Organised as part of the Global China Studies project run by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) and in collaboration with Public Performance & Management Review, the seventh Greater China-Australia Dialogue was held at City University of Hong Kong on 9 and 10 June 2017. The Dialogue, with the theme of “Governance Structures for Performance and Accountability”, was one of the activities held to celebrate the third anniversary of CLASS’s Global China Studies project.

Approximately 30 scholars and practitioners from Australia, the Netherlands, mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were invited to present and discuss papers at the Dialogue. The two-day workshop had several sub-themes, such as theoretical issues, central agency arrangements, public-service delivery, integrity management and other organisational arrangements in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia. The transitional administrations of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are at different stages in the process of establishing new institutional structures to support their governments’ operation in a market economy, such as the delivery of efficient and effective services. Meanwhile, Australia provides an example of the ongoing evolution of institutional structures in liberal democracies to address continuing challenges to performance and legitimacy against the backdrop of economic and social pressure and increasing community expectations.

Among the founders of the Greater China-Australia Dialogue are scholars from City University of Hong Kong, the Australian National University, Sun Yat-sen University and National Taiwan University. Annual workshops have previously been held in mainland China, Taiwan and Australia. This year, the co-organiser Public Performance & Management Review, a peer-reviewed academic journal, will publish a selection of the papers presented at the Dialogue in a special symposium, via the normal review process.

Cover: Scholars and practitioners from Australia, the Netherlands, mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong attended the seventh Dialogue at CityU.

Professor Hon S. Chan (second from left), Assistant Dean of CLASS and Professor at Department of Public Policy, chaired the opening session.