Carl Minzner joins the USC U.S.-China Institute for a conversation about his new book. End of an Era argues that China's reform era is ending, and outlines the potential outcomes that could result.  

Carl Minzner：End Of An Era

Date：Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Time：4-5:30 PM

Location：Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, ASC 207

Cost：Free, please rsvp.

China's reform era is ending. Core factors that characterized it-political stability, ideological openness, and rapid economic growth-are unraveling.

Since the 1990s, Beijing's leaders have firmly rejected any fundamental reform of their authoritarian one-party political system, even as a decades-long boom has reshaped China's economy and society. On the surface, their efforts have been a success. Political turmoil has toppled former Communist East bloc regimes, internal unrest overtaken Middle East nations, and populist movements risen to challenge established Western democracies. China, in contrast, has appeared a relative haven of stability and growth.

But as Carl Minzner shows, a closer look at China's reform era reveals a different truth.  Economic cleavages have widened; ideological polarization deepened. And China's leaders are now progressively cannibalizing institutional norms and practices that have formed the bedrock of the regime's stability since 1978.  Technocratic rule is giving way to black-box purges; collective governance sliding back towards single-man rule. The post-1978 era of "reform and opening up" is ending. China is closing down. Uncertainty hangs in the air as a new future slouches towards Beijing to be born. End of an Era explains how China arrived at this dangerous turning point, and outlines the potential outcomes that could result.

About the Author

Carl Minzner is Professor of Law at Fordham University, and author of End of an Era （Oxford University Press, 2018） . He has written extensively on Chinese law and governance in both academic journals and the popular press, including op-eds appearing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor.  Prior to joining Fordham, he was an Associate Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, he has served as Senior Counsel for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, International Affairs Fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations, and Yale-China Legal Education Fellow at the Xibei Institute of Politics and Law in Xi'an, China. 

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Upcoming USCI Events

30 Years After Showa：Japan-China Relations in Uncharted Eras

Date：Thursday, February 28, 2019

Time：4-5:30 PM

Location：Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, ASC 204

Cost：Free, please rsvp.

The USC U.S.-China Institute presents a discussion with Akira Chiba, the Consul General of the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles, on Japan's relations with China. 2019 marks the end of the Heisei era and 30 years after the previous Showa era（1926-1989）in Japan. What are Japan's challenges and solutions in uncharted eras, several decades before and after the end of World War II, including the nation's vital relationship with China?  

Consul General Akira Chiba assumed the post of Consul General of Japan, Los Angeles in July 2016. Born in Tehran, Iran, he is a third-generation career diplomat. During his several decades career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs（MOFA）, he has spent eight years in China. The post of Consul General in Los Angeles is his third U.S. tour. During assignments in Tokyo, he has been charged with legal affairs, grant aid, and economic cooperation portfolios. He has written journal articles on Japan's global relations and authored numerous texts, many published both in Japanese and Chinese on a wide variety of topics, from Japan-Sino relations to the intricacies of working with the U.S. Congress. He is a graduate of the Law Faculty of Tokyo University, attended Peking University in China, and graduated with an M.A. in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley. 

American Wheels on Chinese Roads

Date：Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Time：4:30-6pm

Location：USC, Doheny Memorial Library, Room 241

Cost：Free, please rsvp.

Michael Dunne, author of American Wheels：Chinese Roads（Wiley, 2011）has been involved in the auto industry in Asia and especially China since 1990, when he earned an MBA and an MA in Chinese history at the University of Michigan. He was a managing director at JD Power, known for its automobile quality assessments and was president of General Motors Indonesia for two years. Dunne now heads ZoZo Go, a research consultancy specializing in the Chinese and American auto markets. In this talk, Dunne will focus on General Motors in China, 1989-2019. 

In addition to the discussion, Ken Klein, Head of the USC East Asian Library, will give a short introduction to the Mark L. Moody papers at USC Special Collections. Most items from the collection are available online through the USC Digital Library. Moody first went to East Asia in 1919 and later was an automobile dealer in Shanghai（representing Chrysler, Fiat and REO brands）into the 1930s. He traveled widely and photographed and filmed many parts of 1930s China. He documented, through photos, the 1932 Japanese attack on Shanghai and, through film, their 1937 attack as well. 

Screening：Tiananmen Square

Date：Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Time：4-6pm

Location：USC, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, ASC 204

Cost：Free, please rsvp.

Tiananmen Square is the latest episode of the Assignment：China series. It focuses on the work of journalists covering the massive demonstrations that rocked Beijing in spring 1989. Through interviews with those journalists as well as officials and demonstration leaders as well as archival photos and video, the documentary shows how the demonstrations and the violence that ended them drew unprecedented and sustained coverage. That coverage did much to shape perceptions of China and its government and helped influence the response of the US and other governments to the bloody crackdown.

Mike Chinoy was the Senior Fellow at the USC U.S.-Institute and CNN's Senior Asia Correspondent. After joining CNN at its London bureau in 1983, Chinoy served as Beijing Bureau Chief from 1987 to 1995. During that time he covered the 1989 events at Tiananmen Square, earning the CableACE, duPont and Peabody awards. He was also Hong Kong Bureau Chief for five years. Chinoy's published two books, China Live：People Power and the Television Revolution（1999）and Meltdown：The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis（2008）. 

Barbara Finamore：Will China Save the Planet?

Date：Thursday, April 11, 2019

Time：4-5:30pm

Location：USC, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, ASC 204

Cost：Free, please rsvp.

With the United States backing away from commitments to address climate change, will China take the lead in saving our planet from environmental catastrophe? Many signs point to yes. China, the world's largest carbon emitter, is leading a global clean energy revolution, phasing out coal consumption and leading the development of a global system of green finance.

But as leading China environmental expert Barbara Finamore explains, it is anything but easy. The fundamental economic and political challenges that China faces in addressing its domestic environmental crisis threaten to derail its low-carbon energy transition. Yet there is reason for hope. China's leaders understand that transforming the world's second largest economy from one dependent on highly polluting heavy industry to one focused on clean energy, services and innovation is essential, not only to the future of the planet, but to China's own prosperity.