Faces of China 多面中國: The transformative power of development

Day 1 / Friday March 8th

DAVID MULRONEY has been called one of Canada’s most innovative ambassadors by Janice Stein, the Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs. He was appointed as the Canadian Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China in 2009 and has significantly improved the depth of Sino-Canadian relations. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mulroney was assigned to the Privy Council Office in Ottawa as the Deputy Minister responsible for the Afghanistan Task Force. Mr. Mulroney’s other assignments included serving as the Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, as the Prime Minister’s Personal Representative to the G8 Summit, and as PM’s Foreign and Defense Policy Advisor. Experienced in foreign affairs, Mr. Mulroney served oversea extensively in places like Taiwan, China, Korea, and Malaysia. His front-line experience in China will be invaluable to INDePth, giving our participants first hand insight into Canadian-Chinese relations and providing an exciting start to our conference.

ALANA BOLAND (Ph.D, Washington) is an Associate Professor & Undergraduate Coordinator of the Department of Geography and Program in Planning at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on environmental governance in urban China. In particular, she is interested in understanding how the changing relationship between the economy and environment under market reforms has influenced the management of resources and governing of spaces. She is the author of numerous academic journals, including Asian Geographer, Geoforum, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Professor Boland’s past projects included a study of the legal construction of water markets and examination of the ideological foundations of water supply privatization. Her current research includes the study of state regulatory initiatives aimed at improving urban environmental conditions in contemporary China, and the analysis of the economic-environment nexus in Chinese cities during the 1950s and 60s.

MALCOLM THOMPSON specializes in the history of 19th- and 20th-century China, especially the late Qing and Republican periods (c. 1900–1949). His present research concerns the processes through which, in the early 20th century, the Chinese population was discovered as a problem of national capitalist development, and was installed at the center of political and economic rationality in China, where, making all the necessary adjustments, it still resides today. He is also involved in an organizational capacity in a long-term, international collaborative project on comparative Eurasian statecraft, as well as organizing another project on global economic nationalism in the period 1870–1940. At its most basic, all of Malcolm Thompson’s research centres on the history of governmental logics, especially within what he has recently taken to calling the capitalist world-episteme.

ELENA CAPRIONI received her PhD in Chinese Modern and Contemporary History and International Relations from the University of Cagliari, focusing her dissertation research on Uyghur-Han ethnic relations. She then undertook post-doctoral studies at the Institute of Asian Research (UBC) on sexist Uyghur proverbs, and the Western Development Program in peripheral China, with an emphasis on Canadian mining companies. Over the past year Elena has been the Academic Director and Consultant for the Council on International Education Exchange, Study Center in Beijing. The work she has been doing over the past five years has been in three major areas concerning the interpretation of sociological theories (via ethnic tradition and cultural practices between Uyghur, Han Chinese and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang); analysis of sex bias and sex-role stereotyping in Uyghur society in their homeland and abroad; and analysis of collective memory and the degree to which it is essential to forge the Uyghur identity outside of China. Her current research project in Toronto is focused on the emerging Muslim Uyghur diaspora in Canada and its social interactions with both the Chinese and Turkish-Muslim Diasporas by using ‘China’ and/or ‘Islam’ as common denominators or bases of collective sentiments.

China Express 中國快車: The momentum and sustainability of development

Day 2 / Saturday March 9th

SUSAN WHITING (Ph.D., Michigan; B.A. Yale) is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Associate Professor of Law and International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. She Specializes in Chinese and comparative poltics, with particular emphasis on the political economy of development. Her first book, Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2001. She has done extensive research in China and has contributed to studies of governance, fiscal reform, and non-governmental organizations under the auspices of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Ford Foundation, respectively. Professor Whiting’s current research interests include property rights in land, the role of the courts in economic transition, as well as the politics of fiscal reform in transition economies.

DR. LYNETTE H. ONG is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, jointly appointed by the Department of Political Science and the Munk School of Global Affairs. She was An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University in 2008-09. Her interests are comparative political economy, politics of development, politics of finance & public finance, fiscal federalism, climate change and environmental politics. Her regional interests are primarily China, followed by East and Southeast Asia. Dr. Ong’s recent book, Prosper or Perish: The Political Economy of Credit and Fiscal Systems in Rural China, explores the mobilization of rural savings through the Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs) and its connection to uneven local developments in China.

SUSAN WHITING (Ph.D, Michigan; B.A. Yale) is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Associate Professor of Law and International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is the author of Power and Wealth in Rural China (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and, most recently, “Fiscal Pressures, Land Disputes, and Justice Claims in Rural and Peri-Urban China” (Urban Studies, 2011).

SARAH KUTULAKOS joined the Canada China Business Council in 2007 and has revitalized CCBC’s role as Canada’s premier bilateral trade and investment organization by reinvigorating the council’s mandate to provide business services to its members, to be a catalyst for business, and to be a powerful advocate for the Canada-China relationship. Prior to CCBC, Sarah worked for 11 years in marketing, product development, and management with a major multinational corporation, where she had multiple assignments involving China. She frequently speaks on China issues, including marketing, trade, investment, and Canada-China relations.

Looking Ahead 展望未來: The future of China’s political and developmental landscape

Day 3 / Sunday March 10th

JOSEPH FEWSMITH (Ph.D., Chicago; B.A. Northwestern) is a Professor of International Relations and Political Science and Director of the Boston University Center for the Study of Asia. He is the author of six books, including: China Today, China Tomorrow (2010), China Since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition (2nd ed, 2008), Elite Politics in Contemporary China (2001), and The Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate (1994).

He is very active in the China field, traveling to China frequently and presenting papers at professional conferences of organizations such as the Association for Asian Studies and the American Political Science Association. His articles have appeared in such journals as Asian Survey,Comparative Studies in Society and History, The China Journal, The China Quarterly, Current History,The Journal of Contemporary China, Problems of Communism, and Modern China. He is also one of the seven regular contributors to China Leadership Monitor, a quarterly web publication analyzing current developments in China.

ANDREA CHUN grew up in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada in 1981. She obtained her LLB from University of Toronto in 1987 and her BA Commerce and Economics from UofT in 1986. She has been practising law in Toronto since 1989. She also hosted her own radio and television shows on Fairchild Radio and Fairchild TV. In addition, she appeared on OMNI TV and Agenda at TVO, contributing to CBC Newsworld, CBC Radio, Metro Morning, CHIN Radio. Andrea has also been teaching a Business Law course at UT Continuing Education in Cantonese since 2006.

VICTOR FALKENHEIM is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto where he has taught since 1972. Educated at Princeton (B.A) and Columbia (MA & Ph.D) Professor Falkenheim has previously served twice as Chair of the Department of East Asian Studies as well as Director of the Joint Centre for Modern East Asia. His research interests and publications centre on local politics and political reform in China. He has lectured widely in China and has worked on a number of CIDA and World Bank projects in China over the past two decades. His current research focuses on issues dealing with migration and urbanization.

CONSUL GENERAL FANG LI was appointed Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Toronto in January 2013. Previously, he served as Ambassador of China in the Republic of Moldova, Consul General of China in Johannesburg, and Deputy Consul-General of China in Houston and Calgary, among other international posts.