This public lecture by Professor Ben Hillman is part of the 2025 Professorial Lecture Series, which aims to celebrate the esteemed academics of the Crawford School of Public Policy and showcase their areas of expertise in research and teaching. It is also part of the ANU China Seminar Series, the pre-eminent forum for discussions on China and the Sinophone world at the ANU.

Shouldering the Burden: Village China

The Communist Party of China CPC has expanded its presence and influence across government agencies, private enterprise and non-profit organizations. The final frontier for the reassertion of Party control lies in the countryside where village communities have enjoyed relative autonomy since decollectivization in the early 1980s. In recent years the Party has systematically reasserted its authority in China’s nearly 700,000 villages as part of an ambitious policy agenda of rural revitalization and agricultural modernization. Ben Hillman will examine the CPC’s strategy for taking direct control of the countryside and discuss its consequences.

Chair: Professor Paul Burke

About the speaker

Professor Ben Hillman is Director of Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University, Editor of The China Journal and Chair of the International Consortium of Contemporary China Studies. His recent books are Political and Social Control in China: The Consolidation of Single-Party Rule (with Chien-wen Kou, ANU Press 2024), China’s New Era (with Annie Ren, ANU Press 2024), and The Communist Party of China: Understanding the Durability of the World’s Most Powerful Political Organization (with Fengyuan Ji, Cambridge University Press 2025).

Agenda

5:30 pm - 6:00 pm - Networking and refreshments
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Academic lecture + Q&A

If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation plan please contact us at rsvp.crawford@anu.edu.au.