Christine Wong, "Financing Local Government in China: Challenges in the Era after Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao"

This event is part of the Fairbank Center's "Critical Issues Confronting China" seminar.

This event is part of the "Critical Issues Confronting China" seminar organized by Ezra Vogel, William Overholt, and William Hsiao. The weekly series will take a comprehensive view of the complex issues China faces today. Featured speakers will present political, economic, geopolitical, and social issues in a broad cultural, historical, Asia regional, and international context. Each session will raise concrete issues, point out controversies, and explore possible options for Chinese leaders.

Christine Wong is director of Chinese studies and professor of Chinese public finance in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Oxford University. She came to Oxford in 2007 from the University of Washington where she was the Henry M. Jackson Professor of International Studies in the eponymous School of International Studies.

Wong was trained as an economist with a SB from MIT and an MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Her career has been mostly in academia, but she has also worked in the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and consulted extensively for international aid organizations. Her research has focused on China’s public finance and their implications for governance, economic development, and welfare.  She is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development advisory panel on budgeting and public expenditures.

Jointly sponsored by Harvard University Asia Center and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, with the generous support of Lee M. Folger.