Category: Comparative Politics

• China and Pakistan: Towards Increasing Dissonance?

  why the Sino-Pak relationship is not all that it is cut out to be

• China’s ‘Parliament’: Clear and Present Challenges

  While the Communist Party continues to be the more powerful than the government in China, the symbols of state such as the National People’s Congress are increasingly vocal.

• New Leadership in China: Quo Vadis Political Reform?

  More than the challenges of political reforms, it appears the Communist Party of China fears a return to the populism and demagoguery of the Mao era.

• Post-China’s 18th Party Congress: Socioeconomic Challenges Paramount

  The fifth generation of the CPC leadership in China faces severe domestic challenges, chief among them, widespread corruption, increasing inequality, rising unemployment and growing regional disparities.

• China Studies in India: Of Caste, Class and Capital

  Higher education in India, including in Chinese Studies, remains a leisure activity – possible only for a select few who possess either the social capital and/or the financial means to stay invested in the field.

• How Red is my Communist?

  The Communist Party of India (Marxist) held its 20th Party Congress in Kozhikode, Kerala, in April. What does the CPI (M) think of its Chinese counterpart and how do the two parties compare?

• Chen Guangcheng: One Blind Man in a Tale of Two Governments

  What the Chen Guangcheng case says about Sino-US relations.

• Migration and Exile at the Thai-Myanmar Border

  A short account of a trip along the Thailand-Myanmar border made in July-August 2011 together with Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman and Brian Orland

• The fall of Bo Xilai and some reflections on Indian politics

  What does the exit of Bo Xilai say about the stability of the Chinese political system? And what lessons might be drawn for the Indian political system?