Programs

The Center conducts events and produces studies that offer informed views and analyses on a wide range of critical issues that define today's China, and that identify and explain the forces and trends that will shape China over the horizon. All of the Center's activities are aimed at providing the critical insights and context necessary for making informed judgments and developing sound plans and policies.

Our programs include lecture series, workshops, roundtables, and conferences. Our publications include research monographs, short papers and reports, as well as book-length studies.

The China Studies Center 2007 Lecture Series:
"China's Challenges and the Challenge of China"

As China enters its third decade of "reform and opening up" its leaders and citizens can take pride in all that has been accomplished on various fronts. To make the case one only has to recall the China of 1977 and juxtapose it against the China of 2007. China's transformation has been nothing short of remarkable.

Yet today, China's leaders find themselves confronting a set of daunting domestic challenges that could marginalize economic gains and lead to increased levels of instability. If left unresolved, these challenges have the potential to erode the legitimacy of the regime.

The domestic challenges China faces represent the "balance due" for some of the economic and political decisions of the past that were made in the name of pushing forward larger economic objectives. Today's challenges include: poor governance and official malfeasance, the uneven distribution of wealth, imbalanced regional development, an uncertain financial system, environmental degradation, recurrent medical crises (some with pandemic potential), a challenged healthcare system, an eroded social safety net, and increasing dependence on outside sources of energy and food.

Whether or not the leaders of China can solve their most intractable domestic problems and, equally important, how they choose to solve these problems, are not merely academic issues — the answers to these questions have the potential to affect a wide range of U.S. interests.

Over the course of 2007 the China Studies Center will host monthly lectures at which the nation's most respected China specialists will provide insights into a particular domestic challenge faced by China, and its implications for U.S. interests.