Anna Zhang

Graduate Student Research Funding | 2017 - 2018

Nation-building and Redistribution in China

How do incumbent political leaders determine to whom to redistribute in a multiethnic state? Do they favor their co-ethnics or the opposite ethnic groups? Due to the specific public or private goods they choose to examine, scholars have been unable to agree on a uniform redistributive pattern or a theoretical explanation for the observed discrepancy. Zhang's project studies this question in the context of post-reform China. Rather than trying to adjudicate the debate, she will trace the particular rationales for why certain goods target the co-ethnic groups whereas others target the minorities, and how they contribute to the goals of economic development and nation-building.

Anna Zhang, Department of Political Science

Anna Zhang is a PhD candidate in political science. Her research focuses on state-building strategies in China’s peripheral regions. She draws on data from archival resources and interviews from fieldwork in three border provinces of China.

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