On Wednesday, October 26, the Asia Policy Program hosted Joseph Torigian, Assistant Professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, who discussed his latest release, Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China After Stalin and Mao. This talk was moderated by Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, director of the Asia Policy Program and Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. The Asia Policy Program is a joint effort of the Strauss Center and Clements Center.

Torigian began his talk by discussing his research strategy for his book, which covers leadership in the Soviet Union from 1953-1957, and China from 1975-1981. Next, he detailed a series of questions used to frame his research. Torigian then described the similarities between the transitional periods after the death of Stalin and Mao. He continued by sharing his primary sources for informing his research, noting how American libraries house an extensive collection of Chinese history books. Torigian then explained the history behind the Gang of Four and the role Hua Guofeng played in the aftermath of the downfall of the Gang of Four. Torigian concluded by addressing Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, explaining that Chinese politics are not a popularity contest, and doing this research makes it apparent how hard it is for outsiders to understand what is happening in the region.

Biography

Joseph Torigian is an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington. Previously, he was a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton-Harvard’s China and the World Program, a Postdoctoral (and Predoctoral) Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), a Predoctoral Fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, an IREX scholar affiliated with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. His new book, “Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao” was recently released with Yale University Press and he has a forthcoming biography on Xi Jinping’s father with Stanford University Press.

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