Timothy Cheek

Timothy Cheek (simplified Chinese: 齐慕实; traditional Chinese: 齊慕實; pinyin: Qi Mushi) is a Canadian historian specializing in the study of intellectuals, the history of the Chinese Communist Party, and the political system in modern China. He is Professor, Louis Cha Chair in Chinese Research and Director, Centre for Chinese Research, Institute of Asian Research, at the University of British Columbia. From 2002-2009 he was editor of the journal Pacific Affairs Before going to University of British Columbia in 2002, he taught at The Colorado College.

After taking a B.A. in Asian Studies, with Honours, at Australian National University, in 1978, Cheek earned a Master's Degree in History, University of Virginia in 1980. In 1986 he earned a Ph.D., History and East Asian Languages, at Harvard University, under the supervision of Philip A. Kuhn.

Cheek has served on the Board of University of British Columbia Press (2010 – ), Editorial Board, Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (Ottawa), 2007— ) Editorial Board, The China Journal (Canberra), 2007— ), Editorial Board, Issues and Studies (Taipei) (2004— ), Editorial Board, Historiography East and West (Leiden/Vienna) (2003— ). Editorial Board, China Information (Leiden) (1998 – ), as well as other executive or advisory positions.

Scholars such as Merle Goldman, with whom Cheek has collaborated, have tended to see Chinese intellectuals as dissidents or critics of the regime, while Cheek has tended to assume that the intellectuals he studies see themselves as working within the regime, broadly conceived, that is, as "establishment intellectuals." The introduction to a group of essays he edited with Carol Lee Hamrin comments that "anti-establishment intellectuals in China have less to gain and more to lose than their American counterparts", and that since all Chinese intellectuals are state employees, "by playing assigned roles as supporters of the establishment and servants of the state, they gain patriotic self-esteem, outlets for their publications, power over their peers, and opportunities for scarce commodities such as housing and travel abroad".

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