The Telos-Paul Piccone Institute’s China Initiative
The China Initiative of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute (TPPI) critically engages with Chinese social and political thought and its implications for world order today. Through a direct and a dialectical encounter with Chinese ideas, the initiative seeks to break from the objectifying and flattening tendencies that pervade Western discourse about China. In American think tanks, and in Western public spheres more broadly, China often appears mainly as a passive object of analysis or, worse, as a projection screen. Little attention is given to the political concepts through which China understands itself and others—that is, to its interpretive subjectivity. Much is said about China without engaging with Chinese thought or with its intersections with Western social and political theory. The China Initiative is committed to such deeper intellectual engagement and to its policy implications.
The China Initiative builds on a past institutional success and grows from TPPI’s unique position in the intellectual marketplace. The Telos circle falls outside many conventional intellectual categories—most importantly, we transcend traditional distinctions between political left and right. During the Cold War, this quality enabled us to form an important bridge between Eastern Europe and the Anglosphere. Among our achievements, we published work by Soviet and Eastern Bloc intellectuals, helping Western readers understand the ideological dynamics at play behind the Iron Curtain. Likewise, we supported a wide variety of dissidents in their opposition to bureaucratic centralization under communism, as we have for opponents of bureaucratic centralization in the West. Most broadly, we brokered an encounter between Marxism and phenomenology that was central to critical engagement with and reform of the Soviet state, while also influencing critical thinkers in the liberal democratic world. We engaged with the most central conflict of the time in ways that made a difference—quietly, in the realm of ideas, yet profoundly and in ways that endure.
We believe that the future of TPPI now lies in a parallel engagement with China, to which we have given steadily increasing focus for the past ten years in our annual conferences. These meetings have laid the basis for seven special issues of the journal Telos entirely or significantly engaged with Chinese culture and ideas. Through our China Initiative, we seek to become a unique bridge for a mutually regarding, critical discussion of social and political theory between China and the West, well beyond the circles of East Asia specialists. In turn, we seek to influence public understanding of China, and public policy toward it, in ways for which the Telos circle is specially positioned.
The Telos China Initiative is directed by Eric Hendriks. He can be reached at hendriks@telosinstitute.net. The Telos China Initiative’s Chief Editor for Chinese Language Content is Shengshuang Wang.
Conferences
As part of the China Initiative’s goal of fostering a thoughtful and reciprocal exchange on social and political theory between China and the West, TPPI will hold regular, in-person conferences dedicated to examining critical ideas in contemporary Chinese political thought.
Our 2025 conference in New York was organized around the theme of “China Keywords,” which we have also explored in our China Keyword series. For more details about the conference and to view the full conference program, click here.
Our next conference, “The Chinese New Leviathan: Cultural Subjectivity and Statecraft Today,” will take place in March 2026 in New York and will focus on the multifaceted nature of Chinese nationalism. To learn more about the conference and how you can participate, click here.
Submissions to Telos Insights
TPPI's China Initiative welcomes inquiries about essay submissions for our Substack, Telos Insights. Please send your proposal to us at submissions@telosinstitute.net.
Articles
Impotent Emperor and Imperialism: Notes on the Concept of Empire from Joseon, Qing, and Manchukuo
by Anthony Petros Spanakos
September 15, 2025
Global Impact: The Case of Film
by Sijia Yao
April 24, 2025
Legal Culture as a Constraint on Democratic Development
by Peter William Wang
April 23, 2025
China Keywords: A TPPI Series
Each episode in the “China Keywords” series will introduce and explore a single concept essential for understanding contemporary Chinese social and political theory. The series will illuminate these concepts with an eye toward non-specialists in the West, while also addressing deep contestations of interest to experts in the field. Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates on new releases and other TPPI events.
China Keywords: The Party-State (党国体制)
Eric Hendriks talks with Frank Pieke
August 2, 2025
China Keywords: New Confucianism (新儒家)
With Daniel A. Bell
Moderated by Eric Hendriks
February 13, 2025
China Keywords: Information Sovereignty (xìnxī zhǔquán, 信息主权)
With Johannes Thumfart and Mark D. Stahlman
Moderated by Eric Hendriks
November 18, 2024
China Keywords: River Elegy (河殇)
With David Moser
Moderated by Eric Hendriks
July 18, 2024
China Keywords: The Greeks
With Shadi Bartsch
Moderated by Eric Hendriks
May 16, 2024
China Keywords: Wangdao
With Yan Xuetong
Moderated by Eric Hendriks and Logan West
April 18, 2024
China Keywords: Tianxia
With Ban Wang and Ian Buruma
Moderated by Eric Hendriks
March 21, 2024