Kevin Wei Luo
@kevinweiluo.bsky.social
assistant professor of political science, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. China / Taiwan / Asia, politics of state building. usual caveats. 中英俱劣. https://www.kevinweiluo.com/
Pleased to announce that my job market paper “The Sirens of Revolution” is now published at @comppol.bsky.social! In it, I ask why revolutions sometimes produce strong yet unstable states, using archival and quantitative evidence from post-1949 state building in China 1/n
Comparative Politics@comppol.bsky.social · 4w agoNew article by @kevinweiluo.bsky.social “The Sirens of Revolution: Revolutionary Legacies and State Building in Early Communist China,” doi.org/10.5129/0010...
Q: Does my thesis adviser pick the snake? A: No. Your adviser just tells the guy who picks the snakes how good your thesis was.
FAQ: The “Snake Fight” Portion of Your Thesis Defense
March 13 2022 4/24/23 5/8/24 5/13/26 CALENDAR 2027
buff.ly
Class in the US is entirely a matter of aesthetics now. Rich suburban kids are “country”. Beard Dudes who look like they love IPAs are “working class.” Teachers who make $32,000 a year but have to dress up sort of nice in JCPenney clothes are “elites“. None of these words mean anything anymore.
Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 3mo agoWhat is it about oyster farming in the American imagination that makes a privately educated small businessman “working class”?
yes, I am sure 'neijuan' / 'involution' is also a CIA plot too
Sense Hofstede@sensehofstede.nl · 4mo agoWSJ: China’s intelligence agency MSS blames anti-China influences from abroad for stoking youth disillusionment – ‘The MSS said certain overseas organizations—[…]—have funded anti-China media outlets, think tanks and influencers, and have carried out a systemic “lying-flat brainwashing” campaign.’
Looking forward to being a part of the unofficial ‘Harvard Taiwan Week’ this week, ending with a full day Friday symposium (4/17) that Kyle Shernuk, Yedong Chen, and yours truly have put together - and convened by David Wang. Hope to see you there!
“Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.” —From Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco
Ur-Fascism
Umberto Eco Ur-Fascism June 22, 1995
theanarchistlibrary.org
AAS Vancouver 2026: Will be presenting at the panel "People's Republic of Bureaucracy: The Politics of Classification and Personnel in the Chinese State" Saturday 10:30-12 at VCC Room 220. With @mt-b.bsky.social @ktai.bsky.social Yi Lu, Juan Wang and Daniel Leese as discussants. See you there!
It was great talking with Lisa from CBC last week. I would also cautiously argue that the full implications of this latest purge of will not be understood until we know who Xi taps for the CMC to succeed Zhang. Back to reading tea leafs again!
UMN Political Science@umnpolisci.bsky.social · 6mo agoProfessor Kevin Luo says streamlining the chain of command and making sure the party has the ability to "command the gun" are driving the move, further exerting Xi's own control on all party apparatuses in CBC News article: www.cbc.ca/news/world/x...
Minneapolis is a place that means a lot to me, so I wrote a short Substack about the city, its people, and what we all owe them. benansell.substack.com/p/my-minneap...
My Minneapolis
An ode to a city that knows who it is
benansell.substack.com
The People’s Liberation Army is in crisis… a piece from me. #China. CLICK link to read: www.bbc.com/news/article...
Zhang Youxia: Purge of China's top general leaves military in crisis
Zhang Youxia had been seen as a close ally of China's leader, Xi Jinping.
bbc.com
Twice this week when meeting a new person I've gotten an excited "Wow, it must be an exciting time to be a political scientist!" and both times I've answered "Not really. That's like telling someone it's an exciting to be a surgeon when there's a 63 car pileup on the highway."
Message from the University of Minnesota leadership, in response to the killing of our alum Alex Pretti today.
I stayed for 45 minutes and left because my ears were burning in the cold. Props to Minnesotans for braving the weather.
I teach a class called Democracy Under Threat. I also live in Minneapolis.
Shana Gadarian@sgadarian.bsky.social · 7mo agoEveryone teaching IR and American right now.
The Sage of Nangang speaks! Is Taiwan now having a constitutional crisis? This: 'On a side note, one of the strangest things about this whole episode is how blasé society seems to be about it.' frozengarlic.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/c...
Constitutional crisis
For all the hand-wringing about the controversial recall efforts in early 2025, there was never any question about their legality. The procedures for our recalls were clearly laid out in the electi…
frozengarlic.wordpress.com
Along with wonderful colleagues @jeanhong.bsky.social, @dnsltr.bsky.social, @yuhuawang.bsky.social, and Ann C. Lin, we would like to call your attention to the Asian Political History Workshop to be held on May 4– 5, 2026 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Apply here by Jan. 20, 2026. forms.gle/H9zPa6r2H1Ke...
Delighted to share a new @carnegieendowment.org report on China’s Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint. Over 50 entities in China have provided training to at least 138 countries, forming a major pillar of Beijing’s drive to reshape global security: carnegieendowment.org/research/202...
China’s Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint
New data reveal how China’s foreign police training programs have become an integral part of Beijing’s strategy to remake global security.
carnegieendowment.org
I've been sitting with this sad news the whole day. Many of Joe's students have written very touching stories about his life and mentorship, including my friend Clyde here. He is, to me, one of the scholars who took "China as method" seriously. As they say, will never find another like him. 1/5
Clyde Yicheng Wang@clydewang.bsky.social · 9mo agoMy dearest mentor, Professor Joseph Fewsmith, unfortunately passed away this week. I wrote this little tribute with great pain. But no writing is enough to express my love and gratitude for Joe.
My dearest mentor, Professor Joseph Fewsmith, unfortunately passed away this week. I wrote this little tribute with great pain. But no writing is enough to express my love and gratitude for Joe.
Cool paper: "An analysis of publicly available data of 2,200 experts on Chinese politics worldwide, compiled through a bottom-up snowballing nomination process, reveals that this China Watcher community is globally connected and diverse but also continues to be dominated by male US-based academics."
Hans H. Tung@hanshtung.bsky.social · 9mo agowww.cambridge.org/core/journal... Great to see the first paper from this side project out in PS. I’m grateful to have had the chance to work with Franziska and Jos.
Spooky things are happening at uchicago (also I want that DOGE university shirt) www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
Colleges Face a Financial Reckoning. The University of Chicago Is Exhibit A.
The university ran budget deficits for 14 years straight, spending big to raise its profile and enrollment. The plan worked, but now the bill’s come due and cuts are under way.
wsj.com
Being Pope means just receiving baseball jerseys all day long of teams he hates
Sarkozy is going to jail but he’s not the first one. In our new dataset we track modern leaders who have been prosecuted by their own states. There are 215 of them. Turns out leader prosecution is a common & healthy practice in democracies. Full access link: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/28/d...
Prosecuting the Powerful
Historical data shows putting leaders on trial is a healthy democratic practice.
foreignpolicy.com
Tried to grade some midterms but got distracted because THE JAYS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES
One casualty in the Trump administration’s war on higher education is federal funding for area studies. This harms students, scholars, and U.S. national security. It also comes at a time in which political science and area studies are more compatible than ever before. Read on for new research! 1/
Comparative Politics Needs Area Studies, and Area Studies Needs Comparative Politics
If you were a graduate student in political science between 1990 and 2010 or so, you probably experienced some heated debates about the future of area studies and its role in the discipline. This w…
tompepinsky.com
Second leg of APSA2025. Presenting joint work on geopolitics and democratization in Taiwan Saturday 2pm, and then book roundtable Sunday 10am for @lnachman32.bsky.social and his new book “Contested Taiwan: Sovereignty, Social Movements, and Party Formation.” Hope to see you there!
