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16161. Public Transfers and Inequality in China

Author:
Wang Feng
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
On October 7, 2020, Wang Feng, Professor of Sociology at UC Irvine joined Columbia's Qin Gao, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work and director of the China Center for Social Policy for an event: "Public Transfers and Inequality in China." With expanded fiscal capacity and rising concerns over economic inequality, the Chinese government in the last decade and a half has vastly rebuilt and expanded its social welfare regime. Using the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology and both micro-level survey data and macro-level government statistics, this study examines the distribution of public transfers in education, health care and pension across generations and income groups in 2014 and compare it with those in 2010. While per capita public transfers in absolute terms remained in favor of higher-income groups and the elderly in 2014, as in 2010, the gap in receiving public transfers between the rich and the poor was reduced notably in this short time period. Public transfers also became more progressive in relative terms, with the bottom income group receiving much higher public transfers relative to their per capita household income than the wealthier groups. These results reveal that although the unequal distribution of public transfers continues and it in part results from the fragmented program design and the legacies of socialist inequalities, China’s expanded social welfare programs have contributed to narrowing the vast income inequality in this country.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Inequality, and Welfare
Political Geography:
China and Asia

16162. Social Protection under Authoritarianism: Health Politics and Policy in China

Author:
Xian Huang
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
On October 14, 2020, Xian Huang, Assistant Professor of Political Sciencee at Rutgers University joined Qin Gao, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work and director of the China Center for Social Policy for an event: "Social Protection under Authoritarianism: Health Politics and Policy in China." Why would an authoritarian regime expand social welfare provision in the absence of democratization? Yet China, the world's largest and most powerful authoritarian state, has expanded its social health insurance system at an unprecedented rate, increasing enrollment from 20 percent of its population in 2000 to 95 percent in 2012. Significantly, people who were uninsured, such as peasants and the urban poor, are now covered, but their insurance is less comprehensive than that of China's elite. With the wellbeing of 1.4 billion people and the stability of the regime at stake, social health insurance is now a major political issue for Chinese leadership and ordinary citizens. In this book talk, Xian Huang analyzes the transformation of China's social health insurance in the first decade of the 2000s, addressing its expansion and how it is distributed. Drawing from government documents, filed interviews, survey data, and government statistics, she reveals that Chinese leaders have a strategy of "stratified expansion," perpetuating a particularly privileged program for the elites while developing an essentially modest health provision for the masses. She contends that this strategy effectively balances between elites and masses to maximize the regime's prospects of stability.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, Health, Authoritarianism, and Political stability
Political Geography:
China and Asia

16163. New Developments in China's Financial and Economic System

Author:
Ronald Schramm
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Ronald Schramm, Visiting Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University Moderated by: Shang-Jin Wei, N. T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy and Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School Professor Jin Wei will interview Ron Schramm about new and important developments in China’s financial and economic system since the first edition of Schramm's textbook in 2015 (Routledge/Taylor&Francis): China Macro Finance: A US Perspective. Both new reforms and retrenchments in the Chinese economy will be discussed as well as the fraught economic relationship with the United States. Students and scholars of China will benefit by putting their own research in the context of how far China has come and where it is going in terms of economic and financial reform.
Topic:
Development, Diplomacy, Economics, Reform, Finance, and Business
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and United States of America

16164. Therapeutic Politics of Care: New Ethnographies of Asia

Author:
Felicity Aulino, Nicholas Bartlett, Lyle Fearnley, Ting Hui Lau, Emily Ng, and Saiba Varma
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Care has become a crucial concern of anthropological inquiry, and current global conditions have renewed its poignancy. To paraphrase Lisa Stevenson, care involves an ethics of attending, corresponding to particular ways that someone (or something) comes to matter. The drive to care, as she and others have noted, is far from innocent, and may be filled with ambivalence whether in intimate or institutional forms. Connecting fieldwork from three provinces in China, Thailand, and contested Kashmir territory, this series brings together the authors of five new books and a dissertation to explore the therapeutic politics of care across multiple logics and scales.
Topic:
Ethics, Anthropology, Ethnography, and Care
Political Geography:
China, Asia, Kashmir, and Thailand

16165. Immigration and Racism in Japan: Litmus test for liberal democracy?

Author:
Eric Chung, Atsuko Abe, Garcia Liu-Farrer, Michael Sharpe, and Takako Hikotani
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
This event will discuss the growing debate around whether or not Japan will become a country of immigration and the related and under addressed subject of racism. Japan is one of the few liberal democracies in the world to have successfully resisted immigration in its postwar economy. However, in the last twenty years, immigration in Japan has increased substantially with various side doors for unskilled labor as well as official entry points for skilled labor with options for fast tracked permanent residency. In 2018, Prime Minister Abe proposed some 500,000 unskilled workers by 2025 to fill jobs in industries with labor shortages while at the same time declaring that this is not an immigration policy. In the face of ageing population and low birthrate, Japan find itself at a crossroads of whether, how, and when to accept the increasing reality of immigration as a solution to its demographic decline and labor shortage. Will Japan follow the path of Western liberal democracies in accepting immigrants and extending rights of citizenship? How are immigrants being received? Do immigrants exercise political rights and build coalition with other marginalized groups? What is the role of race, ethnicity, and racism in all of this? Will Japan go the way of Western liberal democracies or in the direction of illiberal autocracies such as Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates. This event will provide an opportunity to discuss issues of immigration and racism in Japan. It will bring together leading scholars in the field of immigration and racism with a focus on Japan.
Topic:
Demographics, Labor Issues, Immigration, Democracy, and Racism
Political Geography:
Japan and Asia

16166. Thailand's New Political Generation: Forward to the Future?

Author:
Duncan McCargo and Andrew J. Nathan
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Thai politics have been extremely polarized in recent years: “yellow” (conservative) versus “red” (pro-Thaksin) contestations have divided the country, reflecting deep-rooted regional, class and identity cleavages. But Thailand’s newest cleavage, apparent only since 2018, is a generational divide that cuts across all other categories. Generation Z – Thais under 25 – seem to have a radically different understanding of themselves from older people. Digital natives who grew up online, and access information, virtually are rejecting deference, hierarchy and paternalism. They voted in large numbers for the short-lived Future Forward Party, which became the third largest party in the Thai parliament after the March 2019 elections. Since the dissolution of Future Forward by the Constitutional Court on 21 February 2020, many of these young people have become profoundly alienated from Thailand’s state and society, and have taken to the streets to demand far-reaching reforms. This talk will examine how intra-generational contestation is re-shaping Thailand’s politics.
Topic:
Politics, Science and Technology, Reform, Political Parties, and Generation
Political Geography:
Asia and Thailand

16167. Covid-19 in Taiwan: Domestic and International Implications

Author:
Syaru Shirley Lin, C. Jason Wang, Vincent Wang, and Andrew J. Nathan
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
During the coronavirus crisis, what was expected to be one of the hardest hit countries in the world has not only fared relatively well so far, but is now being widely lauded as a success story—Taiwan. With a population of 23.4 million, Taiwan has only reported 440 confirmed cases and seven deaths as of May 12. This panel will explore a series of questions. How did Taiwan manage the crisis and what are the secrets of its success so far? What are the risks that the pandemic could still worsen in Taiwan? How has the Covid-19 crisis affected Taiwan’s relations with mainland China? What has Taiwan done to assist other countries in managing the pandemic? How has Taiwan’s exclusion from World Health Organization (WHO) meetings and activities affected its ability both to manage the crisis at home, and to contribute to international management of the crisis? What can other countries learn from Taiwan about managing pandemic disease? What paths are available for Taiwan to contribute to global public health efforts? Has the crisis affected global support for Taiwan’s membership in the WHO? What are the implications for Taiwan’s global status beyond the WHO?
Topic:
Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:
Taiwan and Asia

16168. The Role of Digital Power in Estonia and Taiwan in Combating COVID-19

Author:
Andrey Makarychev, Elizabeth Wishnick, and Andrew J. Nathan
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Taiwan and Estonia are known as digital democracies. As both face threats from neighbors, their degree of digitization typically has been seen as a vulnerability. The DNS attack from Russia that Estonia faced in 2007 brought home the potential for cyberspace to be used as a domain of war. Similarly Taiwan has faced repeated cyberthreats from the People’s Republic of China. Nonetheless, in their successful responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan and Estonia have highlighted the strengths of digital democracy in combating a non-traditional security threat without employing the strongarm tactics of authoritarian states. In this article we reexamine the digital vulnerability of democracies and put forward a conception of digital power to explain the success of Estonia and Taiwan in using their digital prowess to combat COVID-19. On the one hand their reliance on cybertechnology make them particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks, but on the other hand their digital power enhances their global stature and domestic capacity to address threats like COVID-19.
Topic:
Security, Cybersecurity, Democracy, COVID-19, Non-Traditional Threats, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Taiwan, Asia, and Estonia

16169. Gender Discrimination in the Workplace: China from a Global Comparative Perspective

Author:
Rong Zhao
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
How does gender-based discrimination play out in the workplace? What are the overt and covert forms of gender discrimination existing in the Chinese and Western societies? What have been done and what more need to be done to address this profound inequality that has held generations of women back in gaining independence and equal rights? Drawing on economic, sociological, and feminist organizational theories, Rong Zhao, Assistant Professor of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York, analyzes: 1) how women have been kept in the low-paying secondary professions and the lower level of organizations; 2) how the discrimination in the workplace is related to the state-led patriarchal society that purposefully restricts women in the domestic world; and 3) what kind of social policies need to be developed and implemented to address this pressing issue. In the end, the speaker will also speak about strategies that individual women may adopt to mitigate the negative influences of gender discrimination on their career development. Rong Zhao is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York. She earned her doctorate from Columbia University School of Social Work in May 2018, and previously studied at Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China. Dr. Zhao’s research deals with social welfare practice and policy in a global perspective. Her specific research interests include gender inequality in the workplace, human service workforce, gender in relation to nonprofits, volunteering, and service contracting. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, and Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, and Discrimination
Political Geography:
China and Asia

16170. Chinese Civil Society in the Times of Covid-19

Author:
Diana Fu, Elizabeth Knup, Jing Wang, and Nick Bartlett
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
This panel, part of the WEAI in a COVID-19 remote lecture series, features brief presentations and discussion by scholars and practitioners who have studied and participated in Chinese civil society activities. The conversation covers changes to the role of and spaces for non-government actors in the Hu and Xi eras, as well as recent developments in light of the COVID pandemic and the rise of Hong Kong and Black Lives Matter protests.
Topic:
Civil Society, Protests, NGOs, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Hong Kong