China's new leadership, according to China watcher David Shambaugh, is the right leadership to address China's current problems. Shambaugh gave a lecture, "China's Communist Party: Survival or Collapse?" to a large crowd in the Dwight Lounge of Bristol Campus Center as this year's Edwin B. Lee Lecturer in Asian Studies. His lecture informed the Hamilton audience of the current challenges faced by China's Communist Party (CCP).
China's central government has adapted to the changing circumstances both inside and out of China. Shambaugh likened Chinese reforms to the Kruschev reforms of the former Soviet Union. He paid close attention to Chinese elites' ability to learn from the factors that led to the collapse of the Communist parties of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
Shambaugh said he has faith in the CCP's ability to strengthen itself by strategically adjusting to modern conditions. He described it as the "longest standing ruling party in the world" and explained how the CCP is "becoming a hybrid party" by continually implementing new ideas into its policy-making agenda.
According to Shambaugh, many scholars believe that the CCP has been "in a state of decay for some time." No agreement exists as to when the decay began, but many scholars from both China and abroad have closely examined factors that could lead to China's political peril or prosperity. He explained that the CCP is morphing into a "different type of party." The "ossified elite" in the central government is giving way to a younger and more capable leadership that is less ideologically dogmatic. The CCP wants to strengthen leadership and to rule by law. It is also advocating that "policy-making needs to be more open and transparent and accountable."
As part of Shambaugh's on-going research he has examined why the American intelligence and the academic community did not foresee the collapse of Soviet Communism. He discussed the insights from former scholars on the Soviet Union to illustrate how China's leaders are learning to avoid pitfalls in government by implementing adaptations into their governance.
Shambaugh is professor of political science and international affairs, and director of the China Policy Program in the Elliot School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. He is an internationally recognized authority on contemporary Chinese affairs and U.S.-China Relations. He previously served as director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and as editor of The China Quarterly.
Written by Obio Ntia '04
