The Association of Chinese Political Studies
2026 Annual Conference
In partnership with
The 21st Century Center
UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy
Power, Change and Knowledge: Rethinking the Study of Chinese Politics on ACPS’s 40th Anniversary (1986–2026)
Call for Papers
The Association of Chinese Political Studies (ACPS) invites paper proposals for its 2026 Annual Conference, to be held October 22-23, 2026 at the 21st Century Center, UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy.
The 2026 meeting marks the 40th anniversary of ACPS, offering a unique opportunity to take stock of the field of Chinese political studies while confronting the profound transformations reshaping China and the global order.
Proposed Theme:
Founded in 1986 by overseas Chinese students and scholars, ACPS emerged at a pivotal moment when China was opening to the world and scholarly inquiry into Chinese politics was rapidly expanding. Over four decades, the association has served as a vital platform for rigorous research, intellectual exchange, and scholarly community-building.
As ACPS reaches its 40th anniversary, both China and the study of Chinese politics stand at another historic juncture. Domestically, China’s political system is undergoing significant shifts in party–state relations, governance practices, social control mechanisms, and economic management. Internationally, China’s expanding global role has generated heightened strategic competition, institutional friction, and renewed debates about the nature of global order.
These changes raise fundamental questions: What has endured—and what has fundamentally changed—in Chinese politics? How have theoretical frameworks and research methods evolved? What new agendas should guide the next generation of scholarship?
Conference Goal:
In its first collaboration with the renowned 21st Century China Center at the UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, the 2026 conference aims to bring together both longtime members of the ACPS community and a new generation of emerging scholars. It seeks to create a vibrant space for dialogue that bridges methodological approaches, disciplinary perspectives, and scholarly cohorts, while advancing research that is both theoretically grounded and empirically rigorous. At the same time, the conference hopes to encourage work that speaks beyond the academy by engaging meaningfully with policy discussions and broader public debates about Chinese politics.
Conference Topics:
ACPS welcomes submissions on all aspects of Chinese politics, broadly defined. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Political institutions and regime dynamics
• State–society relations, public opinion, and political behavior
• Political economy, development, regulation, and inequality
• Technology, data governance, and digital politics
• Law, courts, and administrative governance
• Ethnic politics, border regions, center–local relations, and subnational politics
• Chinese foreign policy and international security
• China in comparative and global perspective
• Methodological innovations and new data sources for the study of Chinese politics
To mark ACPS’s 40th anniversary, the program committee especially encourages proposals that reflect on the trajectory and future of the field, including
· Reassessments of major theoretical debates
· Histories of data access and fieldwork practices
· Methodological transformations in studying China
· Ethical challenges in contemporary research
· Comparative perspectives on China scholarship across countries
· Forward-looking research agendas for the next generation
Submission Guidelines:
We welcome individual paper proposals. The proposals should include a title, an abstract of no more than 250 words, and full author information. Please submit your proposal via our Google form here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeP4Q1W68T_hwsbFCoaEl9Kfc7Nr3YVJEWYXs3MHYbbKO8p2w/viewform
The submission deadline is May 29, 2026.