China's superpower status to be topic of guest lecture at UO

EUGENE, Ore. -- (May 19, 2008) -- As China picks up the pieces after a devastating earthquake and prepares to host the Olympic Games, an expert will visit the University of Oregon to discuss why in his view the country will not become a true superpower.

Award-winning journalist John Pomfret, an editor for The Washington Post, will speak at a public lecture at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28, at the Lillis Business Complex, room 282, 955 E. 13th Ave.

The talk, "Notes from a Gambling Nation: Why China Is Not Going to Be the World's Next Superpower," will provide insight into the social, political and economic dynamics in China.

Pomfret has been a foreign correspondent for 15 years. He was an AP reporter in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in the late 1980s and served as Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post from 1998 until the end of 2003. He is currently the editor of the Post’s Outlook section and is the newspaper’s expert on immigration.

Pomfret's book, "Chinese Lessons: An American, His Classmates and the Story of the New China," received critical acclaim and is required reading for University of Oregon MBA students and faculty participating in a study tour to China in September. The book is a first-hand account of China’s transformation over a span of 40 years based on his experiences and those of Native Chinese friends and acquaintances.

"John Pomfret’s book provides a unique perspective into a 30-year era beginning in the 1970’s that took China from a cultural revolution to the forefront of a global stage," said Randy Swangard, managing director, Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. "Through first hand observations and details of his relationships with Chinese classmates, Pomfret is able to bring a human dimension to the story of China’s rise to be a world power."

This event is presented by the UO's Lundquist College of Business and is cosponsored by the School of Journalism and Communication, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, the Oregon Humanities Center, the Chinese Flagship program the Asian Studies program, and the department of East Asian Languages and Literatures.

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of 62 of the leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. Membership in the AAU is by invitation only. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.

Contact: Julie Brown, 5410346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu

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