Dali L. Yang - "Wuhan" - John Mark Hansen, Dr. Renslow Sherer, and Kenneth Pomeranz
Dali L. Yang discusses Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control. He will be joined in conversation by John Mark Hansen and Dr. Renslow Sherer. This event will be moderated by Kenneth Pomeranz. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.
Presented in partnership with the Center for East Asian Studies, and co-sponsored with the International House Global Voices Program, the Chicago Forum, and the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago.
At the International House.
About the Book: In Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, Dali L. Yang scrutinizes China's emergency response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, delving into the government's handling of epidemic information and the decisions that influenced the scale and scope of the outbreak. Yang's research reveals that China's health decision-makers and experts had an excellent head start when they implemented a health emergency action program to respond to the outbreak at the end of December 2019. With granular detail and compelling immediacy, Yang investigates the political and bureaucratic processes that hindered information flows and sharing, as well as the cognitive framework that limited understanding of the virus's contagiousness and hampered effective decisions.
Yang's research uncovers that urgent warnings from sources outside Wuhan helped shift the Chinese health leadership's focus towards epidemic control. Once this shift occurred, China's party-state mobilized resources and enforced a lockdown in Wuhan. This lockdown was divided into two phases: providing additional medical resources and enforcing community-level lockdowns and home confinement. The 76-day lockdown contained the virus within China's borders, but the leadership and public later faced the challenge of reopening China in a world still grappling with SARS-CoV-2.
Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control also critiques the Chinese authorities for prioritizing dominance and control in their response to the Wuhan outbreak. This preoccupation led to the suppression, distortion, and neglect of crucial disease information, fostering an atmosphere of organized silence. The punishment of whistleblowers and the banning of the immediate release of research findings on the novel coronavirus further contributed to this silencing. Yang emphasizes the importance of retaining public trust during a pandemic and underscores the need for transparency, openness to new information, and direct communication of risk with the public.
About the Author: Dali L. Yang (Ph.D. 1993, Princeton) is the William C. Reavis Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He has been a faculty member at the university since 1992. Yang's research primarily focuses on China's development, governance, and global influence. He has authored several notable books, including Calamity and Reform in China (Stanford, 1996) and Remaking the Chinese Leviathan (Stanford, 2004).
In addition to his academic accomplishments, Yang has held various leadership positions at the University of Chicago. He was the founding Faculty Director of the Center in Beijing, chair of the Department of Political Science, and Senior Advisor on Global Initiatives.
About the Discussants: John Mark Hansen is the Charles L. Hutchinson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. He has also served in many University leadership roles, including dean of the division of the social sciences (2002-12) and senior advisor to the president (2012-15). His scholarship and teaching focus on elections, public opinion, and congressional politics. Lately, he has immersed himself in the study of the social, economic, political, and cultural history of Chicago. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003 and is currently a member of its Board and its Trust.
Renslow Sherer is Professor in the Department of Medicine–Infectious Diseases and Global Health. Professor Sherer’s research focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention, Professor Sherer’s research focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, health and human rights, and innovative models for health worker training. His global health work has focused on China, sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and the Americas. Dr. Sherer has numerous national and international publications and has given presentations on the clinical and social impact of the HIV pandemic at conferences all over the world.
About the Interlocutor: Kenneth Pomeranz is a University Professor of History and in the College; he previously taught at the University of California, Irvine. His work focuses mostly on China, though he is also very interested in comparative and world history. Most of his research is in social, economic, and environmental history, though he has also worked on state formation, imperialism, religion, gender, and other topics. His publications include The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (2000), which won the John K. Fairbank Prize from the AHA, and shared the World History Association book prize; The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society and Economy in Inland North China, 1853–1937 (1993), which also won the Fairbank Prize; The World that Trade Created (with Steven Topik, first edition 1999, 3rd edition 2012), and a collection of his essays, recently published in France. He has also edited or co-edited five books, and was one of the founding editors of the Journal of Global History. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, American Council of Learned Societies, the Institute for Advanced Studies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other sources. His current projects include a history of Chinese political economy from the seventeenth century to the present, and a book called Why Is China So Big? which tries to explain, from various perspectives, how and why contemporary China's huge land mass and population have wound up forming a single political unit.
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