How is the Chinese Communist Party Tightening Social Control?

 

The Chinese Communist Party has tethered society for a long time. But what are some new developments? Join Law Professor Mark Sidel for a deep dive into new institutional arrangement of the CCP’s new Central Social Affairs Department.  And what this means for controlling society under Xi Jinping.

 

 

Mark Sidel is the Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an elected member of the American Law Institute. He serves on the boards of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, the China Medical Board, The Rights Practice (US), and other organizations. Since 2020 Sidel has also served as visiting professor of law at Cardozo Law School in New York. Sidel is affiliated for research with the University of Liverpool's School of Law and Social Justice and its Charity Law and Policy Unit (as Chair in Global Justice and Honorary Professor in Law); the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP) in New Delhi; the US-Asia Law Institute (USALI) at NYU Law School; the Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management (CNSM) at City University of New York, Baruch College; and the University of Western Australia Law School.

 

Diana Fu (Co-Chair) is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and a fellow at Brookings Institution, the Wilson Center, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Her research examines popular contention, repression, civil society, and authoritarian citizenship in contemporary China. She is currently co-authoring a second book examining how the Chinese state governs the global diaspora (under contract, Cambridge). She is the author of "Mobilizing Without the Masses: Control and Contention in China" (Cambridge, 2018), which won best book awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the International Studies Association. Her research and commentary have appeared BBC, Bloomberg, CBC, CNN, NPR, the Economist, and The New York Times, among others.

 

Anup Grewal (Co-Chair) is an Assistant Professor of Chinese modern literature and history, at the Historical and Cultural Studies Department, UTSC, and a member of the Tri-campus History Department. She teaches in History, Women’s Studies and Global Asia Studies. Her primary areas of research include modern Chinese history, cultural studies, and gender studies, which she examines in broader regional and global frames.  She is currently working on a book project exploring the activism and literary works of Chinese women involved in the leftist political and cultural movements of 1920s to the 1930s. Her other ongoing projects include comparative studies of socialism and literature in India and China, and explorations of recent minority films and independent documentaries in China.