Event Details

Academic seminar series

Abstract

Against the grave challenges for Hong Kong and China in an increasingly polarized world, this seminar examines the possible strategic roles of Hong Kong as well as their rationale. The inquiry takes the audience through the historical vision of the One Country, Two Systems framework, the national programme of the Belt and Road Initiative and the policy of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area as a ‘mechanism for reform’. The tested practice to leverage on institutional contradictions for change and reform will be reviewed alongside challenges to stay close to the path.

Speaker Biography:

Linda Chelan Li is a Professor of Political Science at the Department of Public and International Affairs and Director of the Research Center for Sustainable Hong Kong (CSHK), City University of Hong Kong. She served as Associate Provost (Strategic Planning) of the University from September 2013 to September 2016. In 2019, she is awarded the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (HSSPFS) from the Research Grants Council of the HKSAR Government.

She is author of Centre and Provinces. China, 1978-1993. Power as non zero sum (Oxford: Clarendon 1998), Rural Tax Reform in China. Policy processes and institutional change (London: Routledge 2011), and Hong Kong Professional Services and the Belt and Road Initiative: Challenges for co-evolving sustainability (with Phyllis Mo and others) (London: Routledge 2023). Books edited include The Chinese State in Transition, Towards Responsible Government in East Asia, Towards Good Governance in Asia (Routledge, 2008, 2009, 2014), and Facts and Analysis: Canvassing Covid-19 and Policy Responses (City University of Hong Kong Press, 2021). More recently, Li focuses more on the cross-border relations and sustainable development in Hong Kong and Asia.

This seminar is co-hosted between Lancaster University Confucius Institute and Lancaster University China Centre.