On November 2, the China Program and China Vitae co-sponsored a day-long conference on Chinese leadership, with panels on the tools of leadership analysis, leadership similarities and differences on foreign policy, and leadership unity and conflict on domestic issues. Roderick MacFarquhar of Harvard University gave the keynote address.

It is commonly believed that privatization and economic modernization lead, if not directly then at least indirectly, to democratization. China, however, illustrates the limits of such wisdom.