Professor Lü Quoted in Financial Times

Xiaobo Lü, Asia Policy Program faculty affiliate and associate professor in the Department of Government at UT Austin, was quoted in “The Cost of China’s Information Vacuum” in Financial Times. This article highlights the potential consequences of an increasingly restrictive political climate in China and deterioration of U.S.-China relations, noting that the restriction of access to social science research on contemporary China will create a knowledge deficit that undermines our understanding of China and future policymaking. Professor Lü says that studying topics such as government behavior, economic policy or the courts has become more difficult, especially when it might involve exposing government wrongdoing or individual politicians. “Increasingly in the last few years, the space has shrunk, meaning that more and more topics seem to be sensitive…The definition of sensitivity is changing all the time — it’s moving goalposts,” he says.

The hawkish political climate in the U.S. plays a role as well, he says. “[I]n the current political environment, it is really hard for scholars holding neutral views to exert influence because it seems regardless if it’s Republicans or Democrats, they are looking for hawks,” says Lü.

You can read the full article here.