The Party Knows Best: Aligning Economic Actors with China’s Strategic Goals

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by the Andrew Walder, Denise O'Leary & Kent Thiry Professor at Stanford University, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies. Today they discuss his article “China’s Extreme Inequality: The Structural Legacies of State Socialism.” (The China Journal, July 2023)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Chenggang Xu, Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions and Visiting Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford University to discuss the institutional underpinnings of China’s political economy. What explains the Communist Party’s ongoing resilience? Why did China pivot away from the economic reforms that had generated so much wealth for the country and the government? Xu advances the framework of “Regionally Administered Totalitarianism” (RADT) to describe China’s political economic transition during the reform period. He is also author of the forthcoming book Institutional Genes: The Origins of China's Institutions and Totalitarianism (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) exploring these questions.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette,is joined by Yanmei Xie, Geopolitics Analyst with Gavekal Research, who has recently been publishing articles at Gavekal and the Financial Times. Today, Jude and Yanmei discuss her recent client notes on Chinese overcapacity and its EV sector.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Evan Medeiros, The Penner Family Chair in Asia Studies at Georgetown University. During the Obama Administration, Evan was on the staff of the National Security Council as Director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia and special assistant to the president and Senior Director for Asia. They discuss his recent report “The New Domestic Politics of U.S.-China Relations” published by the Asia Society Center for Public Analysis.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Andrew Batson, China Research Director at Gavekal Dragonomics to discuss his recent blog post entitled “Xi’s New Growth Synthesis.” He also publishes The Tangled Woof blog, and wrote the enlightening post “Some Cadres Cannot Keep Up.”

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Emily Kilcrease, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security to discuss her recent report entitled “No Winners in This Game: Assessing the U.S. Playbook for Sanctioning China.”

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Ya-Wen Lei, Professor of Sociology at Harvard University to discuss her recent book entitled “The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development and State Capitalism in China.”

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Max Zenglein, Chief Economist at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) to discuss his recent report, co-authored with MERICS Lead Analyst Jacob Gunter, entitled “The Party Knows Best: Aligning Economic Actors with China’s Strategic Goals.”

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to discuss U.S.-China policy and the Select Committee’s work to address the strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Wei Cui, professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Colombia to discuss his recent book The Administrative Foundations of the Chinese Fiscal State.