“China in the World Today” : a Symposium at the Socialist Studies Conference 2026

June 06, 2026

CCF hosted the “China in the World Today” symposium at this year’s Society for Socialist Studies conference. It brought together various scholars studying China, and represented an important intervention within Canadian socialist scholarship by introducing Chinese perspectives on socialist development and creating space for direct engagement with contemporary Chinese perspectives.

Keynote speakers included: Sheng Zhang, PhD candidate at John Hopkins University, who gave a detailed account of the relationship between China, West Asia and the Palestinian struggle; Dr. Yuezhi Zhao, Professor Emeritus of Simon Fraser University, who explored China’s rural revitalization efforts, highlighting both the remarkable achievements and the contradictions inherent in the ongoing process of socialist development; and Ashwin Shantha, PhD candidate at York University, who presented an innovative analysis of China’s sovereign development model, emphasizing the geopolitical significance and anti-imperialist character of China’s Ecological Civilization project.

Top left: Ashwin Shantha

Top right: Ecological Civilization field trip panel (left to right: Prof. Lanyan Chen, Ibnul Chowdhury, Liwei Liao, Garrett Halas, Professor William Carroll, Jasmine Peardon)

Bottom left: Sheng Zhang

Bottom right: Dr. Yuezhi Zhao