Fewsmith Gives Tomlinson Lecture at University of Nottingham
Joseph Fewsmith, Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, gave the annual Tomlinson Lecture, sponsored by the East Asia Studies Institute and Taiwan Studies Program, at the University of Nottingham on March 14, 2019.
Fewsmith’s lecture was entitled “The Domestic Roots of Cross Strait Relations.” Read the abstract of Fewsmith’s lecture:
President Xi Jinping says that the issue of Taiwan cannot be passed from “generation to generation” and that “reunification” with the mainland is “inevitable.” At the same time, President Ts’ai Ying-wen insists that the mainland “must” recognize the existence of the Republic of China. This “clarification” of the positions of the two governments makes it much more difficult to maintain the existence of the so-called “’92 consensus,” which maintains ambiguity about the status of the respective sides. All this is happening at a time when Sino-U.S. relations are at their lowest level since Nixon went to China in 1972.
Fewsmith is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University. He is the author or editor of eight books, including, most recently, The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China (January 2013). Fewsmith travels to China regularly and is active in the Association for Asian Studies and the American Political Science Association.