Read our blog post on the event: Why the Narrative on China’s Rising Overseas Economic Influence Might be Inaccurate

Speaker: Margaret Pearson, Dr. Horace E. and Wilma V. Harrison Distinguished Professor, and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, College Park

Moderator: Meg Rithmire, F. Warren MacFarlan Associate Professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit, Harvard Business School.

As China’s economic activities expand abroad, the consequences are controversial.  When do China’s economic contributions influence countries to align more closely with Beijing?  When do they generate political backlash and reduce Chinese influence?  What remains unknown?  Building off their recent Foreign Affairs article, Margaret Pearson, along with co-author and discussant Meg Rithmire, discuss overseas reactions to Chinese expanding economic reach and the new China shock.

Margaret Pearson is the Dr. Horace E. and Wilma V. Harrison Distinguished Professor, and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, College Park. Pearson’s research on China’s domestic politics focuses on state control of the economy, central-local bureaucratic relations, and environmental policy. On Chinese foreign policy, Pearson’s ongoing projects focus on conceptualizations of and reactions to China’s overseas economic activities, determinants of Beijing’s behavior in global institutions, and climate change governance. She teaches courses on Chinese domestic politics and foreign policy, and on comparative politics. She has held a Fulbright Research Fellowship at Beijing University.

Pearson received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University and was an Associate Professor with tenure at Dartmouth College before moving to UMCP in 1996. Her books include China’s Strategic Multilateralism: Investing in Global Governance (with Scott Kastner and Chad Rector, Cambridge University Press, 2019), China’s New Business Elite: The Political Results of Economic Reform (University of California Press, 1997), and Joint Ventures in the People’s Republic of China (Princeton University Press, 1991). Her articles appear in Journal of Politics, World Politics, International Security, Security Studies, World Development, Public Administration Review, Governance, Studies in Comparative International Development, Review of International Political Economy, China Journal, China Quarterly, and Journal of Contemporary China.

Also available via Zoom. Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7xrgb6DzR5-ZCnBNcNpq_A