Q: Does my thesis adviser pick the snake? A: No. Your adviser just tells the guy who picks the snakes how good your thesis was.

Class in the US is entirely a matter of aesthetics now. Rich suburban kids are “country”. Beard Dudes who look like they love IPAs are “working class.” Teachers who make $32,000 a year but have to dress up sort of nice in JCPenney clothes are “elites“. None of these words mean anything anymore.

yes, I am sure 'neijuan' / 'involution' is also a CIA plot too

Looking forward to being a part of the unofficial ‘Harvard Taiwan Week’ this week, ending with a full day Friday symposium (4/17) that Kyle Shernuk, Yedong Chen, and yours truly have put together - and convened by David Wang. Hope to see you there!

“Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.” —From Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco

AAS Vancouver 2026: Will be presenting at the panel "People's Republic of Bureaucracy: The Politics of Classification and Personnel in the Chinese State" Saturday 10:30-12 at VCC Room 220. With @mt-b.bsky.social @ktai.bsky.social Yi Lu, Juan Wang and Daniel Leese as discussants. See you there!

It was great talking with Lisa from CBC last week. I would also cautiously argue that the full implications of this latest purge of will not be understood until we know who Xi taps for the CMC to succeed Zhang. Back to reading tea leafs again!

Minneapolis is a place that means a lot to me, so I wrote a short Substack about the city, its people, and what we all owe them. benansell.substack.com/p/my-minneap...

The People’s Liberation Army is in crisis… a piece from me. #China. CLICK link to read: www.bbc.com/news/article...

Twice this week when meeting a new person I've gotten an excited "Wow, it must be an exciting time to be a political scientist!" and both times I've answered "Not really. That's like telling someone it's an exciting to be a surgeon when there's a 63 car pileup on the highway."

Message from the University of Minnesota leadership, in response to the killing of our alum Alex Pretti today.

I stayed for 45 minutes and left because my ears were burning in the cold. Props to Minnesotans for braving the weather.

I teach a class called Democracy Under Threat. I also live in Minneapolis.

The Sage of Nangang speaks! Is Taiwan now having a constitutional crisis? This: 'On a side note, one of the strangest things about this whole episode is how blasé society seems to be about it.' frozengarlic.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/c...

Along with wonderful colleagues @jeanhong.bsky.social, @dnsltr.bsky.social, @yuhuawang.bsky.social, and Ann C. Lin, we would like to call your attention to the Asian Political History Workshop to be held on May 4– 5, 2026 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Apply here by Jan. 20, 2026. forms.gle/H9zPa6r2H1Ke...

Delighted to share a new @carnegieendowment.org report on China’s Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint. Over 50 entities in China have provided training to at least 138 countries, forming a major pillar of Beijing’s drive to reshape global security: carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

I've been sitting with this sad news the whole day. Many of Joe's students have written very touching stories about his life and mentorship, including my friend Clyde here. He is, to me, one of the scholars who took "China as method" seriously. As they say, will never find another like him. 1/5

My dearest mentor, Professor Joseph Fewsmith, unfortunately passed away this week. I wrote this little tribute with great pain. But no writing is enough to express my love and gratitude for Joe.

Cool paper: "An analysis of publicly available data of 2,200 experts on Chinese politics worldwide, compiled through a bottom-up snowballing nomination process, reveals that this China Watcher community is globally connected and diverse but also continues to be dominated by male US-based academics."

finally official

this is what it feels like to be a maple leafs fan

Spooky things are happening at uchicago (also I want that DOGE university shirt) www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Being Pope means just receiving baseball jerseys all day long of teams he hates

Sarkozy is going to jail but he’s not the first one. In our new dataset we track modern leaders who have been prosecuted by their own states. There are 215 of them. Turns out leader prosecution is a common & healthy practice in democracies. Full access link: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/28/d...

Tried to grade some midterms but got distracted because THE JAYS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES

One casualty in the Trump administration’s war on higher education is federal funding for area studies. This harms students, scholars, and U.S. national security. It also comes at a time in which political science and area studies are more compatible than ever before. Read on for new research! 1/

This was a lot of fun! Thanks so much, @warontherocks.bsky.social!

Second leg of APSA2025. Presenting joint work on geopolitics and democratization in Taiwan Saturday 2pm, and then book roundtable Sunday 10am for @lnachman32.bsky.social and his new book “Contested Taiwan: Sovereignty, Social Movements, and Party Formation.” Hope to see you there!

interesting retrospection on cross-strait relations lately. from Lin Chong-pin, ex deputy defense minister of the ROC: The Tsai admin's proposal to re-initiate cross strait talks early in her presidency was quasi rebuffed by Beijing, due to a combo of interpersonal relations behind the scenes. 1/6

LOL

A great service to anyone who will want to work with this data down the road. A big thank-you to whoever did this.

Doing the lord’s work. Back on the syllabus next semester!

a meticulous revisiting of Yuhua Wang's 2022 APSR piece by @linsantu.bsky.social on Song dynasty kinship networks and state building. Bookmarked.

wgntv.com/news/pope-le... South Side!

consider, they picked whichever Pope would piss off Vance the most

NOVA KNICKS BRUNSON, BRIDGES, HART, POPE LEO XIV

surprisingly smooth democratic transition at the Vatican

quote: "It’s rare that in retrospect US foreign policy failures turn out to be the result of listening too carefully to area specialists. Avoiding rule by experts doesn’t imply destroying all expertise, nor does pursuing efficiency require gutting valuable institutions for a pittance of savings."

It's the 10 year anniversary of this post about another leader trying to talk with was out of and into a stock market crisis. goodauthority.org/news/the-pol...

I have never watched "The White Lotus" but I'm glad American TV is finally paying attention to this anti-Qing Buddhist revolutionary movement.

Gave a talk to our PhD students today, and feeling appreciative of all the recent methods work on improving common practices. Thanks to all the authors who work to make their work accessible, especially on social media. A few articles we discussed:

South Korea survived this democratic challenge. What’s next? The impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol is a critical first step in reversing the country’s authoritarian slide. goodauthority.org/news/south-k...

Also an important lesson from Chinese politics (e.g. XJP's zero-COVID policy): if you insist that everything is your political responsibility alone, then it becomes very hard to wriggle yourself out of blame.

'Neo-feudalism' should be the next great IR school

The pivot to clientelism in all its forms is something to behold. Yes, vote buying, but also patronage hiring into the state, tariffs and exec orders as threats from which to selectively "forbear" in return for political submission, withholding funds from opposition strongholds - the whole package

As @cpsjournal.bsky.social editor I read about 100 peer-reviews per month. A 🧵 on what makes a great review: 1.) Succinct summary of the contribution (puzzle, argument, data, evidence) 2.) State clearly in your first paragraph whether the evidence supports the argument.

If I knew how to photoshop, I would do an overlay picture of Lin Biao with Elongated Muskrat www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/u...

no notes

Out of all the crazy things happening right in the world now, a bombshell revelation from Taiwan: we now have definitive proof that the PRC attempted to influence a major political party during the 2024 presidential/legislative elections: mirrormedia.mg/story/202502.... Thoughts: 1/6