Foreign Correspondents' Club of China

FCCC Online Talk: What’s Next for US-China Relations? by Jude Blanchette
2023-11-01 09:00 - 10:00 (Asia/Shanghai) | Google Meet
A talk by Jude Blanchette, who holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The talk will focus on: the upcoming Xi-Biden meeting at APEC, Taiwan relations, and then the upcoming US presidential election season and what it means for short- and near-term calculations for Washington and Beijing.
Jude was formerly with the Conference Board in Beijing, where he researched China’s political environment with a focus on the workings of the Communist Party of China and its impact on foreign companies and investors, and prior to that at UCSD’s 21st Century China Center. Jude is widely published and many of you will have listened, read or spoken to him on China in recent years. He has an M.A. in modern Chinese studies from Oxford, and a B.A. in economics from Loyola University, Maryland.

FCCC In-person Event: Uli Sigg: Swiss Art Collector, Former Diplomat and Businessman
2023-11-02 17:00 - 19:00 | Embassy of Switzerland, Sanlitun Dongwujie 3, Beijing, Beijing, 100600
Hong Kong’s M+ has become one of the most popular art museums in Asia. This wouldn’t have been possible without Uli Sigg. The Swiss art collector, former diplomat and businessman donated the bulk of his Chinese contemporary art collection to the museum. The M+ Sigg Collection includes among other artists works by Fang Lijun, Song Dong and dissident artist Ai Weiwei.
Join us for an in-person talk with Uli Sigg for an evening of discussion on how he turned from businessman to art collector, how the crackdown on free speech in Hong Kong affects the art scene, and what the future of Chinese contemporary art looks like.
Seats for this event are limited so please register in advance. The talk and Q&A will be off the record, but you will have the opportunity to connect with Uli Sigg at a small apero at the Embassy
About the speaker: Born in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1946, the lawyer and entrepreneur Uli Sigg implemented the first joint venture of a Western corporation in China for Schindler in 1980. Later he was Swiss ambassador in Beijing. Uli Sigg amassed the most important collection of contemporary Chinese art. In 2012, he donated a large part of his collection to Hong Kong’s M+. The museum, designed by star architects Herzog & de Meron, finally opened in November 2021 after four years of delay.

FCCC IN-person Event: Chinese Economy Policy in 2023 by Barry Naughton
2023-11-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Dutch Embassy, Beijing, China
The Chinese economic policymaking process has finally emerged in the last couple of months. While policymaking is more coherent and better coordinated, it still seems torn between conflicting objectives. In particular, policymakers are no longer focused on economic growth. Rather, the drive to build industrial resilience in the face of American technology challenges has led them to emphasize the creation of a ‘Modernized Industrial System.’ This emphasis—along with the on-going housing recession and potential financial risks—is likely to weigh on Chinese growth prospects for the foreseeable future.

About our speaker: Barry Naughton is one of the world’s leading experts on the Chinese economy. He specializes in China’s transitional economic policy-making, with an emphasis on issues relating to industry, trade and finance. His authoritative textbook “The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth”, has been for years a reference for students at universities around the world, including China. Naughton is the So Kwan Lok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego.

FCCC Online Event. On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China by Margaret Hillenbrand
2023-11-07 16:00 - 17:30 | Google Meet
On the Edge is highly interdisciplinary, fusing digital media, art history, literary criticism, and performance studies with citizenship, protest, and labor studies. It makes both the distinctive Chinese experience and the vital role of culture central to global understandings of how entrenched insecurity and civic jeopardy fray the bonds of the social contract.
Examining the volatile aesthetic forms that embody stifled social tensions and surging anxiety over zombie citizenship, Hillenbrand traces how people use culture to vent taboo feelings of rage, resentment, distrust, and disdain in scenarios rife with cross-class antagonism.

About the Speaker: Margaret Hillenbrand is a professor of modern Chinese literature and culture at the University of Oxford. Her previous books include Negative Exposures: Knowing What Not to Know in Contemporary China (2020).

FCCC Online Talk: Decoding Chinese Elite Politics by Joseph Torigian
2023-11-09 10:00 - 11:30 | Google Meet
Join us on November 9th, for Decoding Chinese Elite Politics: a talk from the renowned scholar of elite Chinese politics, Joseph Torigian. Torigian is an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC.
In this talk, he will provide an overview of what outside observers have gotten right and wrong about Chinese elite politics and why.
Torigian studies the politics of authoritarian regimes with a specific focus on elite power struggles, civil-military relations, and grand strategy. His scholarship focuses on Russia and China and he is working on a much anticipated biography of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping. He has pursued his research at Princeton-Harvard’s China and the World Program; Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation; George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies; the Higher School of Economics in Moscow as well as Fudan University. He has a PhD from MIT and BA from University of Michigan.

FCCC Online Talk: Laughter, Tea, and People to People Relations in the Age of the Internet
2023-11-21 10:00 - 11:30 | Google Meet
Jesse Appell came to China as a Fulbright scholar, apprenticing to Master Xiangsheng performer Ding Guangquan and becoming a mainstay of the Chinese comedy community. He has written and performed on Chinese comedy shows and has 2 million followers in China and almost 1 million abroad. Jesse will share some of his thoughts on the nature of comedy in China, the role of the Internet in sharing culture, and his new adventures starting one of America’s fastest-growing specialty tea companies.
About the Speaker: Jesse Appell 艾杰西 is a bilingual comedian and creator with over 3 million followers on platforms around the world. A disciple of Master Xiangsheng performer Ding Guangquan, he performs Chinese and English comedy online and live around the world. He is also the founder of Jesse’s Teahouse, an online tea shop with some of the best tea you can buy outside of China.

FCCC Happy Hour
2023-12-01 18:00 - 21:00 | School Bar, 东直门外大街乙36号院海晟名苑12号楼103室 100027, Beijing, Beijing, China
In honor of his first coming to China 20 years ago, in December 2003, former FCCC President Stephen McDonell has been made guest curator for our last monthly drinks of the year and has chosen the legendary underground music venue School Bar in Wudaoying Hutong.
Drinks start at this hive of Beijing counterculture at 6 pm, in the front bar next to the foosball table. The live bands kick off in the performance area from 9 pm.
There is no kitchen at School Bar but food can be delivered there.
Location:
53 Wudaoying Hutong
朝阳区, 五道营胡同53号
It is close to Lama Temple subway station.
离雍和宫地铁站很近。

FCCC Online Talk: Is China’s economy in crisis? Where is the world’s second-largest economy heading? By Wang Tao
2023-12-19 10:00 - 11:30 | Google Meet
News about the Chinese economy isn’t getting any better. The housing crisis is only getting
worse, consumers don’t spend as the government hoped for, and exports are still sluggish.
Furthermore, there seems to be no coherent strategy about how to solve the local
government debt problem. On December 5 th rating agency Moody’s downgraded China’s
credit from stable to negative.
Wang Tao will give an introduction to her new book “Making Sense of China’s Economy” and
help us to shed light on the economic prospects for 2024.
About our speaker: Wang Tao is one of the most respected experts on the Chinese economy. She currently
serves as managing director, chief China economist and head of Asia economic research at
UBS in Hong Kong. From 1997 to 2006 Tao worked at the IMF in Washington D.C.

FCCC Online Talk: Where to for North Korea in 2024?
2024-02-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Google Meet
North Korean experts Chad O’Carroll and Colin Zeirko will help Club members understand what to expect for the Korean Peninsula in 2024 and calibrate the various different scenarios and hypotheses that have been advanced recently about the possibility of conflict.
Chad O’Carroll is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Korea Risk Group. He is a respected journalist and analyst with specializations in North Korea and geopolitical risk on the peninsula. In addition to his responsibilities as Chief Executive of Korea Risk Group, O’Carroll is a regular contributor to NK Pro, Korea Pro and NK News. Furthermore, he manages several Korea Risk Group consulting projects and provides regular input to a range of clients.
Colin Zwirko is Korea Risk Group’s Senior Analytic Correspondent. He leads open-source intelligence collection and analysis efforts, publishing regular analyses on a range of subjects including military/diplomatic affairs, DPRK infrastructure, and trade issues.Furthermore, he is a satellite imagery specialist and produces industry-leading material in this area.

FCCC Online Talk: The Assemblage of Social Death: Digital Vigilantism and Cancel Culture in China by Qian Huang
2024-02-21 16:00 - 17:00 | Google Meet
Online visibility has been increasingly weaponized to cause individuals’ “social death” (unrepairable damage to one’s reputation within a community/society) when perceived transgression or offense is committed. This trend is illustrated by the rising phenomenon of digital vigilantism and “cancel culture” across different cultural contexts. Focusing on Chinese empirical cases, Qian will present this topic based on her finished NWO Ph.D. project and more recent research. She will draw on various case studies to map out the dynamics among main actors/stakeholders and the public discourses about this phenomenon in China.
About the Speaker: Dr. Qian Huang is an assistant professor at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at University of Groningen. She obtained her PhD in October 2022 from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research expertise includes digital vigilantism, creative labour, and youth digital culture. She is currently working on projects studying how cultural workers and general citizens negotiate their identities and manage their visibility in daily production practices in contemporary surveillance culture and influencer culture, especially in transnational contexts.

FCCC Happy Hour
2024-02-29 18:30 - 23:30 | Side Street at Jianguomen, Beijing, beijing, China
Our monthly club drinks are on the last Thursday of every month – a must for newbies! All colleagues and friends are welcome, regardless of membership, and happy hour is on all night.

FCCC Online Talk: The Political Thought of Xi Jinping
2024-03-14 17:00 - 18:00 | Google Meet
In the talk, Olivia Cheung will present the main findings of The Political Thought of Xi Jinping, the new book she co-authored with Steve Tsang for Oxford University Press. She will offer a contextualized interpretation of the meaning of Xi’s major doctrines and concepts on the politics, economy, society, and foreign policy of China. It is argued that the vision of Xi Thought can be distilled into two core elements or ambitions. The first is to create “one state, one people, one ideology, one party, and one leader.” The second is to make China great again and better than any other country in the world. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of China’s direction of travel under Xi and its implications for China and the world.

About our speaker:
Dr Olivia Cheung is Research Fellow of the China Institute at SOAS University of London. She is the author of Factional-Ideological Conflicts in Chinese Politics: To the Left or to the Right? (Amsterdam University Press, 2023; e-book gold open access) and co-author of The Political Thought of Xi Jinping (Oxford University Press, 2024). Her current research project is on China’s Global Strategy. She previously taught at the University of Warwick, where she was Course Director for the MA in International Politics and East Asia. She obtained her DPhil at Oxford where she was a Swire Scholar and a Rhodes Scholar.

FCCC In-person Talk: US-China Relations: How Stable and How Fragile? by Scott Kennedy
2024-03-20 13:30 - 14:30 | Embassy near Sanlitun, Beijing, China
Scott Kennedy, a veteran China expert from the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a DC think tank, will analyze the reasons for the current stability in U.S.-China relations and the potential sources of instability going forward.
About our speaker: Scott Kennedy is Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). A leading authority on Chinese economic policy, Kennedy has been traveling to China for over 30 years. His areas of expertise include industrial policy, technology innovation, business lobbying, U.S.-China commercial relations, and global governance.

FCCC Happy Hour
2024-03-28 19:00 - 23:00
This Thursday we have our casual after-work drinks at a pub near the Gongti area from 7 PM. As always, all colleagues and friends are welcome. Whether you’re a long-time member or a newbie to the club, please do join. Look forward to seeing you all there!

The location will be shared on Signal closer to time.

FCCC Spring Party 2024
2024-04-13 18:00 - 23:30
The FCCC’s Winter Party had to be postponed and is now being reincarnated as the Spring Party 2024! It will take place after the Two Sessions wrap up and when the warm weather has returned.

On April 13th at 6:00PM, the FCCC will host a light buffet with unlimited drinks, and invites members and friends to join us. The location will be on a rooftop terrace.
Winter Party tickets are still valid. For those who have yet to buy their spot, please do so now as it will help us book the venue.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

FCCC In-person Talk: Why Common Prosperity is Needed More than Ever: How the Rural- Urban Divide Threatens China’s Rise by Scott Rozelle
2024-04-18 10:00 - 11:00 | Embassy near Sanlitun, Beijing, China
China has grown at a remarkable rate for the past four decades. The long-run plan for the nation is to continue steady growth over the next 15 years and achieve a level of high income.
China’s leaders know, however, that they face a challenge in keeping growth moving. It is no secret that China’s inequality is one of the highest in the world. China’s leaders are clearly well informed of this challenge, and, in no small part in response to this challenge, have launched a major new policy effort called Common Prosperity.
We believe that to develop an environment in China in which all residents will be able to enjoy the prosperity that the nation is moving towards, the it is essential to include a major effort in the area of Early Childhood Development (ECD) … with the most a focus on the rural population.
This presentation’s main goal is to illustrate that Common Prosperity should begin by solving China’s biggest problem of it little people (young rural children). To do so, we will have five specific objectives. First, we will summarize the literature that shows that having a well-educated labor force is essential for helping a nation’s economy move from middle to high income. Second, we will show that there is high inequality in the levels of education in China. The paper will illustrate how poor ECD outcomes are a very important reason underlying the poor levels of education in China’s rural schools. Third, we will demonstrate that there is a serious problem of poor ECD outcomes across broad swaths of rural society. Fourth, we will document that one of the major sources of this problem is the absence of psycho-stimulating inputs by caregivers to their young children. Finally, we will document that there are clear solutions to these problems and conclude that the government needs to take rapid action to launch parental training programs across rural China in the very near future.
To meet these objectives, we will draw on the findings of literature as well as data sets that have been collected by myself and my colleagues. These sources of information will provide high quality empirical evidence that will show that Common Prosperity should focus serious attention on rural families and provide them with the training and support so all rural children can grow up in an environment in which they can thrive.
We also have NEW SURVEY results reporting on the optimism/pessimism of both the rich and the poor in China … comparing three surveys in 2023 to surveys from 2004/2009/2014.
About our speaker: Scott Rozelle holds the Helen Farnsworth Endowed Professorship at Stanford University and is Senior Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) for International Studies and is Co-Director of the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI). Professor Rozelle, a development economist with a Ph.d. from Cornell University, has worked on the economics of rural China for nearly 40 years. Currently, his work focuses on human capital and China’s future growth and development, including issues of rural health, nutrition and education, including early childhood development.

FCCC Online Talk: China’s EV Domination by Beatrix Keim
2024-04-23 13:00 - 14:00 | Google Meet
China’s growing electric vehicle dominance and overcapacity presents a challenge to the west. Governments are torn between profiting from the Chinese car market and protecting its domestic manufacturers. Join us for an in depth talk ahead of the Beijing Auto Show 2024 with automotive expert Beatrix Keim.
About the Speaker: Beatrix Keim studied Sinology and marketing. She made a career as a consultant and manager in the automotive industry and spent most of her professional life in China. Her various positions allowed her to gain insights into the working practices of large German car manufacturers, e-car start-ups and automotive suppliers. Since 2022 she oversees the China projects at CAR Center Automotive Research. CAR is a private-sector research institute focusing on questions relating to mobility, based in Duisburg, Germany.

FCCC Online Talk: Unpacking Xi’s visit to Europe with Abigaël Vasselier
2024-05-03 19:00 - 20:00 | Google Meet
From May 5 to 10 Xi Jinping will visit Europe for the first time in 5 years. But the world – and China-EU relations in particular – have changed quite a bit since his last trip in 2019. Together with Abigaël Vasselier, we will unpack Xi’s upcoming visit: What plans does Xi have for Europe, what will he offer and how will Europe’s relationship with China evolve?

About the Speaker: Abigaël Vasselier is the director for Policy and European Affairs at the Mercator Institute of Chinese Studies (MERICS). Prior to that, she was working for the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Abigaël Vasselier has co-authored the book “China at the gates: A new power audit of EU-China relations” (with François Godement).

Annual General Meeting 2024
2024-05-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Embassy near Sanlitun, Beijing, China
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be May 23 at 6:00 PM at an embassy in the Dongzhimen area. This is our most important meeting of the year. We will reflect on the past year and, most importantly, elect our next board. The club needs you to make this important institution work!
For correspondent members who wish to participate virtually the meeting will also be streamed online via Google Meet.
Please RSVP to attend in-person, online, or request an absentee ballot below to receive event details.

FCCC Happy Hour
2024-05-30 18:30 - 23:00
Our monthly Happy Hour is on Thursday at APOLLO, Sanlitun (Pacific Century Place) at 6:30 PM
Let’s celebrate our incoming and outgoing board members as well as welcome any newbies in town! Everyone is welcome, so do bring friends and family. We’ll have our own outdoor space and special price menu. See you there

FCCC Online Talk: “The Chinese Computer” works! by Thomas S. Mullaney
2024-06-07 10:00 - 11:00 | Google Meet
The fascinating, untold story of how the Chinese language overcame unparalleled challenges and revolutionized the world of computing. A standard QWERTY keyboard has a few dozen keys. How can Chinese—a language with tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet—be input on such a device? In The Chinese Computer, Thomas S. Mullaney sets out to resolve this paradox, and in doing so, discovers that the key to this seemingly impossible riddle has given rise to a new epoch in the history of writing—a form of writing he calls “hypography.” Based on fifteen years of research, this pathbreaking history of the Chinese language charts the beginnings of electronic Chinese technology in the wake of World War II up through to its many iterations in the present day.
Mullaney takes the reader back through the history and evolution of Chinese language computing technology, showing the development of electronic Chinese input methods—software programs that enable Chinese characters to be produced using alphanumeric symbols—and the profound impact they have had on the way Chinese is written.
About the Speaker: Thomas S. Mullaney is Professor of Chinese History at Stanford University and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is the author of The Chinese Typewriter: A History, Where Research Begins, and Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China.

FCCC Online Talk: China and Russia: A Complex Relationship by Alexander Gabuev
2024-06-12 17:00 - 18:00 | Google Meet
Switzerland will host a high-level conference on June 15-16 aimed at achieving peace in Ukraine. But Moscow has dismissed the initiative as a waste of time. And Beijing, which has strengthened its relationship with Russia, has said it will also not attend the summit. Together with the renowned expert Alexander Gabuev we will unpack the complex relations between the two major absences at the summit.

About the speaker: Alexander Gabuev is director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center where he leads a renowned team of analysts who were formerly part of the Carnegie Moscow Center, which was forced to close by the Kremlin in early 2022 after nearly three decades of operation. Gabuev’s own research is focused on Russian foreign policy with particular focus on the impact of the war in Ukraine and the Sino-Russia relationship.

FCCC Online Talk: Mobilizing Patriotic Consumers: Chinese Boycotts as a Tool of Economic Coercion
2024-06-13 08:00 - 09:00 | Google Meet
China has ramped up its use of nationalistic consumer boycotts against other governments as well as foreign companies. In this talk, I discuss Beijing’s mobilization of patriotic consumers as a form of informal coercion, allowing it to manage public sentiment for both domestic legitimacy and foreign policy goals. Patriotic consumer mobilization employs citizens as the unit of action, facilitating manipulability, uncertainty, visibility, and plausible deniability, which lend potential coercive advantages. Citizens are mobilized via propaganda that underscores national humiliation, frames boycotts as grassroots patriotism, and signals resolve to foreign countries. I identify the constraints and conditions under which boycotts are more or less likely to be used, and hence when governments and businesses should be most worried. Drawing on specific boycott incidents, I analyze the varied economic consequences along with political effects. I then conclude with some implications for strengthening industry awareness of and resilience to potential boycotts.

About the Speaker: Audrye Wong is an assistant professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California, and Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Her research examines how states use non-military means, including economic and informational tools, to gain geopolitical influence. In addition to a book manuscript on China’s economic statecraft, her other projects examine authoritarian informational statecraft, foreign influence operations, and the role of diasporas in international relations. Before coming to USC, Audrye was a Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and MIT. She received a PhD in Security Studies from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Audrye has held affiliations with Harvard’s Fairbank Center, the Wilson Center, the Brookings Institution, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

FCCC Online Talk: Compulsive Ambition: How The Desire for Self-Improvement Leads Young Chinese To Powerlessness, With Xiang Biao
2024-06-25 16:00 - 17:00 | Google Meet
Ambition, or “the heart for moving upward and forward” (shangjinxin), is widely regarded as an unquestionable virtue in China. This perception of ambition, however, is relatively new for non-elite Chinese. In the talk, Xiang Biao will examine why the desire for self-improvement is causing widespread feelings of powerlessness in China, especially among youths. Underlying the current ways of being ambitious is the mismatch between political economy, social norms and individual life experiences, resulting in confusion and frustration.
About our speaker: Born and raised in China, Xiang Biao is currently a director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany, and previously Professor at the University of Oxford. He has worked on migration and social changes in China, India and other parts of Asia. His latest book (co-authored with Wu Qi) Self as Method: Thinking Through China and the World (2023) can be freely downloaded here https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/4340a9fd-60c4-40f3-ae70-6312dbeed4c2/978-981-19-4953-1.pdf.

FCCC Online Talk: China before the Third Plenum: New reform push or business as usual? by Bert Hofman
2024-07-04 16:00 - 17:00 | Google Meet
The Third Plenum usually sets the tone for China’s economic policies for the following five years. The high-ranking meeting should have taken place in November 2023, but was postponed several times for unknown reasons. As of now the plenum is set to take place in July.
Since shortly after the end of the zero Covid policy China’s economic development has been rather sluggish. Only recently the economy showed some signs of improvement, but the country is not out of the woods yet. Now all eyes are on the Third Plenum of the Central Committee to see what policies the Communist Party announces.
Bert Hofman will give his assessment of the current state of the Chinese economy and will then outline what to expect from the plenum regarding possible reforms.
About our speaker: Bert Hofman, a Dutch national, is the former director of the East Asian Institute of the National University Singapore and now professor at that institute. He was also a professor in practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of NUS. He is also a Senior Fellow at MERICS in Germany, nonresident senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and Member of the World Association for China Studies. Before joining NUS, he worked with the World Bank for 27 years, 22 of which in Asia, and 12 of which on China. Mr. Hofman was the World Bank Country Director for China from 2014-2019.

FCCC Online Talk: FOCAC 9: join the co-Founders of the China Global South Project as they preview the key themes of the 2024 China-Africa Summit
2024-08-29 16:00 - 17:00 | Google Meet
Chinese and African leaders will gather in Beijing during the first week of September for the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit. This year’s event comes at a pivotal time for stakeholders on all sides, amid heightened great power competition, China’s slowing economy, and intense challenges brought on by climate change, among other issues. African leaders will be coming to FOCAC with a long list of requests for increased Chinese economic engagement, particularly for major infrastructure initiatives. But that may be a hard sell for the Chinese government, which has cut back significantly on overseas development finance lending in Africa and other developing regions. Instead, Beijing will be focusing on opening new markets for smaller-scale green and digital technologies and deepening political ties with African governments.

Join Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden, hosts of the popular China in Africa Podcast and managing editors of The China-Global South Project, for a lively discussion on the key themes that will be addressed at this year’s FOCAC. In advance of their talk, you can listen and read all of CGSP’s coverage of FOCAC and download briefing reports written by Cobus that looks at the FOCAC summit from both African and Chinese perspectives:

Taking Control: Africa’s Challenges and Priorities at FOCAC 2024
China’s agenda at FOCAC 2024: Climate, Connectivity & Coalitions

About the Speakers:
Eric Olander is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience reporting, producing, and managing newsrooms for some of the world’s leading editorial organizations, including CNN, FRANCE 24, and the BBC World Service, among others. He has an extensive background working in newsrooms and doing content production in the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Asia. China, though, has been the central focus of Eric’s professional career. He first went to China in 1989 and spent more than a decade of combined time living, studying, and working there. Eric is fluent in both French and Mandarin Chinese. He received his undergraduate degree in East African history from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s of International Public Affairs with a focus on Chinese foreign policy from the University of Hong Kong.
Cobus van Staden is an accomplished scholar, journalist, and think tank analyst with more than 20 years of experience in Africa and Asia. Previously, he was the senior China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in Johannesburg. Cobus completed his Ph.D. in Japanese studies and media studies at the University of Nagoya in Japan in 2008. He focused on comparisons of Chinese and Japanese public diplomacy in Africa during postdoctoral positions at the University of Stellenbosch and the SARCHI Chair on African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy at the University of Johannesburg before joining the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2013. His academic research focused on media coverage of the China-Africa and Japan-Africa relationships, as well as the use of media in public diplomacy in the Global South.

FCCC In-person Talk: Great Game On - The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy with Geoff Raby
2024-09-19 10:00 - 11:30 | Embassy near Sanlitun, Beijing, China
What happens when China becomes the established, stable, dominant power in Eurasia? Australia’s former ambassador to China Geoff Raby takes the reader on a journey across Eurasia to understand the forces shaping its geopolitics. The analysis is enriched by Raby’s own travel stories, experiences and adventures into the fabric of his narrative. Great Game On is the story of the remaking of the world order.
About our speaker: Geoff Raby was Australia’s ambassador to China (2007–11); ambassador to APEC (2003– 05); and ambassador to the World Trade Organization (1998–2001). Since leaving government service he has been a regular columnist on China and Eurasia for The Australian Financial Review, travel writer and a non-executive, independent company director. His last book was China’s Grand Strategy (2020). Raby was awarded the Order of Australia in 2019 for services to Australia–China relations and international trade.

FCCC 2024 SUMMER SPLASH!
2024-09-21 15:00 - 21:00 | Embassy of Poland, 1 Ritan Rd, Beijing, Chaoyang Park, 100005, China
The FCCC’s Summer Party returns to the Polish embassy – and this year we have access to the outdoor pool!
You can expect BBQ (veggie options included), ice cream, drinks, music and a magician.
Bring your swimming gear and invite your nearest and dearest. Children are most welcome.
September 18th midnight: Ticketing ends. No refunds after.

[Postponed] FCCC Online Talk: Improbable Diplomacy: Science, Culture, and the Remaking of US–China Relations in the 1970s and Beyond by Pete Millwood
2024-09-22 18:17 | Google Meet
In 1971, Americans made two historic visits to China that would transform relations between the two countries. One was by US official Henry Kissinger; the other, earlier, visit was by the US table tennis team. Historians have pored over the transcripts of Kissinger’s negotiations with Chinese leaders. However, they have overlooked how, alongside these diplomatic talks, a rich program of travel and exchange had begun with ping-pong diplomacy. Pete Millwood’s book Improbable Diplomats reveals how a diverse cast of Chinese and Americans – athletes and physicists, performing artists and seismologists – played a critical, but to date overlooked, role in remaking US-China relations.

In this talk, Millwood will introduce his recent book and connect this history with current developments in US–China relations, including the lapsing of the historic US–China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) that was first signed in 1979 at the end of the rapprochement decade.

Pete Millwood teaches Chinese and East Asian history at the University of Melbourne. His first book Improbable Diplomats: How Ping-Pong Players, Musicians, and Scientists Remade US-China Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2022), was recently released in paperback. He received his PhD from Oxford, has taught at Tsinghua and the London School of Economics, and held fellowships at Peking and Hong Kong universities and the Library of Congress. His writing has been published in academic journals and the Washington Post, History Today, and the South China Morning Post.

FCCC Online Talk: Japan's New Prime Minister--What to Expect This Fall and Beyond by Ko Maeda
2024-09-25 09:00 - 10:00 | Google Meet
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will elect its new leader on September 27. This leader will become the Prime Minister and will likely call for an early election of the lower house of the legislature. With the largest opposition party also holding its leadership race, Japan’s politics is entering a period of significant change. Who is likely to be the new Prime Minister? Will the ruling coalition be able to win the upcoming election? What will happen to Sino-Japanese relations?
About the Speaker: Ko Maeda is an associate professor of political science at the University of North Texas, USA. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University in 2005. He is currently an editor of the Japanese Journal of Political Science and an associate editor of the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. His research interests center on elections, party competition, and political institutions. His work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and Electoral Studies.
