Join us to hear Jason M. Kelly, senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Cardiff University, discuss how China’s early diplomacy and trade shaped its rise.

China today seems caught in a contradiction: a capitalist state ruled by a Communist party. Since the 1930s, well before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rose to power, CCP traders have sought deals with capitalists around the world. During the Mao era, this quest for access to overseas capitalist markets — alongside China’s embrace of socialist revolution at home — created a paradoxical momentum at the heart of the Chinese revolution. What motivations, rationales, and people lay behind the CCP’s early search for capitalist trade? How did this prolonged trade shape the making of Mao’s China? And why does Mao-era trade with capitalists matter today? This talk explores these and other questions by drawing from Kelly’s recent book, "Market Maoists: The Communist Origins of China’s Capitalist Ascent."

This hybrid public lecture series is organized by the 21st Century China Center at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. For more information on China activities, as well as recordings of previous webinars, please visit china.ucsd.edu.