The key question at the heart of this breakfast talk is to what extent Chinese political activists have made progress in their quest to liberalise and democratise mainland China’s state and society.
This talk is informed by Dr Andreas Fulda’s new book ‘The Struggle for Democracy in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong’ (Routledge, 2019). In his book Dr Fulda adopts a historical perspective and compares and contrasts political development in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong from the early 1970s—the Democracy Wall Movement in mainland China in 1978, the election-driven liberalisation in Taiwan from 1969, and the top-down political reforms of Governor Patten in Hong Kong after 1992—until the present day, when Hong Kong is rarely out of the news.
At particular focus of the talk will be on the different strategies and tactics adopted by mainland Chinese political activists. Dr Fulda will assess the lessons activists have learned from both successes and failures. He will consider how these experiences have informed their ongoing struggles for democracy, e.g. in the form of mainland China’s New Citizen Movement.
Dr Andreas Fulda has specialized in the fields of democratization studies; philanthropy and civil society; citizen diplomacy; and EU-China relations.
His research bridges theory and practice; engages wider groups and communities in policy, industry, practice and public; involves academics, civil society practitioners and policy makers; and aims to influence European China policy. Since the early 2000s Dr Fulda has exercised intellectual leadership by advocating for a more critical, creative and constructive European China engagement. One manifestation of this engagement is his work as Principal Investigator of the recently concluded Ford Foundation-funded research project Monitoring the Implementation of China’s Overseas NGO Law: The View from Europe (2017-19).
Dr Fulda frequently comments on current Chinese affairs in the media. Between 2015 and 2019 he made twenty-nine media appearances on Sky News, France 24, BBC Radio, Al Jazeera, and TRT respectively.
He is frequently quoted in China-related reports by global newspapers ranging from Bloomberg, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Independent, The Globe and Mail, Daily Mail, Neue Züricher Zeitung, Weekendavisen, Reformatorisch Dagblad, El Con-fidencial, El Mercurio, La Razon, The Korea Times, Japan Times, Merdeka, Republika, Bisnis to Một Thế Giới.
Dr Fulda’s opinion-editorials have appeared in Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The In-dependent, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Free Press, and China Daily.
