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Today it was reported that Wen Jiabao, once again, has called for faster political reform at the end of the National Peoples’ Congress. There have been many political reforms over the past 30 years, to say nothing of social changes that have made the country more open. So what’s he worried about? Well, since he warned [...]

CHINA: SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION Speaker: Dr. Bingchun Meng Date: Thursday 8th March, 2012 Time: 2-3.30pm Venue: A6.5, Maria Hewlett Building (A Block), Harrow Campus Chair: Prof Hugo de Burgh OPEN TO ALL In this presentation, Dr Bingchun Meng will first lay out some of the theoretical debates as well as methodological challenges regarding [...]

As anyone who has talked with me about China knows, I am dismissive of British ruling class attitudes to China. Those who still write the country off as a totalitarian kleptocracy which has grown rich only by exploiting peasants,in which every half educated person is gagging to overthrow the regime, should attend a student conference [...]

Many modern Chinese novels depict corrupt officials – the excellent description of the housing crisis in Shanghai, WoJu, A Home of My Own, for example, or the amazing series about the career of a young official, Guanchang Biji, Notes from Officialdom.  But it is the novelist Yan Lianke’s depiction of an ambitious young politician’s quest [...]

When the Chinese colonel and I sang a duet together in London recently I was taken back to balmy days in the Boy Scouts, when there was an England. Then we sang songs which reinforced a clear idea of who we were and how distinct are our values; just like the Chinese soldiers today. We [...]