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College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Kang Lecture 2025

 

Public Talk by Professor Dali Yang

U.S.-China Relations:  How Did We Get Here, Where Are We Going

 

Speaker: Professor Dali L. Yang

Chair: Professor Matthew S. Winters

From confrontation to engagement to rivalry, U.S.-China relations have undergone a dramatic transformation over the past seven decades. This talk traces key patterns and turning points leading to today’s tensions over trade, technology, security, and global influence. As the two superpowers navigate a new phase of strategic competition and mutual suspicion, what are the major flashpoints, risks, and possibilities for cooperation? Offering a clear-eyed look at how we got here and what drives current policy on both sides, this talk explores what the future may hold for the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship.

 

About the Speakers: 

Dali L. Yang is the William Claude Reavis Professor of Political Science and Senior Advisor to the President and the Provost on Global Initiatives at the University of Chicago. He was founding Faculty Director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing from 2010 to 2016. Among his books are Calamity and Reform in China (Stanford University Press, 1996); Remaking the Chinese Leviathan (Stanford University Press, 2004); and Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak Spiraled Out of Control (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Matthew S. Winters is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum

April 17 (Thursday), 4:30. Reception to follow.

 

Hosted by Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Co-Sponsored by Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, and Spurlock Museum

 

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lecture

 

 

Seminar with Professors Dali Yang and Yujeong Yang

 

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures is delighted to announce the upcoming Kang Endowed Lecture featuring Professor Dali L. Yang at University of Chicago on Apr 17 and 18. As a part of this annual event, a lunch seminar will commence at 12:30 on Apr 18 (Friday) focusing on Yang’s book Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, published by Oxford University Press in 2024. This book is praised by many scholars in related fields. For example, Bruce Dickson from George Washington University comments on the book, stating, “In this remarkable book, Dali Yang offers a gripping account of the outbreak of Covid-19 in China: day by day, and even hour by hour. It will be the definitive account of the outbreak and the Chinese government's mishandling of it.” 

 

Professor Yujeong Yang in the Department of Political Science will serve as the moderator and major discussant for the seminar. We welcome both faculty members and graduate students interested in China studies, Political Science, Medical Humanities, and related fields to participate in this dialogue.

 

Illini Union Room 314 B, 

Apr 18 (Friday), 12:30-14:00

 

Hosted by Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Co-Sponsored by Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies.

 

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seminar

 

 

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

2090 A Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Building

707 S. Mathews Ave. | MC-146

Urbana, IL 61801

ph: 217-244-1432, fx: 217-244-2223

Email: ealc@illinois.edu

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