Friday 10th June: “Ballot Box China”: A talk by Kerry Brown

Posted: June 8th, 2011 | No Comments »

The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents’ Club Presents:

“Ballot Box China”

Kerry Brown

Fount Restaurant

Friday, June 10th, 12:30 pm to 2 pm

In the last 20 years, China has undertaken one of the world’s largest experiments in grassroots democracy. Across over half a million villages in China almost one million elections have taken place since 1988, with over three million officials elected. Chinese farmers still account for half of the Chinese population and a quarter of its economic output. With villages remaining restive, what does this mean for the future of the country as a whole – and what clues do these elections give to China’s own possible democratic future?

Venue details: Fount Restaurant, 1st Floor, Building Five, Surpass Court,

570 Yongjia Road, Tel: 60737785

Admission: Set menu, 100 RMB

RSVP: fcc.sfcc@gmail.com

About the Speaker:

Kerry Brown is senior fellow on the Asia Programme at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) and a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies’ Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy,

in London. A former diplomat in Beijing, and former head of the China Section at the British Foreign Office in London, he is the author of “Friends and Enemies: The Past, Present and Future of the Communist Party of China” and “The Rise of the Dragon – Chinese Investment Flows in the Reform Period”. He is a regular commentator on Chinese and Asian affairs for a number of international media organizations. His latest book  “Ballot Box China” has just been published by London’s Zed Press. It is the first in the Asian Arguments series edited by Paul French.

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