Wednesday, September 30, 2025 from 12:00PM – 1:15PM (ET)
In-person and Webcast
Event Description:
The Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) is pleased to invite you to an event featuring Dr. Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a longtime observer and noted expert on elite politics in China, to discuss his new book From Confucius to Xi Jinping: The DNA of Chinese Politics.
Dr. Lam’s book analyzes Chinese politics over the broad course of time, tracing the rule of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping through the lens of political ideology. Analyzing China’s intellectual traditions, Lam discusses the ideas of prominent thinkers such as Confucius, Mencius, Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, Shang Yang, and Han Fei, and how they still influence politics in modern China. He illustrates the ways in which Confucianist—and especially Legalist— thought have shaped governance from the ancient Qin and Han dynasties, through the Qing dynasty and into the present day. Lam also examines the flourishing of competing ideologies during China’s Republican period (1912–1949), and how their eventual repression under the CCP produced the dictatorial regimes of Mao and his successors. Ultimately, he reveals how these enduring political and philosophical legacies continue to inform the ideology and policies of the CCP leadership today—and the implications this holds for contemporary governance and international relations.
The event will be held at the GTI office located at 1836 Jefferson Place NW in Washington DC (approximately one block from the Dupont Circle Metro). Doors will open at 11:30 AM, and the event will begin at 12:00 PM. If you plan on attending in-person, please RSVP by September 26, as seating is limited. Light refreshments will be provided. Please direct questions or concerns to Senior Programs Manager Adrienne Wu at awu@globaltaiwan.org.
**Media: Please contact Yuchen Lee at ylee@globaltaiwan.org if you would like to bring additional crew members or equipment, so that we can be sure to accommodate you.
The Author:
Dr. Willy Wo-Lap Lam is a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, and a regular contributor to China Brief. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Center for China Studies, the History Department, and the Master’s Program in Global Political Economy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of six books on China, including Chinese Politics in the Era of Xi Jinping (2015).
The Moderator:
John Dotson is the director at GTI. He has served previously as a US Navy officer, as a staff member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and as an editor of the Jamestown Foundation’s publication China Brief. John has performed extensive writing and research on a range of political and national security issues related to US policy in East Asia, to include Chinese propaganda and united front work, elite politics within the Chinese Communist Party, military-civil fusion efforts within the People’s Liberation Army, and Taiwan defense policy. He is a proficient Mandarin linguist, who has performed extensive original research in indigenous Chinese language sources. John holds an MA in National Security Studies (with “highest distinction”) from the US Naval War College, and a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins-SAIS.