Fiscal Crisis or Politics as Usual? The Problem of Debt in China's Countryside?

Speaker: Jean Oi, Director, Center for East Asian Studies and WIlliam Haas Professor of Chinese Politics, Stanford University.

Many township governments across China cannot pay their bills or get loans due to their bad credit. Wages are owed to local leaders and workers. Drawing on data collected in 20 townships spread over 10 provinces in China, Jean Oi will examine the causes of this debt and address why some townships have been able to escape financial disaster while others have not. She will explore the political logic that prompts township officials to continue feeding a bloated bureaucracy and hide their economic failings rather than take steps to reduce debt. Underlying the issue of local government debt are the political consequences for peasant-state relations and grassroots governance.

China Brown Bag series hosted by the Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Center for East Asian Studies.