The Crawford School of Public Policy proudly launched its 2025 Professorial Lecture Series on 1 May with a thought-provoking presentation by Professor Ben Hillman titled “Shouldering the Burden: Village China.” The lecture was chaired by Professor Paul Burke, Deputy Head of the Crawford School.

In his lecture, now available to watch online, Professor Hillman explores how the Communist Party of China (CPC) has dramatically expanded its influence across China’s government agencies, private enterprises, and non-profit sectors over recent decades. While much of this reassertion of Party control has been concentrated in urban institutions, the final frontier lies in the countryside — where village communities have enjoyed relative autonomy since the decollectivisation era of the early 1980s.

Professor Hillman delves into the CPC’s rural strategy, highlighting how the Party is taking direct control of nearly 700,000 villages across China. This push is part of an ambitious policy agenda aimed at rural revitalisation and agricultural modernisation — and it comes with profound social and political consequences.

This lecture forms part of two key initiatives at ANU: the Crawford School’s Professorial Lecture Series, which celebrates the achievements of recently promoted professors and their contributions to public policy scholarship, and the ANU China Seminar Series, the University’s flagship forum for dialogue on China and the Sinophone world.