The Waves of the Dragon: The Rise of Modern China, 1949-2020

This set of 4 lectures examines the historic reemergence of China as a great power since 1949. In the wake of a decades-long civil war, division, military weakness and a “century of humiliation,” the last 70 years has seen China pose the biggest challenge to the prevailing economic and geopolitical status quo. Whether as a hardline communist state or a modified free market behemoth, its progress has been extraordinary.  These lectures will examine this dramatic change of fortunes from the ascent of Mao Zedong and China’s reopening to the west in the 1970s to the profound challenges China still faces in the early 21st century including terrible demographic trends, risky military policies, and daunting wealth disparities that threaten both its long-term prospects and even its short-term outlook as it strives to build the largest economy in the world.