Xiaojun Yan

Associate Professor: Dr. Yan Xiaojun is currently an associate professor in politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong and Director of the Research Hub on Institutions of China, HKU. He obtained his Bachelor and Master of Law degrees from Peking University and an A.M. and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. He is a comparative political scientist with special expertise in the politics of China. Dr. Yan is the author of three books and co-editor of one edited volume. His articles have appeared in Journal of Contemporary China, The China Quarterly, The China Journal, Third World Quarterly, Democratization, Policy & Politics, Problems of Post-Communism, China: An International Journal and The China Review. Dr. Yan is recipient of the 2012 Gordon White Prize by The China Quarterly for his research on new entrepreneurial Party secretaries in rural China. His first book on Hong Kong politics is selected as one of the “Ten Best Chinese Books (non-fiction) Published in 2015” by Asia Weekly. He is recipient of HKU’s Outstanding Teaching Award (2013).

Book in English

• Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements (ISBN: 9781108478069, co-edited by Grzegorz Ekiert, Elizabeth J. Perry & Yan Xiaojun), Cambridge University Press, 2020, 362 pages.

Book Chapters

• "Suppressing Students in the People’s Republic of China: Proletarian State-Mobilized Movements in 1968 and 1989” (by Elizabeth J. Perry & Yan Xiaojun), in Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements (co-edited by Grzegorz Ekiert, Elizabeth J. Perry & Yan Xiaojun), Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp.57-85.

Journal Articles

• “Propaganda Beyond State Borders: The Deployment of Symbolic Resources to Mobilize Political Support Among the Chinese Diaspora” (with Li La), The Pacific Review, forthcoming.
• “Guarding Against the Threat of a Westernising Education: A Comparative Study of Chinese and Saudi Cultural Security Discourses and Practices towards Overseas Study” (with Mohammed Al-Sudairi), Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 30, No. 131, September 2021, pp.803-819.
• “Is the Chinese ‘Entrepreneurial Welfare State an Industrial Policy in Disguise?” (with Chen Hanyu and Li La), Third World Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4, April 2020, pp.603-622.
• "Fighting the Prairie Fire: Why do Local Party-States in China Respond to Contentious Challengers Differently?” (with Zhou Kai), China: An International Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4, November 2017, pp.43-68.
• "Navigating Unknown Waters: The Chinese Communist Party’s New Presence in the Private Sector” (with Jie Huang), The China Review, Vol. 17, No. 2, June 2017, pp.37-63.
• "Reforming Governance under Authoritarianism: Motivations and Pathways of Local Participatory Reform in the People’s Republic of China” (with Xin Ge), Democratization, Vol. 24, No. 3, May 2017, pp.405-424.
• "Patrolling Harmony: Pre-emptive Authoritarianism and the Preservation of Stability in W County", Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 25, No. 99, May 2016, pp.406-421.
• “Participatory Budgeting Under Authoritarianism: The Local Budgetary Reforms in the People’s Republic of China” (with Xin Ge), Policy & Politics, Vol. 44, No. 2, April 2016, pp.215-234.
• “Engineering Stability: Authoritarian Political Control over University Students in Post-Deng China”, The China Quarterly, 218, June 2014, pp. 493-513.
• “The Quest for Stability: Policing Popular Protest in the People’s Republic of China” (with Zhou Kai), Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 61, No. 3, May/June 2014, pp.3-17.
• "Where Have All the People Gone? Some Reflections on Civil Society and Regime Stability in the People’s Republic of China", Taiwan Journal of Democracy, Vol. 8, No. 2, December 2012, pp.17-24.
• “To Get Rich Is Not Only Glorious: Economic Reform and the New Entrepreneurial Party Secretaries”, The China Quarterly, 210, June 2012, pp. 335–354.
• “Regime Inclusion and the Resilience of Authoritarianism: Local People’s Political Consultative Conference in Post-Mao Chinese Politics”, The China Journal, Issue 66, July 2011, pp.53-75.
• “The Democratizing Power of Economic Reform: Revival of a Representative Institution in Rural China”, Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 58, Issue 3, May/June 2011, pp.39-52.