Course Title：Selected Topics in Contemporary Chinese Politics

This short course aims to improve students’ factual knowledge about China and to engage them in scholarly debates about Chinese politics. Toward these two goals the course will discuss several issues in contemporary Chinese politics that have attracted considerable attention from both western and Chinese scholars. These issues include the “China model”, Chinese meritocracy vs. western democracy, national identity and nationalism, party-rebuilding, regime legitimacy, and the political future of China. The course does not have any prerequisite. However, prior knowledge about and intellectual interest in China would certainly help students to critically engage assigned readings and to participate in classroom discussion.