Wine & Wisdom: Inside the Chinese Communist Party

Did you know that the Chinese Communist Party maintains absolute control over 1.4 billion people without ever facing an election? At this edition of Wine & Wisdom, we’ll decode the world’s most powerful political organization… and understand why it’s survived when other communist regimes collapsed.

Ask those burning questions: Who really runs China—Xi Jinping or the Party? How does the CCP control what people think, say, and do? What happens if you step out of line?

Dr. Yao-Yuan Yeh, Professor and Director of multiple international studies programs at the University of St. Thomas, brings academic rigor to the most misunderstood political system on earth. As an expert in US-China-Taiwan relations and East Asian politics, and current President of the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association, will explain how the CCP operates both internally and on the global stage. Fair warning: understanding the CCP doesn’t make it less complex, it makes you realize how calculated every move really is.

What we will uncover over wine:

• The Party Machine: How the CCP’s organizational structure reaches into every corner of Chinese society
• Control Mechanisms: Social credit scores, mass surveillance, internet firewalls, and re-education camps: the modern tools of authoritarian rule
• Staying Power: Why the CCP has survived when the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and other communist regimes fell
• Xi’s Power Grab: How one man consolidated more control than any leader since Mao—and what it means for China’s future
• The Taiwan Question: How the CCP views its “One China” policy and why it matters to global stability
• Economic Paradox: How China combines communist political control with capitalist economic energy (and why it works… for now)

This edition of Wine and Wisdom is your chance to understand the political system that controls the world’s second-largest economy, challenges American power, and influences everything from Houston’s energy sector to global supply chains.

Dr. Yao-Yuan Yeh is Professor and Fayez Sarofim – Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Chair in International Studies, Department Chair of International Studies & Modern Languages, Department Chair of Political Science, Director of the Master of Diplomacy & Strategic Affairs Program, Director of the Taiwan & East Asia Studies Program, and Director of the Mandarin Center of the Universities of St. Thomas and Wenzao Ursuline at the University of St. Thomas.

He is currently serving as President of the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association, Board Member of the American Association for Chinese Studies, Treasurer of the Conference Group on Taiwan Studies (CGOTS) at the American Political Science Association, and Editorial Board Member for East Asia Quarterly. Dr. Yao-Yuan Yeh is also the co-founder of the Taiwan Policy Initiative (TPI).

He received is Ph.D. in Political Science from Texas A&M University and a B.A. in Political Science from National Taiwan University. His research focuses on public opinion, foreign policy, international security, US-China-Taiwan relations, East Asian politics, terrorism, political violence, and quantitative methods.

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