Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae as a pdf file (August 2026)

Academic Appointments

Harvard University

            Associate Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar, since July 2023

            Research Scholar and Lecturer, July 2020 – June 2023

            Lecturer in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, since January 2019

            Faculty Associate of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations

            Faculty Affiliate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Academia Sinica, Institute of Political Science

            Assistant Research Fellow, July 2016 - June 2019

Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies

            Academy Fellow, 2015–16 and 2018-19

 

Education

            Harvard University

            Ph.D., Department of Government, May 2015

            Harvard Kennedy School

            Master’s in Public Administration, June 2009

            University of Cambridge

            M.Phil. Management, October 2002

            Paris University (Panthéon-Sorbonne)

            Licence International Economics (Development Economics), July 2001

Book

Where the Party Rules: The Rank and File of China’s Communist State, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018; included in Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute book series

  • review: Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2019.
  • news commentary (in Chinese): Yue-chim Richard Wong, 信報財經新聞 [Hong Kong Economic Journal], January 2nd 2019.
  • review: Patricia M. Thornton, China Quarterly, no. 237 (March 2019).
  • review: Xiaobo Lü, The China Journal, vol. 82 (July 2019).
  • review: Carolin Kautz, Asien, vol. 154/155 (January/April 2020).
  • review: Diana Fu, Perspectives on Politics, vol. 18: 2 (June 2020).

Journal Articles and other Publications

  • “Occupational Branches of Japan’s Ruling Party: Building Linkages While Hedging Clientelist Exposure,” Japanese Journal of Political Science, forthcoming.
  • “Discipline Inspections and the Transformation of Party Authority in China’s Banks,” China: An International Journal 21(2): 92-113, May 2023.
  • “Economic Governance in Xi Jinping’s `New Era’: New Vectors of Party Influence in China’s Financial Sector,” Background Brief, East Asia Institute at National University of Singapore, March 24, 2023.
  • “Party-Building as Institutional Bricolage: Asserting Authority at the Business Frontier,” China Quarterly 248: 222-243, November 2021.
  • “Globalizing Leninist Institutions: Trends in Overseas Party Building,“ China Brief 21(12): 22-28, June 2021. 
  • “Political Geography of Empire: Chinese Varieties of Local Government,” The Journal of Asian Studies 76(1): 159-184, February 2017.
  • “A Micro-Geography of State Extractive Power: The Case of Rural China,” co-authored with Hiroshi Sato, Studies in Comparative International Development 51(4): 389-410. December 2016.

 

Book Reviews

  • Ning Leng, Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China, in The China Journal 96, pp.164-166, July 2026.
  • Xiaobo Lü, Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China’s Republican Era, in The China Quarterly, first view, February 2026.
  • Andrew Walder, Civil War in Guangxi: The Cultural Revolution on China’s Southern Periphery, in Pacific Affairs 98, March 2025.
  • Xiao Ma, Localized Bargaining: The Political Economy of China’s High-Speed Railway Program, in: The China Journal 90, July 2023.
  • Sascha Klotzbücher, Lange Schatten der Kulturrevolution: Eine transgenerationale Sicht auf Politik und Emotion in der Volksrepublik China [Long Shadows of the Cultural Revolution: A Trans-generational View on Politics and Emotions in the People's Republic of China], in: China Information 34(2): 297-299., July 2020.
  • Jean-Luc Domenach, China's Uncertain Future, in: Twentieth-Century China 39(1), January 2014.

Working Papers

“The historical origins of the LDP’s political resilience: Inherited institutions of the past and effective conservative mobilization of today”

“Brokers of Early Democracy: Former Samurai, Political Parties, and Japan’s First Elections (1881-1898)”

Selected Presentations

  • “Occupational Branches of Japan’s Ruling Party: Building Linkages While Hedging Clientelist Exposure,” speaker for the Talking Japanese Politics workshop at the University of Duisburg-Essen, July 2026.
  • “European Economic Security in an Age of De-Risking,” speaker at the Center for International Studies, Sciences Po, Paris, June 2026.
  • “Legacies of Imperial Democracy and the Electoral Resilience of Japan’s Conservative Party LDP,” speaker at the Alliance for Research on East Asia Ruhr University of Duisburg-Essen and Ruhr-University Bochum, Juni 2025
  • “Disciplining Business: Reinventing CCP Networks as Tools of Economic Governance under Xi,” speaker at the Noon Lecture Series of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, October 2023.
  • “Funding Autocracy: Party Finances in Post-Mao China,” with Jérôme Doyon, AAS Annual Conference, Boston, March 2023.
  • “Communist Capital: Party Governance in the Finance Sector,” paper presenter, CPC Futures conference at National University of Singapore, November 2021.
  • “Evolving Linkage Strategies: The Resilience of the LDP-Postmasters Alliance,” speaker, Japan Politics Online Seminar Series, November 2021.
  • “Leninism in the Private Sector: Digitally Competent Communist Party-Building for the 21st Century”, guest speaker, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 2021.
  • “How Communist is the People’s Republic of China?” panel discussion with Patricia Thornton, Joseph Fewsmith, and Rebecca Karl, University of Oxford China Centre, May 2021.
  • “A 21st Century Organizational Weapon? The Party as Management Tool in Xi's China,” 116th APSA Annual Meeting, virtual meeting, August 2020.
  • “Mixing Method for the Study of the Chinese Communist Party and its History,” Invited speaker at the “Mixing Methods” workshop, Brown University, May 2020 and May 2021.
  • “Where the Party Rules: The Rank and File of China’s Communist State,” book talk, Harvard-Yenching Library, February 2020.
  • “Membership Networks and Electoral Resilience: The Case of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party,” Program on US-Japan Relations, May 2019.
  • “China’s Authoritarian Renaissance and the Scholarly Response,” keynote address, Annual Meeting of the Arbeitskreis Sozialwissenschaftliche Chinaforschung, Göttingen, November 2018.
  • “The Power of Local Roots and Historical Inheritances: Comparative Lessons from the Super-Resilient Ruling Parties of China and Japan,” invited talk at Waseda University, Tokyo, October 2018.
  • “Leveraging History and Geography to Study Political Parties in East Asia,” invited talk at Manchester University, October 2018.
  • “The Political Economy of Regime Parties: The CCP’s Rank and File as a Fiscal Asset,” part of the “Authoritarian Regime Parties” panel that I organized, 114th APSA Annual Meeting, Boston, August 2018.
  • “Samurai Party-Building and the Origins of Political Order in Meiji Japan (1881-1898),” Taiwan Political Science Association, Taipei, November 2017.
  • “The Political Economy of Authoritarian Regime Parties: The Fiscal Contribution of the CCP's Rank and File,” Chinese Association of Political Science, Taipei, October 2017.
  • “Cultural Capital and Political Order: Comparative Study of Party Building in Meiji Japan,”
  • presented at Kobe University, January 2017
  •  “War Contingencies at the Origin of the Chinese Communist Party's Power Base” presented at the 111th APSA Annual Meeting, September 2015
  • “A Micro-Geography of State Extractive Power: The Case of Rural China” presented at the 111th APSA Annual Meeting, September 2015
  • “Explaining the Shifting Geographic Patterns of the CCP’s Power Base” presented at the conference Quantitative Studies of the Chinese Elite, University of California, San Diego, February 2015
  • “Mapping the CCP’s Revolutionary War Mobilization and its Legacy”, presented at the workshop Chinese Revolutions in the 20th Century and Their Historical Legacies, East China Normal University, December 2014
  • “Half-Life of History: The Case of the Chinese Communist Party’s Anti-Japanese War Legacy”, presented at the workshop Politics and History, Yale University, May 2014.
  • “State Strength and the Reach of the Chinese State” presented at Unpacking China: An International Workshop, Harvard University, April 2014
  • “Seize Revolution, Promote Production: State-Building During Maoist Turmoil 1967/68”, presented at the workshop Micropolitics of Maoist China: Learning the Language of Socialism in Comparative Perspective, East China Normal University, July 2013

Courses Taught

  • “Political Geography of China” (to be taught in Fall 2026) 
  • “China and the African Continent” (last taught in Spring 2026)
  • “Economic Governance in East Asia” (last taught in Spring 2026)
  • “Political Parties of East Asia” (last taught in Fall 2025)
  • “East Asian Development Models” (inaugural Harvard Summer Program in Shanghai, 2024)
  • “China's Cultural Revolution” (last taught in Fall 2022)
  • “Historical Legacies in East Asian Politics” (last taught in Fall 2021)
  • “Political Economy of 21st Century China” (last taught in Spring 2021)
  • “Visiting Fellows Workshop” (Convener, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014 and Fall 2015).
  • “Government and Politics of China” (Teaching Fellow, Harvard College, Fall 2013)
  • “Political Economy of China” (Sophomore Tutorial Leader, Harvard College, Spring 2011 and Spring 2012)
  • “Central Challenges of American Foreign Policy” (Course Assistant, Harvard Kennedy School, Spring 2009)

Recent Advising

PhD dissertation

  • Hanyu Zhao, “Burnout Leviathan: Bureaucratic Overload and Grassroots Governance in China,” defended in April 2023.

Master’s theses: 

  • Michael Mashioff, “Awakening China: A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Chinese Investment on the Governance of Emerging and Developing Market Countries” (fall 2023).
  • Landon Fortenberry, “Global Identity Politics of Sino-African Relations: A case study of Equatorial Guinea, Angola, South Africa, and Egypt” (spring 2023)
  • Qi Siang Ng, “The Strange Case of Populist Doves: Populism and Cross-Strait Preferences among Taiwanese Voters” (spring 2023).

Senior theses:

  • Linda Zhang, “The Art of Remonstrance: Alternative Models of Dissent” (spring 2025)
  • Sam Davidson, “The Price of Rise: Rumor, Retail, and Perceptions of Chinese Presence in Cabo Verde” (spring 2025)
  • Lucy B. Goldfarb, “Fighting Insecurity: The Evolution of Japanese Security and Intelligence Reform Within the Japan-United States Alliance” (spring 2023).
  • Choetsow Tenzin, “Global Office Spaces: Navigating Labor Relations in China through Taiwanese and South Korean Foreign Direct Investments” (spring 2023)

Work Experience

  • Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations, Advisor. Policy coordination in humanitarian and environmental affairs for German EU and G8 presidencies (2006/07)
  • German Foreign Ministry, First Secretary at embassy in Cameroon. Head of Consular Affairs, officer for Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic (2004-2006)
  • World Bank, Beijing Office and Office of the Chief Economist, Consultant (2003)
  • German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Special Assignment. Unit for Cooperation with the Private Sector (2002-2003)

Fellowships and Awards

Humboldt Fellowship for research project “The Making of a Perennial Ruling Party: Local Organizers and the Success of Japan’s Conservatives, 1880-2023” (2025-2028)

Special Commendation Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times (2020)

Certificate of Teaching Excellence, Office of Undergraduate Education Harvard University (2019-2022)

Walter Dean Burnham Best Dissertation Award of the section on History and Politics of the American Political Science Association (2017)

Senator Charles Sumner Prize, best dissertation award by the Government Department of Harvard University (2015)

Samuel Huntington Fellowship, 2014-2015

Junior Visiting Scholar, Institute of History/ Philology, Academia Sinica          2013

Desmond and Whitney Shum Fellowship for Field Research in China     2012-2013

Fairbank Research Grant used for Field Research in China (2012)

Asia Center Research Grant used for Field Research in China and Japan (2011)

Reischauer Institute Summer Language Study Grant (Japanese) (2010)

Karl W. Deutsch Prize (2009-2011)

Richard L. and Faith P. Morningstar Graduate Fellowship (2009-2010)

Robert Bosch Foundation, Fellowship for International Affairs (2002-2003)

European Trust Fund Scholarship (2001-2002)

Fellow of the German National Academic Foundation (2001-2002)

Languages and Skills

  • German: Native. Chinese, English, French, Japanese: Fluent. Spanish: Advanced
  • Programming: R, Latex, QGIS

Professional Service

Reviewer for: Asian Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, China Information, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Chinese Governance, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, Journal of East Asian Studies, Journal of Politics, Democratization, Modern China, Open Forum Series, Party Politics, Problems of Post-Communism, The China Journal, The China Quarterly, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, World Politics