• Assistant Professor, International Studies & Overseas Program
• Assistant Professor, Political Science
• Fellow, Center in Political Economy

Andrew Mertha

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• Ph.D. at University of MIchigan
• B.S. in Political Science at University of Michigan

News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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China's Water Warriors China's push for hydropower dams sparking grassroots backlash, suggests new book Jan. 7, 2008 -- When complete, China's Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will cost $25 billion and displace more than 1.4 million people. The Chinese government's recent decision to scrap controversial plans for a huge dam at Tiger Leaping Gorge on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River represents a milestone for growing grassroots political movements in China, suggests the author of a new book on the politics behind China's epic dam-building campaign.

Politics of Piracy War on intellectual property theft in China best fought at local level, suggests new book Sept. 6, 2005 -- Download Spurred by concerns over China's booming economy, the Bush administation plans to crank-up pressure on Chinese authorities to curtail the rampant theft of intellectual property — the black market in pirated films, software and equipment that costs American companies billions in lost sales. While anti-piracy rhetoric plays well in Washington, a new book on the "Politics of Piracy" in China suggests that external diplomatic pressure will have little effect on China's ability to enforce international norms on copyrights, trademarks and patents. "The key to gaining enforcement of those laws lies at the local level," says the book's author, WUSTL China specialist Andrew Mertha.

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Clips:

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China: Quake death toll could reach 50,000 Associated Press and 23 others May 16, 2008 -- WUSTL political science professor Andrew Mertha, author of a book on Chinese dams, "China's Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change," comments on the aftermath of the Chinese earthquake.

U.S. research making great leap Philadelphia Inquirer Nov. 6, 2006 -- Eager to tap into China's pool of dirt-cheap engineers and technical employees who earn $5,000 to $10,000 a year, hundreds of European and U.S. companies have opened research centers throughout China in the last two years. WUSTL political science professor Andrew Mertha warns that companies should be careful because of the seriouis problem of intellectual property piracy.

Manufaketure The New York Times Jan. 10, 2005 -- Andrew Mertha, a political scientist at WUSTL who has worked with Chinese and American officials on Chinese intellectual-property law, says that China is lax on its intellectual property in part because Chinese citizens' watching bootleg DVDs can help distract them from unhappy political situations in that country.

He worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong, where he represented a U.S. toy importer in dealings with Chinese officials and factory managers. He has lived in China for six years.

In 1998, Mertha began 14 months of dissertation research in municipalities and provinces across China. His dissertation explores factors that set the negotiation agenda for the intellectual property trade dialogue between Washington and Beijing in the 1990s and subsequent patterns of intellectual property enforcement in China.

In 2001, Mertha began a second project examining the administrative (re)centralization of several key Chinese commercial bureaucracies in the late 1990s.

Mertha's work has been recognized with teaching awards, a Center for Chinese Studies endowment award from the University of Michigan and a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education.

Honors here include the Grimm Fellowship in 2001 and the ArtSci Council's faculty award in 2002. He is a member of the American Political Science Association, the Inter-national Studies Association and the Association for Asian Studies.