Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Melbourne
5:30 – 6.30pm AEDT, Wednesday 4 March 2020
Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne
Since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, China’s domestic political landscape has gone through some significant transformation. With the stated goal of “cleaning up” the bureaucracy, his signature anti-corruption campaign has seen more than 100,000 high- and low-ranking officials indicted and jailed. Xi’s government has also introduced a series of state controls and intensified repressive instruments, including ideological control, increased party control of the private sector, the urban grid and social credit systems to maintain surveillance of the society, suppression of religious practices, and concentration camps in Xinjiang. China’s spending on domestic security and the military has been steadily increasing over the past decade or more. At the same time, the Chinese economy is also undergoing a fundamental transformation as exports and manufacturing sector slow, while labor costs steadily rise over time. A growing number of companies are relocating to inland provinces or to other developing countries to take advantage of lower labor costs. The trade war with the US further increase these domestic political tensions and put further constrains on the power holders.
About the speaker
Lynette Ong is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, crossly appointed at the Department of Political Science and Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She is an expert on China’s politics and political economy. She writes about authoritarian politics, contentious politics, and the political economy of development. She is the author of Prosper or Perish: Credit and Fiscal Systems in Rural China (Cornell University Press, 2012). She has held postdoctoral and visiting fellowships at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Peking University and Fudan University in China. She received her PhD from the Australian National University.
Her publications have appeared in political science and area studies journals, such as Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Politics, International Political Science Review, China Quarterly, China Journal, Journal of Contemporary China, etc. Her opinion pieces have also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Washington Post, and East Asia Forum.