Playing Our Game: Edward Steinfeld

MIT's Dr. Edward Steinfeld will present his latest book in which he discusses China's rise, challenging many preconceived notions about how the country operates, both internally and externally.

National Committee Director Edward Steinfeld will discuss his new book, Playing Our Game: Why China's Rise Doesn't Threaten the West  (Oxford University Press, 2010), at a Jones Day program on November 2. In the book, Steinfeld explores the monumental economic and political ramifications of China’s integration into global production. By examining how contemporary Chinese enterprises actually engage the global economy and participate in a global division of labor, the book challenges the idea that Chinese firms are rising at their Western counterparts’ expense. It also challenges the claim that political change in China has lagged behind economic transformation. Steinfeld argues instead that the Chinese growth story is fundamentally about China’s internalization of the rules and practices of advanced industrial nations. China has grown not by conjuring up its own unique political-economic institutions, but instead by increasingly harmonizing with our own. The results within China – on the economic front as well as politically – have been nothing short of revolutionary.

Steinfeld’s current research focuses on two areas: the nature and development of innovative capacity in Chinese high-tech industry, and the expansion and regulation of China’s energy sector.

Dr. Steinfeld is an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, director of the MIT-China Program and co-director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center’s China Energy Group.

If you would like to attend this event, you must register by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 28. Please contact events@ncuscr.org for registration details.