MEDIA ADVISORY: China expert to address Jackson forum

Contact: Sammy McDavid

"Leadership Change in China: Hogtied from Behind the Screen" will be the topic of Larry M. Wortzel's Nov. 7 noon address to the Executive Lecture Forum of Jackson. The program takes place at the University Club, which is located atop the AmSouth Bank Plaza.

Wortzel, director of the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, is visiting Mississippi's capital city as a guest of the Janos Radvanyi Chair in International Security Studies at Mississippi State University. His presentation examines the political leadership changes, economic reforms and latest defense modernizations in the world's most populous nation.

The Heritage Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank.

Since 1970, Wortzel has been a student of international security, defense, political, and economic issues. A much-traveled military veteran with degrees from Columbia University and the University of Hawaii, he was the assistant military attaché in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. He also is a former director of the United States Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute.

In addition to numerous articles on Asian security matters, he is the author of three books on China. All published by Greenwood Press of Westport, Conn., they include "Class in China: Stratification in a Classless Society (1987)," "China's Military Modernization: International Implications (1988)" and "Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History (1999)."

While not open to the general public, the Executive Lecture Forum welcomes interested members of the news media. For questions about this or other ELF programs, telephone (662) 325-8406 or visit http://www.msstate.edu/chair/radvanyi.