As the Communist Party prepares to reappoint Xi Jinping for another five-year term, people have focused on his foreign policy, or anti-corruption campaigns as keys to understanding his policies. But equally important have been Xi’s efforts to cure China of its moral malaise, which many Chinese see as their country’s biggest challenge–the feeling that the country has no shared moral values and is a place where anything goes. Ian Johnson will give a short talk on Xi’s rule and how he’s used preferential policies toward some religions to appeal to disaffected citizens.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer-Prize winning writer focusing on society, religion, and history. He works out of Beijing and Berlin, where he also teaches and advises academic journals and think tanks. Johnson has spent over half of the past thirty years in the Greater China region, where he now writes features and essays for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and other publications. He teaches undergraduates at The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, where he also runs a fellowship program. In addition, he formally advises a variety of academic journals and think tanks on China, such as the Journal of Asian Studies, the Berlin-based think tank Merics, and New York University’s Center for Religion and Media.

DATE: May 18 (Thursday) 10am-11:30am

ENTRANCE: FCCC Members free, Non-FCCC members 100 RMB