The course aims to introduce students, who may have had no previous opportunity for systematic study of Chinese politics, to the state-of-the-art English-language academic literature on the subject. Through reading and discussion, students should acquire a sophisticated understanding of the changing institutions and processes of politics in China, as well as a good grasp of many of the key issues now confronting the Chinese polity in the course of its reform and opening to the world. Students will also be exposed to, and have an opportunity to compare and evaluate, a number of the most important conceptual tools, research methods, and analytical approaches that have been utilized by scholars in the study of Chinese political affairs. The intention is to enable students to follow and understand the scholarly debates in the many areas covered by the course, as well as to develop their own capacity to contribute to those debates.