Sebastian Heilmann is a professor of Chinese political economy at the University of Trier, Germany. He was the founding director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), a China think tank in Berlin.His research and publications focus on China’s political system and political economy. With Elizabeth J. Perry, he co-edited the volume Mao's Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China (Harvard University Press, 2011). His book China's Foreign Political and Economic Relations: An Unconventional Global Power (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), co-authored with Dirk H. Schmidt, brings a European perspective to the international debate on China’s global rise.
Last Updated: April 6, 2021
Viewpoint
05.23.18
Germany Needs China to Save the Global Order from Trump
from Mercator Institute for China Studies
The U.S. president’s attacks on multilateralism may push Chancellor Merkel into an unlikely alliance with Beijing. Germany and the EU have to test ways to work with China in the absence of transatlantic coordination. The goal must be to organize an...
Conversation
07.12.16
China’s Claims in the South China Sea Rejected
On Tuesday in the Hague, the Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected China’s claims that a scattering of rocks and reefs in the contested South China Sea qualify as Exclusive Economic Zones for China. The court found in favor of the Philippines’...
Conversation
05.05.16
How Should Global Stakeholders Respond to China’s New NGO Management Law?
A new law gives broad powers to China’s police in regulating and surveilling the activities of foreign NGOs in China. The law would require foreign groups including foundations, charities, advocacy organizations, and academic exchange programs to...
Conversation
10.20.15
Britain: ‘China’s Best Partner in the West’?
This week, Xi Jinping is in Great Britain for a state visit, his first since assuming leadership of China nearly three years ago. Britain’s government under David Cameron has signaled—increasingly loudly in recent months—that it hopes to usher in a...
Conversation
02.12.15
Is Mao Still Dead?
It has long been standard operating procedure for China’s leaders to pay tribute to Mao. Even as the People’s Republic he wrought has embraced capitalist behavior with ever more heated ardor, the party he founded has remained firmly in power and his...
Conversation
06.23.14
The Debate Over Confucius Institutes
Last week, the American Association of University Professors joined a growing chorus of voices calling on North American universities to rethink their relationship with Confucius Institutes, the state-sponsored Chinese-language programs...