Can China’s New Venture Capitalists Solve the Local Government Debt Problem?

Join us for a lecture by Jean Oi, William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Oi’s work focuses on comparative politics, with special expertise on China’s political economy and institutions in the process of reform. Central-local relations in China are the core of her research. Employing a political economy perspective, she has “followed the money”—first grain, then taxes, and most recently local government debt as a window into politics.

Currently, she is researching how local governments are coping after the collapse of land finance and the overhang from huge local government debt after COVID. Moving beyond her earlier work, Oi also is engaged in a project that takes an institutional and micro-level approach to identify the key players and their interests as local governments seek to go global with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Moderated by Min Ye, Pofessor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies and Interim Director, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.

Co-sponsored by the Global Development Policy Center and the Center for the Study of Asia.

Register by: 2/23/2026
When 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm on 23 February 2026
Building Pardee School of Global Studies, 121 Bay State Road
Contact Email pardee@bu.edu
Contact Organization Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future
Fees free
Open To public
Speakers Jean Oi, Min Ye