Minxin Pei

Minxin Pei (born December 10, 1957) is a Chinese-American political scientist. He is the current editor of the China Leadership Monitor. He is a specialist on governance in China, U.S.–East Asia relations, mass surveillance in China, as well as democratization in developing nations. He is currently the Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow in the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He was formerly a senior associate in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Pei earned his bachelor's degree in English from Shanghai International Studies University, and a master's degree and PhD in political science from Harvard University. In addition, he holds an M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. He served as Director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College from July 2009 to June 2019.

Pei has contributed to a number of newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Diplomat, Project Syndicate, Nikkei Asia, Fortune, and Foreign Affairs, and is an opinion columnist of Bloomberg.

In 2008, he was listed as one of the top 100 public intellectuals by Prospect magazine.

Books

 * From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union (Harvard University Press, 1994)
 * China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy (Harvard University Press, 2006)
 * The Color of China (The National Interest, March 2009)
 * My Trip to Asia (Claremont Book Review, October 2011)
 * China's Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay (Harvard University Press, 3 October 2016)
 * The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China (Harvard University Press, February 2024)

Contributed Volumes

 * "When Illusion Meets Reality: The Evolving Relationship Between China and Europe," in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. (ed.): Europe: Insights from the Outside (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 5), Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2011

Articles

 * The US Is Learning the Wrong Cold War Lessons on China, Bloomberg Opinions, June 24, 2024
 * To Beat China, US Should Stop Acting Like China, Bloomberg Opinions, May 30, 2024
 * What China Really Needs Is More Bad News, Bloomberg Opinions, February 8, 2024
 * Why China Can’t Export Its Model of Surveillance, Foreign Affairs, February 6, 2024
 * China’s Hands Are Tied Against Tangle of US Alliances, Bloomberg Opinions, April 16, 2024