The historical legacy of Hu Yaobang for contemporary elite politics in China
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
- Venue
- Online via MS Teams
- Event type
- Webinar
About this event
The long-awaited 4th Plenum of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, now scheduled for 20 to 23 October, is likely to be very consequential in terms of leadership dynamics and future policy directions.
It is being preceded by an apparent struggle for power between General Secretary Xi Jinping and some of his detractors amongst Party elders, the military, and even some former members of the Communist Youth League, long led by Hu Yaobang. Robert Lee Suettinger's recent biography of Hu, entitled The Conscience of the Party: Hu Yaobang, China's Communist Reformer, will be examined both for the legacy of 'reform and opening' that Hu championed in the mid-1980s, and for examples of political struggle among CCP elites.
Registration
This event is free to attend, but registration is required. This event will be held as a webinar via MS Teams and will be recorded.
Organiser
About the speaker
Robert Lee Suettinger is a historian of contemporary elite politics in the People’s Republic of China. He recently completed a biography of Hu Yaobang (1915-1989), General Secretary and Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party of China, published by Harvard University Press, under a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation.
Suettinger was a Senior Advisor and Consultant at the Stimson Center, Analytic Director at CENTRA Technology Inc., a Senior Policy Analyst at RAND and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He retired from US government service in 1998, after nearly 24 years in the intelligence and foreign policy bureaucracies. In this period, Suettinger held various positions devoted to the analysis of Asian affairs in the CIA, National Intelligence Council, and National Security Council.
Chair
This event will be chaired by Professor Steve Tsang (Director, SOAS China Institute).
Contact
Email: sci@soas.ac.uk
Image credit: Ran Liwen on Unsplash
