Overview
Over the course of my academic career, I have developed a profound research interest in topics related to Chinese domestic politics, Chinese foreign policy, authoritarianism, and international relations. My primary focus lies in China’s elite politics, political economy, and regional security concerns. Additionally, with an interest in political philosophy and history, I explore new theoretical insights into authoritarian politics and international relations.
In the realm of Chinese domestic politics, I am particularly interested in examining the dynamics of political factions among China’s political elites. In a co-authored paper with Professor Margaret Pearson, we shed light on the political factions within the Chinese Communist Party using a network analysis approach. Building on this foundation, I aim to further investigate the mechanisms of loyalty signaling in Chinese elite politics in my working paper on the Shanghai lockdown in 2022.
Drawing on my training in political science and my interest in history, my dissertation constructs a comprehensive analytical framework to explain the politics of historical mythmaking in both China and Russia—two major non-democratic strategic rivals of the West. I demonstrate that history, and the interpretation of history, holds profound political significance in both domestic politics and international relations. In the context of China and Russia, historical narratives are closely tied to the legitimization of authoritarian governance and their geopolitical ambitions.
I provide details of my past and ongoing research projects below.
 

Dissertation Research
Gao, Kainan. “Domestic and international political logic of Chinese and Russian historical mythmaking of WWII”, forthcoming on ProQuest.
In my dissertation I try to explain why and how both China and Russia are waging wars on “historical nihilism” to eradicate rival interpretations of important historical events to enhance regime survival and to advance geopolitical ambitions. In contrast to the political significance and the far-reaching policy implications of historical issues in China and Russia, the politics of historical mythmaking is a disproportionately undertheorized and understudied area in political science. My dissertation addresses this gap by unpacking the political logic of Chinese and Russian official historical mythmaking. I seek to address what the Chinese and Russian states gain from manipulating historical discourse, under what conditions the Chinese and Russian states intensify their historical mythmaking, and the implications of their historical mythmaking, both in domestic politics and in international relations.
I argue that perceived Chinese and Russian past righteousness offers powerful normative justifications for the paternalistic states and for the geopolitical ambitions of both nations. Through in-depth case studies using congruence analysis approach, this dissertation shows that Chinese and Russian states are more confident in exploiting the nation-building utilities of historical narratives when their rivals with strong claims over the past righteousness become weakened; meanwhile, Chinese and Russian perception of western deviation from orthodox interpretation of Yalta-Potsdam framework constitutes the essence of Chinese and Russian dissatisfactions towards the West in post-Cold War period; lastly, Chinese and Russian states’ mythmaking of WWII experiences, as a pushback against perceived “historical nihilism”, become intensified when they expect weakening future bargaining leverage.
My dissertation contributes to our understanding of authoritarianism and international relations theories. By connecting historical materialism, authoritarian paternalism, and the post-communist context of China and Russia, I offer an alternative approach to explain the resilience of Chinese and Russian authoritarianism in post-Cold War era. By expanding on the conventional power transition analytical framework and including the discussion of historical mythmaking as an inference of the state’s geopolitical ambition, I advocate a more accurate measurement of the state’s intention and dissatisfaction towards international order. For practical implications, based on the insights from this dissertation, I contend that lasting peace is not attainable without achieving historical synthesis among the world’s major great powers. Both Chinese and Russian obsession with historical truth and western ahistoricism are detrimental to a truly just international order.
I have successfully defended the dissertation on November 1st, 2024. For the next steps, I intend to adapt selected chapters into article-length papers and send for reviews and eventually publications in prominent academic journals. I also intend to further develop the dissertation into a book project fit to publish in a prominent academic press, after broadly consulting colleagues for suggestions and making necessary revisions.
 

Published Research
Gao, Kainan, and Margaret M. Pearson. "The role of political networks in anti-corruption investigations." China Review 22, no. 2 (2022): 81-111.
An analysis on China’s elite political network, co-authored with Professor Margaret Pearson.
We engaged in the debate concerning the degree to which China’s anti-corruption campaign is an instrument to conduct a political purge against political rivals. With a newly constructed dataset based on public information, we conduct a multilevel analysis on the publicized time probed individuals spend between the announcement of investigation and being sentenced (length of investigation). We find that higher ranking individuals as well as those who will receive harsher punishments are likely to experience shorter investigations, controlling for the amount of money involved. We also find limited evidence that political network membership is associated with the length of investigation. Being associated with Zhou Yongkang, a known political rival of President Xi Jinping, does not make the investigation significantly different given similar amounts of money involved in the corruption case. Association with other prominent party members (e.g., Ling Ji hua, Liu Zhijun, etc.), however, increases the length of investigation. We explore possible interpretations for the variation in investigation times among different networks.
Status: Published
 

Work in Progress
“Chinese politics and Lockdown of Shanghai in 2022”.
A discussion on the cause, rationale and political intrigues behind China’s lockdown of Shanghai in 2022, just before the 20th Party Congress.
I delve further into China’s elite politics, using the COVID lockdown in Shanghai in 2022 as a case. I attempt to show that the unpopular policy of Zero-COVID of President Xi Jinping was used as an opportunity to test the loyalty of his subordinates. Xi’s loyalists would signal their personal allegiance to President Xi by publicly announcing their support for the Zero-COVID policy and faithfully implementing the harsh lockdown, despite that the fierce resistance from the people.
Status: Working paper/rough draft

“Lying-flat and birth rate collapse under China’s New Normal”
A discussion of China’s new challenges in economic development, political legitimacy, and social stability in the new era.
This project is motivated after accomplishing some preliminary research required for the completion of one chapter of the dissertation concerning China’s expected future weakness (Chapter 3: Domestic Political Logic of Chinese Historical Mythmaking). I intend to explore the causes and the consequences of China’s looming demographic catastrophe due to exceptionally low birth rate, which is of profound security implications, as it impacts China’s future economic potential, status anxiety, and military posture.
Status: Outline/preliminary ideas