Who's getting it right? Making sense of China's foreign and tech policy

BCCN Lecture Series #1: Who's getting it right? Making sense of China's foreign and tech policy
 

The "Lecture Series on Science, Technology, and Innovation" at TU Berlin in cooperation with the BCCN (Berlin Contemporary China Network) provides an interdisciplinary platform to explore cutting-edge developments in science and technology. International experts share insights into innovative approaches and discuss their societal, economic, and environmental impacts. The series encourages dialogue between research, industry, and the public, offering students and attendees a chance to engage with forward-looking topics.

Here you can register for this and other hybrid lectures of the lecture series: https://tu-berlin.zoom.us/j/69639573548?pwd=l4NpWJI9B3qilouRvqq3OzFke88E5J.1

Abstract:

A plethora of work on Chinese foreign policy has sought to decipher what China wants, what its strategies are, and how it implements (or fails to implement) its designs. These efforts have produced a number of sophisticated analyses that provide valuable insights into various aspects of Chinese international behaviour. Nonetheless, these advances in our knowledge have taken place against the background of an increasingly fragmented field. Indeed, there seems to be a widening degree of divergence between the conclusions of various analysts and scholars. Some see China pursuing long-term plans with remarkable patience, precision, and cunning. Others view Chinese foreign policy as suffering from myopia and fragmentation. Some describe China as behaving in ways that are not much different from other rising powers of the past. Others claim China is a new form of great power given its culture, form of governance, or economic and technological advances. In this talk, Prof Todd Hall—drawing upon a co-authored paper with Andrea Ghiselli of Fudan University—seeks to make sense of this diversity, arguing that there may be more complementarity among these approaches than may at first seem. He then looks at the implications of this argument for China's foreign and tech policy.

Bio:

Professor Todd Hall is a professor of international relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, tutor for politics at St. Anne's College, and director of the University of Oxford's China Centre. He has published widely on issues of Chinese foreign policy, East Asian international relations, and the intersection of emotions and politics on the international stage.