The SMU Tower Center would like to invite you to the Sun & Star Lecture: Politicizing Business: How Firms are Made to Serve the Party-State in China featuring Dr. Ning Leng.

Thank you for the support of the Scott-Hawkins Lecture Fund.

Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China (Cambridge University Press, 2025) offers an in-depth examination of the relationship between the Chinese government and Chinese firms, both private and state-owned. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and original datasets from two sectors in China, Professor Ning Leng introduces two political services that the Chinese state demands from companies: visibility projects, a common distortion of economic policies and infrastructure politics to advance government officials’ careers, and societal control, through which firms assist the state in pushing forward controversial projects. One unexpected consequence of this politicization of business is the gradual retreat of China’s private sector—sometimes voluntary, at other times coerced.

Date: Monday, February 9, 2026

Time: 12:00 - 1:30 p.m.

Location: HT Chamber, Ground Floor, Hughes-Trigg Student Center, 3140 Dyer St., Dallas, TX  75205

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required and the seats are first come, first served. Please click below for registration.

Speaker: Dr. Ning Leng,  Assistant Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University

Ning Leng is an Assistant Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University. Dr. Leng specializes in the political economy of China and Global China, and the institutional effects of authoritarianism. Her work on domestic China includes publications on the motivations, methods, and outcomes of state control over businesspeople, academics, and government officials. Her work on Global China includes public opinion of China in the Global South, the Chinese government’s view of the Global South, and China’s legal influence in South America. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in journals including Comparative Political Studies, Review of International Organizations, and The China Journal, among others. She is currently working on a second book exploring the relationships between Chinese companies, the Chinese government, and host country governments in South America.  Dr. Leng received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was a postdoc at Harvard University's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. She is a Wilson China Fellow for the year of 2025-2026.

Discussant: Dr. Hiroki Takeuchi, Director, Sun and Star Program on Japan and East Asia, SMU Tower Center

Hiroki Takeuchi received his B.A. of Economics from Keio University in Japan, his M.A. of Asian Studies from University of California at Berkeley, and his Ph.D. of Political Science from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He is currently an Associate Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Sun and Star Program on Japan and East Asia in the Tower Center at SMU. Previously, he taught at UCLA as a faculty fellow of  the Political Science Department and at Stanford University as a postdoctoral teaching fellow of the Public Policy Program. Professor Takeuchi's research and teaching interests include Chinese and Japanese politics, comparative political economy of authoritarian regimes, and international relations of East Asia, as well as applying game theory to political science.

Any person who requires a reasonable accommodation on the basis of a disability in order to participate in this program should contact the SMU Tower Center at tower@smu.edu in advance at least 4 days prior to the event to arrange for the accommodation.

SMU Tower Center | http://www.smu.edu/TowerCenter

Southern Methodist University (SMU)

3300 University Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75275-0117

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