Elite Power Structure and the Shift of State-Business Relations in Xi’s China
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
- Venue
- Main building, SOAS University of London
- Room
- RB01
- Event type
- Seminar
About this event
Dr Xin Sun will revisit the dominant scholarly paradigms on state-business relations in China.
Xi’s era has brought about radical changes to China’s political economy, generating profound implications for its business environment. In this talk, I revisit the dominant scholarly paradigms on state-business relations in China and find many of them fail to explain the Party’s ever changing policy towards the private sector. To fill in this gap in the literature, I advance an argument that places elite power structure at the centre of the explanation: while the fragmented elite power structure during the reform era created an institutional environment favourable to the private sector, the systematic realignment of political power under Xi has fundamentally altered the incentives and constraints faced by government officials at both central and local levels in their relationships with private businesses.
About the speaker
Dr Xin Sun is Senior Lecturer in Chinese and East Asian Business at the Lau China Institute and King’s Business School, King’s College London. He holds a PhD in political science at Northwestern University and bachelor degrees in Chemistry and Economics at Peking University. His research interests focus on government-business relations and the politics of land and property rights in China, as well as Chinese companies’ business strategies overseas. His recent articles have appeared in Journal of Public Policy, Political Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, The China Journal, and World Development, among others. His research and interviews have been frequently featured in media outlets such as BBC News, Bloomberg, Economist, Financial Times, Insider, NBC News, Reuters, Quartz, and South China Morning Post.
Chair: Professor Steve Tsang, Director, SOAS China Institute
Registration
This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Please note that seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
This event is taking place on campus and will not be recorded or live-streamed.
Organiser
Contact
- Email: sci@soas.ac.uk
Photo credit: David Veksler on Unsplash
