The Harry and Berniece Gockel
International Symposium

April 14 and 15, 1997

Webster Auditorium

Missouri Southern State College

Joplin, Missouri

RICHARD BAUM

Dr. Richard Baum is professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he specializes in the study of Chinese politics and international relations. He grew up in Westwood, attended UCLA and subsequently received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

He has served as Director of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and is a founding member of the China Council of the Asia Society. He has been a consultant to numerous public and private organizations, including the Rand Corporation and the Department of State. He is past chairman of the faculty Committee on Chinese Studies at UCLA, where he was twice voted political science "Professor of the Year."

In February, 1989, he was invited to Camp David, Maryland, to give a personal briefing to President George Bush prior to the President's departure for China and Japan. He was in China when martial law was declared in May, 1989. In 1993 he served as guest lecturer in the department of international politics at Peking University.

He has written, co-authored and edited seven books and his articles have appeared in a variety of scholarly journals. He is also a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor. He wrote Reform and Reaction in Post-Mao China: The Road to Tianamen in January, 1991. His most recent book, Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping was recently released in a revised, updated paperback edition by Princeton University Press. He is currently working on a study of the long-term socio-political impact of the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong.

His non-academic interests include baroque music, hiking, theatre, French impressionism, and the quest for the perfect $10 bottle of California Chardonnay. He is a tennis fanatic (both player and spectator) whose peak experience was a Centre Court seat at Wimbledon in 1988.

Dr. Baum came to Missouri Southern for this conference from Hong Kong where he was half-way through an eight month residency directing a University of California study/research program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The project is designed to monitor and assess the impact of the 1997 transition.

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