consultancy and the president of Beijing Siyuan Research Center for the Social Sciences. Between July, 1982 and September, 1988, he was employed in the Chinese Central Party School, the General Office of the State Council, and the Committee of State System Reform.
Mr. Cao will speak in Chinese
For more information please contact
Richard Gunde
Tel: 310 825-8683
gunde@ucla.edu
www.international.ucla.edu/ccs
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies
