He Qinglian () is a Chinese author and economist, most prominently known for her critical view of Chinese society and media controls in China.

Biography

She was born in Shaoyang,

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

, China, in 1956. She studied history in

Hunan Normal University Hunan Normal University (), founded in 1938, is a public university in Changsha, Hunan Province. The university is the 211 Project university, one of the country's 100 national key universities in the 21st century that enjoy priority in obtain ...

from 1979 to 1983. In 1988 she received a master's degree in economics from

Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...

in Shanghai, China. She worked in universities in Hunan and Guangdong for several years. Later she became a newspaper editor in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

, Guangdong. She wrote many articles and several books on Chinese society and the Chinese economy. '' The Pitfalls of Modernization'', her most famous book, sold over 100,000 copies in China and won acclaim from both the public and economists. She argues in ''Pitfalls'' that, as power has devolved to local government, local officials who at first favored reform later came to oppose further reform which might limit their discretion and so make it harder to trade power for money and money for power. In the latter part of ''Pitfalls'' she also discussed the revival of clan power in southern provinces such as

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

and

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

. Her articles, which point to deep structural problems and declare that thoroughgoing political reform will be necessary if economic reform is to succeed, displeased some Chinese government officials. Consequently, she received more and more pressure in China, and on June 14, 2001, she left home and fled abroad. She now lives in the United States. He Qinglian's articles often appear in the Chinese language press outside of China. Her book ''Media Control in China'' () was published online in Chinese (with an English language summary) by ''Human Rights in China'' in 2004 and serialized on the website of a scholarly Chinese language quarterly based in New Jersey, '' Modern China Studies'' (). A revised and expanded edition was published in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

by Liming Cultural Enterprises in 2006.

External links

He Qinglian, Author, Economist, China (int'l edition)

He Qinglian Comments on Writing the ''Pitfalls of Modernization''

''Media Control in China''
translated excerpts.

* ttp://ir2008.org/PDF/initiatives/Internet/Media-Control_Chinese.pdf ''Media Control in China'' 2004 edition, full Chinese text (PDF)
''Media Control in China'' revised 2006 Chinese language edition
publication notice
"The Hijacked Potential of China's Internet"
a chapter from the forthcoming English language translation of ''Media Control in China'', in the 2/2006 issue of ''China Rights Forum''
He Qinglian articles in Modern China Studies (Chinese text)
{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Qinglian 1956 births Living people Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese women writers Chinese women economists Charter 08 signatories People's Republic of China essayists People from Shaoyang Writers from Hunan Fudan University alumni Chinese dissidents Hunan Normal University alumni Economists from Hunan