21st Century China Center Fall 2023 Newsletter

Fall Quarter 2023

Dear UC San Diego,

Welcome back to the fall quarter of the 2023-24 academic year! The center’s scholars and staff have been hard at work all summer long with research and conferences, and we’ve lined up an impressive series of events you can register for in the fall.

On July 1, Victor C. Shih, the Ho Miu Lam Chair in China and Pacific Relations at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), officially took on the role of director of the 21st Century China Center, succeeding Susan Shirk, who is now director emeritus. Susan will remain an active member and continue to co-chair the UC San Diego Forum on U.S.-China Relations and the Task Force on U.S.-China Policy.

We are also pleased to welcome Mike Thompson-Brusstar, a recent Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan, as a postdoctoral fellow at GPS in fall 2023. Several visiting scholars and visiting graduate students from China will join us over the next academic year.

Our summer started with us hosting a dialogue between young Chinese and American diplomats in June. In July, we held our fourth in-person China Forum, which brought together over 60 scholars, policymakers, and business and community leaders to discuss how the U.S. can create a sustainable and effective China policy. In August, we collaborated with the Fudan-UC Center and the Carter Center on a timely research conference for young Chinese and American scholars who are studying China during COVID-19.

Other summer research projects included work on how China’s think tanks view America, how China engages in public diplomacy online, U.S.-China scientific collaboration, how U.S.-China politics come home to San Diego, and more. We also conducted expert interviews and tracked headlines in the Chinese media to bring you perspectives from outside experts and our students. Lastly, the winners of 2023 China Focus Essay Contest have also been announced, and you can find their essays published by China Focus.

Looking ahead, we have a fantastic lineup of public lectures for the fall quarter. The current U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, will share his thoughts on bilateral relations in a national telecast, followed by our own Michael Davidson speaking on this topic in person to the community. In another event, Oriana Skylar Mastro will discuss the unique strategies behind China’s rise. In the third Chou Wen-chung Distinguished Lecture on Chinese Culture, Wu Man, a world-renowned pipa virtuoso, will perform the traditional Chinese music instrument and speak with music professors Lei Liang and Steven Schick about her career.

In addition, we continue to work with the Fudan-UC Center to bring you cutting-edge research talks at our weekly China Research Workshop (CRW) series. If you are interested in staying up to date on the latest research on China, contact us to be added to the internal mailing list for CRW announcements.

We welcome you to subscribe to our China 360° bulletin, and check out China Data Lab and the student-led China Focus blogs. We look forward to seeing you on Zoom or in person!

With warm regards,

Victor Shih, Director, 21st Century China Center; and

Lei Guang, So Family Executive Director, 21st Century China Center

Featured News

2023 China Forum

This July, we held our fourth in-person China Forum, with the goal to examine how the U.S. can create a sustainable and effective China Policy. We assembled more than 60 influential experts from various sectors, including government, academia, think tanks and business. Our lively discussions in La Jolla provided clear takeaways, to be released soon, on the state of the U.S.-China relationship and what can be done to create an effective China policy that can last across administrations.

2023 China Focus Essay Contest Winners

We’re proud to announce this year’s winners, which you can read here. This year, winners wrote about green protectionism, climate cooperation, and Chinese BRI projects from Angola to Hungary. Graham Revare from the University of Kansas, Katerina Yang from Johns Hopkins University, and Ann-Alice Tichá from University of Oxford won the 1999 Institute Prize and the Jimmy Carter Award, with UC San Diego’s own Michelle Lai, Sciences Po’s Jessie Yin, and Beijing Foreign Studies Universities’ Jiangman Yu and Linghong Ye awarded runner-up prizes.

2023 Future Leaders Summer Program

The much-anticipated Future Leaders Summer Program, a transformative educational summer camp aimed at fostering problem-solving acumen and diplomatic proficiency in high school students, concluded on a high note. Running from July 16 to Aug. 5, the program saw 32 engaged students delve into the realms of global affairs and diplomacy, focusing on four key domains of future collaboration between the U.S. and China: climate crisis, energy innovation, artificial intelligence, and global pandemics.

Upcoming Events

Trade and Diplomacy in Mao’s China

Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023 from 4-5 p.m. PT | Register

Capitalism and the Chinese Communist Party may seem at odds, but this talk by Jason Kelly from Cardiff University will show how China’s early diplomacy and trade shaped its rise.

Sovereign Funds: How the Chinese Communist Party Finances Its Ambitions

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023 from 4-5 p.m. PT | Register

In this talk, Zoe Liu from the Council on Foreign Relations will discuss how sovereign funds have supported China’s rise by pursuing strategic assets and funding tech startups.

China Town Hall

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023 from 4-6 p.m. PT | Register

China Town Hall fosters a national conversation on China, with this year’s event featuring U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in a telecast followed by a talk by professor Michael Davidson in person.

Chou Wen-chung Distinguished Lecture on Chinese Culture

Face to Face with Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023 from 4-5:30 p.m. PT | Register

Wu Man, the world-renowned pipa virtuoso, will bring her knowledge and compositions to the stage for this unique concert and conversation.

Lobbying Autocrats: Policy Advocacy in Non-democracies

Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023 at 4 p.m. PT | Register

How do civil society groups adapt to autocracy? This talk by Jessica Teets provides an answer by studying public advocacy in China and around the world.

Upstart: How China Became a Great Power

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023 at 4 p.m. PT | Register: In Person | Register: Zoom

Oriana Skylar Mastro from Stanford University will show how China rose in the face of U.S. primacy through global emulation, exploitation and entrepreneurship.

China in Africa: New Relational Power

Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 at 4 p.m. PT | Register

With extensive data, Joshua Eisenman will showcase the CCP's deliberate efforts in cultivating ties with African political leaders.

Profiles of China Scholars and Speakers

Mike Thompson-Brusstar is a postdoctoral fellow affiliated with the 21st Century China Center at GPS. His research focuses on bureaucratic control and the evolution of administrative-legal institutions in China and Taiwan. He received his M.A. in Chinese studies and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.

Zongyuan Zoe Liu is the Maurice R. Greenberg Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She researches international political economy, global financial markets, and energy security in East Asia and the Middle East. Liu is the author of “Can BRICS De-dollarize the Global Financial System?” and “Sovereign Funds: How the Communist Party of China Finances Its Global Ambitions.” She is also a columnist at Foreign Policy and a CFA charterholder.

Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and assistant professor of political science by courtesy at Stanford University, where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination and coercive diplomacy. Her forthcoming book “Upstart: China's Rise to Great Power Status” explains China's rise in the face of U.S. primacy.

Quick Links

Data visualizations on wide-ranging topics in Chinese politics and political economy are featured on our China Data Lab blog.

China Focus is an online magazine dedicated to providing depth and context for understanding China and U.S.-China relations. It is run by GPS students with the support of the center.

For students, faculty and others interested in new academic research, sign up for upcoming China Research Workshops, organized jointly with the Fudan-UC Center.

The 21st Century China Center receives support from philanthropists, alumni, community members, foundations and institutional partners and welcomes tax-deductible donations to support our mission.

21st Century China Center, School of Global Policy and Strategy

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