Understanding modern China: where does it come from and where is it going?

Professor Zhang Weiwei will give a lecture on understanding modern China: where does it come from and where is it going? The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session.

China is a large country undergoing rapid change. The speed and extent of its transformation are unprecedented, which has had an impact on the rest of the world. Perhaps the greatest change in China is its rapid economic growth. The Chinese economy has kept growing for four consecutive decades.

What role has the Communist Party of China (CPC) played in China’s economic reforms? How might countries in East Asia and other major powers relate to rapidly rising China? In particular, how does China choose to relate to these countries?

Understanding the trajectory of China's relations with these countries is of great importance to the world.

Professor Zhang Weiwei is a distinguished professor of international relations and Director of the China Institute at Fudan University, a board member of China’s National Think Tanks Council and Senior Fellow at the Chunqiu Institute. He holds a PhD in International Relations from Geneva University. A former visiting Fellow at Oxford, he was Professor of International Relations at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Asian Studies, Geneva University.

Zhang Weiwei worked as a senior English interpreter for Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese leaders in the mid-1980s. He has travelled to over 100 countries.

Professor Zhang is the author of the best-selling and award-winning ‘China Trilogy’ (Shanghai People’s Press) being The China Ripple (Zhongguo Chudong), The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State (Zhongguo Zhenhan) and The China Horizon: Glory and Dream of a Civilizational State (Zhongguo Chaoyue). The English editions of the latter two were published by World Century, New Jersey, in 2012 and 2016 respectively. His other works include Ideology and Economic Reform under Deng Xiaoping (Kegan Paul, London, 1996), Transforming China: Economic Reform and its Political Implications (Macmillan, London and St. Martin’s, New York, 2000) and Reshaping Cross-Strait Relations: Ideas and Reflections (CAS, Geneva, 2006).

In 2011 Zhang Weiwei predicted that the Arab Spring would soon become the Arab winter in a much publicized debate with Francis Fukuyama, the author of the End of History and the Last Man.

Zhang Weiwei has written extensively in Chinese and English on China’s political and economic reforms, the China model of development, China’s foreign policy and comparative political governance.

This is one of the lectures in the on-going China Centre Seminar series, hosted by the China Centre, Jesus College.  The lectures, given by eminent speakers, will cover a broad range of topics and disciplines.

Booking

Attendance is free and booking is not required.