Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping

A year has passed since China installed a new president, Xi Jinping; he has moved forcefully in several areas but many challenges remain. How will the country move forward as its double-digit rate of economic growth slows? How does it plan to deal with international calls for political reform and cope with an aging and increasingly polarized population? How do China's leaders see the nation's future, including its strategic role in the region and beyond?

In Following the Leader: Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping, David M. Lampton looks back at China's political elite since "reform and opening" began with Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970's. In the book, based on hundreds of interviews, Dr. Lampton explores how China's leaders explain how they intend to move forward, shares their reflections on issues of leadership and policy, and considers the challenges before them.

Dr. Lampton discussed his new book at a program hosted by the New York Institute of Technology and co-sponsored by the National Committee and the Johns Hopkins SAIS NY Alumni Club on Wednesday, March 26, 2014.

Bio:

David Michael (“Mike”) Lampton, formerly Dean of Faculty, is George and Sadie Hyman Professor and Director of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and chairman of The Asia Foundation. Before assuming those posts he was president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations in New York City from 1988 to 1997. From May 1998 to May 2006 he also was affiliated with The Nixon Center (now the Center for the National Interest) as the founding director of its Chinese Studies Program. Prior to 1988, Dr. Lampton was founding director of the China Policy Program at the American Enterprise Institute and associate professor of political science at Ohio State University where he started his academic career in 1974.

His newest book is: Following the Leader: Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping (University of California Press, 2014); his prior volume, The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds, was published in 2008 by the University of California Press and the following year in Chinese by Xinhua Publishing, winning Honorable Mention in the Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Book Award competition for 2009. Among his other works are: Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing United States–China Relations 1989-2000 (University of California Press, 2001, Chinese edition, Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2003), and (editor) The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform, 1978-2000 (Stanford University Press, 2001). He specializes in Chinese domestic politics, leadership, and Chinese foreign policy.

Dr. Lampton is the author of many articles appearing in Foreign Affairs, Time Magazine (Asia), Foreign Policy, The Wilson Quarterly, The National Interest, The New York Times, The Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Newsday, Caijing (Finance), People’s Daily, and Cankao Xiaoxi (Reference News). He has testified before Senate and House committees of the U.S. Congress and appeared on the PBS MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The NewsHour, This Week with David Brinkley, Frontline, The NBC Today Show, Great Decisions, The ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, Adam Smith’s Money World, Moneyline with Lou Dobbs, The Charlie Rose Show, The Diane Rehm Show, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” The O’Reilly Factor, CNN, NPR, BBS, The Fox Evening News with Tony Snow, VOA radio and television, among others.

Dr. Lampton received his Ph.D. and undergraduate degrees from Stanford University where he graduated with great distinction. Named a “Gilman Scholar” of Johns Hopkins University in March 2011, Dr. Lampton is Honorary Senior Fellow of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Far Eastern Studies (1995). Dr. Lampton has lived in the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong where he was a Fulbright dissertation research grantee in the early 1970s. In June 2010 he received the first Scalapino Prize awarded by the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for “exceptional contributions to America’s understanding of the vast changes underway in Asia and commitment to bridging the gap between academe and policy.” He is the recipient of a 2011 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio “Residency Award” which he completed in May and June 2011.

Dr. Lampton consults with NGOs, government agencies, and corporations. He is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Executive Committee and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served on the Board of Trustees of Colorado College from 1999 to 2013 and now is a Life Trustee. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the National Bureau of Asian Research and U.S.-China Education Trust.

Dr. Lampton served in the enlisted and commissioned officer ranks of the U.S. Army Reserve, was a fireman at Stanford University, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma academic honorary societies.

Politics & Foreign Relations

Politics & Foreign Relations

Recorded 3/26/2014