Kaixiao Liu

Bio

Kaixiao Liu (劉恺瀟) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard University. His dissertation project studies why and how some rebel groups conduct revolutionary state building efforts under strong incumbent threats and in territories they do not securely control. His research aims to shed light on the concrete organizational problem of how communist actors built governing institutions while fighting in contested territories during the Chinese civil war, 1927-1937.  

The Shum Fellowship will enable Liu to pursue archival research in China to analyze documentary evidence such as CCP leadership directives from the civil war period. He plans to conduct archival and field visits in former revolutionary base areas.  

Research Interests: Historical political economy and comparative politics.