EVENTS

The pandemic has accelerated prevailing trends and triggered new ones in China. Erosion of Deng-Era institutions has led to centralization of power and coloured China’s response to the pandemic. An emphasis on ‘dual circulation’ and boosting domestic consumption to reduce reliance on exports will impact China’s position in global supply chains. A pivot towards self-sufficiency in face of US-China tensions will prioritize high technology capabilities. The clampdown on homegrown technology giants even as digitization gains prominence will significantly impede their global ambitions. Industry players worldwide will need to re-adjust their global strategies to account for these new realities as geopolitics takes a prominent seat in boardrooms. Debates around re-shoring, de-coupling and dependency will continue long after the pandemic abates. This panel discussion will combine policy, sectoral and global perspectives to take stock of the predicament.

About the Speakers

Hans H. Tung is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and a faculty associate of the Centre for Research in Econometric Theory and Applications at National Taiwan University. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. He is primarily interested in the formal and empirical analysis of the politics of economic policy-making in both authoritarian and democratic settings, and has authored and co-authored several articles in both academic journals and edited volumes. More specifically, one strand of his research seeks to uncover the political logic of institutional development under authoritarian regimes. His book, Economic Growth and Endogenous Authoritarian Institutions in Post-Reform China (2019), develops a dynamic theory of authoritarian institutional change in the context of post-reform China. A second strand of his research explores more fundamentally individuals’ political-economic decision-making by utilizing advanced neuroscientific methods and data. A third strand builds on the theoretical insights developed from other parts of his research to address various issues regarding how China’s rise on the world stage affects the regional dynamics in East Asia. He has also written extensively on the political economy of COVID-19 and one of the co-authored papers is forthcoming in Nature Communications.

Mareike Ohlberg is a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund and leads the Stockholm China Forum. She is based at GMF’s Berlin Office. Before joining GMF, Mareike worked as an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, where she focussed on China’s media and digital policies as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s influence campaigns in Europe. Prior to that, she was an An Wang postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and a postdoctoral fellow at Shih-Hsin University in Taipei. She has spent several years living and working in Greater China. She is co-author of the book Hidden Hand: How the Communist Party of China is Reshaping the World (2020). Mareike has a doctoral degree in Chinese studies from the University of Heidelberg and a master’s degree in East Asian regional studies from Columbia University.

Nivedita Rao Kommineni is a development economist with an interest in globalisation, comparative development, and more recently, gender and labour markets. She currently works with the Chief Economist's office at Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., with a focus on the intersection between macroeconomics and public policy. Previously, she worked as a research analyst at PRS Legislative Research (New Delhi) tracking the education and health sector related legislations and policies, supporting legislators at both at the central and state level in India. She holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, an M.A. in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and a B.A. (Honours) in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College for Women.

Priyanka Pandit is a China Studies Post-Doctoral Research Fellow supported by Ashoka University (India) and Harvard Yenching Institute (USA) at the Department of International Relations and Governance Studies, Shiv Nadar University. Her research focusses on the politics of China’s economic reform, China-India economic relations, theories of international negotiations and China’s engagement with multilateral economic institutions. She holds M.Phil. and Ph.D.in Chinese Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Masters in East Asian Studies from the University of Delhi. She was formerly Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), New Delhi and Visiting Fellow at the Chongyang Institute of Financial Studies, Beijing. Before joining ICWA, she taught at the Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, where she also pursued an intensive year-long course in Mandarin. She is currently completing her book project on China’s negotiating strategies at the World Trade Organisation.

About the Moderator

Mr. Santosh Pai is Honorary Fellow and Treasurer at Institute of Chinese Studies, and Partner at Link Legal, an Indian law firm. He has been offering legal services to clients in the India-China corridor since 2010. His areas of interest include Chinese investments in India, India-China comparative law and policy, cross-cultural negotiations and board governance. He holds a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) degree from NLSIU, Bangalore, LL.M. (Chinese law) from Tsinghua University, Beijing and an MBA from Vlerick University, Belgium (Peking University campus). His manuscripts "Practical Guide on Investing in India for Chinese Investors" (China Law Press,2017), "Indian Company Law" (China Law Press, 2019) and "Arbitration Law and Practice in India"(China Legal Publishing House, 2020) have been translated into and published in Chinese. Mr. Santosh Pai is also a member of CII’s Core Group on China and chairs the East Asia board at an international NGO.

Event Registration Link Here