Sean Golden, a member of the Inter-Asia research group, participated in the high-level meeting of officials from the Central Committee of the Communst Party of China (CPC) with 15 European scholars that was organised in Copenhagen (Denmark) by the Asia Research Centre (ARC) of Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and the China Centre for Contemporary World Studies (CCCWS) of the International Department of the Central Committee on 11/0612014 to discuss CPC Studies in Europe and the role of the CPC in China.
He delivered a report on Chinese Studies in South Europe and a series of CPC Studies research questions and called for closer cooperation between Chinese think tanks and European think tanks.
Liu Yunshan
刘云山, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of theCPC, and other high-level officials, also took part in the meeting.
Research questions for CPC studies:
- Is the
CPC a political party or is it the entire political system? Can it really be
compared to political parties in Western liberal democracies?
- If the most
important task of the CPC from the historical point of view was the planning of
the economy, and if the CPC renounces central planning of the economy, what is
now the most important task of the CPC?
- If power
comes from the people, and power is exercised on behalf of the people, how can
the CPC demonstrate that it is accountable to the people?
- What is
the importance of economy of scale in political matters? If the EU seems to
have learned that it is necessary to create a centralised bureaucracy based on
meritocracy --the European Commission-- in order to guarantee planning and
continuity (something the Chinese political culture invented thousands of years
ago), as well as the separate branches of government (executive, legislative,
judiciary), and China already has the centralised bureaucracy, does the CPC
need to experiment with the separation of powers that was developed by European
political philosophy?
- What is
the future of "one country, two (or more) systems"?
- Should
meritocracy as the basis for being selected for a governing position
include people who do not belong to the CPC?
- If
Chinese people say that they have been accustomed for thousands of years to
being selected rather than to being elected, in what circumstances does the CPC
see elections as a valid and efficient process of selection?
Members
of the Chinese delegation:
- Liu
Yunshan 刘云山，Secretary of the CPC central committee, headmaster of
Party School of the CPC
- Chen
Xi 陈希，Vice-Minister of Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee
- Liu
Biwei 刘碧伟，Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in the Kingdom of Denmark
- Li Jinjun 李进军，Vice-Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee
- Guo Yezhou 郭业洲，Vice-Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee，Chairman of the Council of China Center
for Contemporary World Studies
- Jiang Jinquan 江金权，vice-director of Central Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee,
general secretary of Party-building leadership of the CPC Central Committee
- Ding Wei 丁伟，vice
minister of China’s Ministry of Culture
- Sun Haiyan 孙海燕, Director of the China Center for Contemporary World Studies
(CCCWS)
European scholars:
- Mr Kjeld Erik
Brødsgaard, Professor and Director
of the Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School.
- Mr Sebastian Heilmann, the founding director of the national Mercator
Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin and professor for the political
economy of China at the University of Trier, Germany.
- Mr Frank Pieke, chair professor in modern China studies at Leiden
University.
- Mr Stig
Thøgersen,
- professor of China Studies at Aarhus University,
Denmark.
- Mr. Martin Jacques, Senior
Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge
University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing.
- Mr. Sean Golden, full
Professor of East Asian Studies and Director of the East Asian Studies &
Research Centre – CERAO at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
- Mr Kerry
Brown, Professor of Chinese Politics and Director of the China
Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
- Mr Flemming Christiansen, Sociological
Institute and Institute of East Asian Studies, The University of Duisburg-Essen.
- Mr Zhengxu Wang, Associate
Professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of
Nottingham.
- Mr Nis
Grünberg, PhD Fellow at Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen
Business School.
- Ms Sarah Eaton, Associate
Professor in Contemporary China Studies at the School of Interdisciplinary Area
Studies, University of Oxford.
- Mr Giovanni Andornino, Assistant
Professor of International Relations of East Asia at the University of Torino
(Italy); Vice President of the Torino World Affairs Institute.
- Mr Daniele
Brombal, Assistant Professor at the Department of Asian and
North African Studies of Venice Ca' Foscari University (Italy).
- Mr Nis Høyrup Christensen, Assistant Professor at Asia Research
Centre, Copenhagen Business School.
- Mr Andreas Mulvad, PhD Fellow
at the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen.
