by Adriana Alfaro Liendo

Interested in learning more about current issues in Chinese Politics? The New University in Exile Consortium is offering a free 10-week online seminar held in Chinese that will offer a series of timely debates in Chinese and aimed at a global Chinese audience, focusing on the most important and controversial issues that involve China politics and international relations that cannot be discussed inside China. Each section will be 90 minutes, and it will feature guest debaters who are authorities in the subject area and will be randomly assigned to present pro and con positions. The audience will vote on each proposition before the debate, and at the end of the debate, they will also have a chance to ask questions. Seminar co-leaders include Dr. Teng Biao, an academic lawyer and human rights activist from China, and Andrew J. Nathan, a Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Participants who attend 8 out of 10 complete seminar sessions are eligible to receive a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion signed by the Dean of the New School for Social Research.

Debate topics include:

1. Democracy is suitable for China.
2. The China Model works well; it should be emulated by other countries.
3. The majority of Chinese people support the Chinese Communist Party.
4. China’s long-term strategic goal is to overthrow the rule-based international order.
5. The West’s engagement policy toward China was a failure.
6. The way modern technology is developing helps drive the trend toward authoritarianism.
7. It is not enough for the U.S. to manage competition with China; it needs to promote regime change.
8. Activists can effectively promote China’s democratization through non-violent means.
9. Chinese people should support “the great unification.” 
10. The Trump presidency will be in favor of China’s democratization.

For more information, visit the course website: https://event.newschool.edu/debatingchinesepolitics