Yu Keping, a mainland scholar and former President Hu Jintao’s think tank, has stepped down as dean of the School of Government at Peking University, where he is regarded as a liberal within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system.
Yu Keping, a mainland scholar who is regarded as a liberal within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system and known as the think tank of former President Hu Jintao, has stepped down as dean of Peking University’s School of Government. He has made sensitive remarks about democracy and politics during Hu’s administration, especially in 2006 when he published “Democracy is a Good Thing,” which drew renewed attention as news of his stepping down as dean came to light.
According to a report by the land media (8th), the website of Peking University’s School of Government shows that Professor Yan Jirong, who was previously the vice dean of Peking University’s School of Government, has taken up the post of dean. In other words, Yu Keping has retired from the post of dean.
According to the data, Yu Keping, born in July 1959, is a native of Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, and has served as deputy director of the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and director of the Center for Comparative Politics and Economics of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau. 2015, he became director of the newly established Center for Political Science at Peking University, and also served as dean of the School of Government at Peking University.
On December 26, 2016, Duan Media published an interview with Yu Keping, in which it was mentioned that on April 27, 2013, Yu Keping, then Deputy Director of the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), came to Hong Kong to deliver a speech at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on the topic of “The Path and Direction of Democratic Governance in Mainland China”. He was introduced to the stage by Hong Kong sociologist Chen Jianmin, who was already involved in the “Peaceful Occupy China” campaign for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
Three years later, he was invited by the Unite Hong Kong Foundation, the vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, to visit Hong Kong again on December 19, 2016 to give a speech on the topic of “how to govern in mainland China,” with the word “democracy” missing. He replied, “Everywhere I go, they want me to talk about China’s political reform, but I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
During the interview, Yu was asked if he still believes that democracy is a good thing. At that time he laughed and replied, “That’s for sure. So, how far is China from this good thing? He said, “I’m not going to talk about the details, you can read my book.
Known as Hu Jintao’s think tank, Yu Keping is regarded as a liberal scholar within the Chinese Communist Party system. In 2016, Keping’s book, “Preference for Learning,” was published in mainland China. The book includes a series of articles he has published on democratic politics, including “Democracy is a Good Thing”.
In the book, Yu said that a good political system is one in which the government enjoys sufficient authority and citizens enjoy sufficient freedom, and in which all the best achievements of human political civilization, including those of democracy, are fully absorbed.
On April 28th, Yu Keping published an article titled “The Impact of the New Coronary Pneumonia Crisis on National Governance” on the outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan this year, arguing that the objective consequences of the epidemic in less than half a year show that the “national governance system” is facing major reforms, the national public power will be reconstructed to a certain extent, the evaluation criteria of national governance need to be adjusted, and local and social governance will become more important.
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