Political and Social Trends in China as Reflected in the Peng Shuai Case

She received her Ph.D. in educational sociology from The University of Hong Kong after studying at Osaka University of Foreign Studies and Nagoya University Graduate School. After serving as a researcher at the Embassy of Japan in China and as an associate professor in the School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, associate professor in Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, and she assumed her present position in 2020. Her research interests include political and social change in modern China, social capital in rural areas, worker migration from rural areas to cities, land and family register system, and trends in intellectuals and civil society. Her works include The Country that Devours its Poor: A Warning from China’s Divided Society (Shincho Sensho, 2014), Empowered Citizens on the Rise: Where is China Going? The Future of a Superpower 5 (University of Tokyo Press, 2016), and Hong Kong: the City in Tears (Jig Publishing LLC, 2020).

He received his DPhil in 1988 from Sussex University, and later spent several years as Visiting Scholar at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, Harvard University, Peking University, and at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. Before joining The University of Tokyo, he taught at J. F. Oberlin University and Rikkyo University. He served as President of the Japan Association for Asian Studies, and as the Secretary General of the New Japan-China Friendship 21st Century Committee. He currently serves as Senior Adjunct Fellow of the Japan Institute of International Affairs, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Japan Forum on International Relations and Director of JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. His publications include The Politics of Wage Policy in Post-Revolutionary China, (Macmillan, 1992), and Japan-China Relations in the Modern Era, (co-authored, Routledge, 2017).

Graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1985 and completed his Master’s program (area studies) at the University of Tsukuba in 1998. Joined the Maritime Self‐Defense Forces in 1985 and became a helicopter pilot. Stationed in China between 2003 and 2006 as a naval attaché. Became chief of the intelligence section, MSDF Maritime Staff Office, Ministry of Defense, in 2006 and commanding officer of the 21st Flight Squadron, MSDF, in 2009. Worked at IHS Jane’s from 2011 as an analyst and business development manager and joined The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research in 2013, and became the Director of Policy Research in 2016 before assuming his present position in June 2017. His works include Chugoku no gunji senryaku (China’s Military Strategy), Toyo Keizai Inc., co-author of Magari kado ni tatsu chugoku (China at a Turning Point), NTT Publishing, Beichu shin reisen no makuake (After Sharp Power), Toyo Keizai Inc., and Yoku wakaru gendai chugoku seiji (Contemporary Chinese Politics), Minervashobo.