Superpower or total collapse – is China’s political system stable?

NIAS / ARC - Seminar:

Seminar with Professor Richard Baum, Director of Centre for Chinese Studies, UCLA

Superpower or total collapse – is China’s political system stable?

China is in – but maybe not stable On a daily basis, China attracts attention worldwide. Our businesses outsource manufacturing, services and innovation to China and ministers queue up to visit and show their respect to the Middle Kingdom.

China’s President, Communist Party General Secretary and Military Leader, Hu Jintao, and

other forth generation communist leaders manifest their power while struggling to keep

everything together. Most recently, one of their colleagues was removed from the post as

Communist Party Secretary in Shanghai, one of China’s top posts, accused of corruption and mishandling of power. In fact, challenges are piling up as tall as Shanghai’s skyscrapers: increasing income differentials due to China’s ‘wild west capitalism’, social and political unrest across the country, pollution, shortage of energy, horrendous lack of social welfare etc.

Therefore, we may ask is China stable? How do these challenges affect the political system? Are there political risks associated with our China involvement? Why does the system not collapse? An international expert’s analysis One of the world’s foremost experts on China, Professor Richard Baum, will address these issues, especially the legitimacy of the political system in China and its prospects for survival. Will the Chinese people maintain confidence in the system? What are the alternatives? Finally, what are the most likely scenarios for political change, if not reform in the coming years?

This is a seminar in the NIAS-CBS/Asia Research Centre Series “Challenges to Communist Party Leadership in China”