RUNDOWN:
17:45     Registration
18:00     Opening Remarks
18:05     Presentation
18:15     Fireside Chat
18:45     Q&A
19:05     Closing Remarks
19:10     Book Signing
19:20     End

ASHK Members Ticket: HKD 100
Non-Member Ticket: HKD 150

China’s economy is at a crossroads, facing its most significant challenges in recent memory. Amidst this economic turmoil, a fierce debate has emerged among experts: Is the current economic downturn a result of ingrained structural issues, recent policy shifts, or escalating geopolitical tensions?  Asia Society Hong Kong Center is proud to present Angela Zhang, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong, and author of High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, to offer a fresh perspective, steering the conversation towards the impact of law on the Chinese economy.

Drawing insights from her latest book, Professor Zhang will introduce the "Dynamic Pyramid Model" to demystify China’s regulatory governance. Through this lens, she will explain the consistent regulatory pattern in some of the biggest policy challenges China has faced in recent years, including tech regulation, Covid-19 pandemic controls, the 2021 energy crisis, the ongoing property sector crackdown, and China’s demographic crisis. In conversation with Robin Xing, Chief China Economist at Morgan Stanley, Professor Zhang will shed light on the political logic underpinning China’s regulatory policies, while also identifying potential pathways toward economic revival.

Angela Zhang is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong and Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law. Widely recognized as a leading authority on China’s tech regulation, Zhang has written extensively on this topic. She is the author of Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation (Oxford, 2021), which was named one of the Best Political Economy Books of 2021 by ProMarket. Zhang's second book, High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, will be released by Oxford University Press in March 2024. In fall 2024, Professor Zhang will join the University of Southern California as a Professor of Law. For more information, please visit her website at AngelaZhang.net, and follow her on Twitter @AngelaZhangHK.

Robin Xing is a managing director at Morgan Stanley who joined the Firm’s Asia ex-Japan economics research team in 2016 as Chief China Economist, leading the firm’s macro and FX research on China. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was an investment strategist at Goldman Sachs’ investment management division. Previously, he worked as director of China macro research at S.A.C Capital, and vice president and economist at China International Capital Corporation.

Robin’s team was ranked #1 for Economics in 2021 & 2022 Institutional Investor All-Asia survey, and he has written extensively on China’s long-term economic outlook, including the Urbanization 2.0 in China, the supply chain transition in a multipolar world, and the transition of China’s capital flows. He has presented his views frequently to senior policymakers in China.

About High Wire:

In High Wire, Angela Huyue Zhang provides a comprehensive and sophisticated overview of how China regulates its enormous tech sector. By closely scrutinizing the incentives and interactions among the key players, Zhang introduces a dynamic pyramid model to analyze the structure, process, and outcome of China's unique regulatory system. She showcases the shrewd self-regulatory tactics employed by Chinese tech titans to survive and thrive in an institutional environment plagued by endemic fraud and corruption. She also reveals how the Chinese State has given a helping hand to digital platforms by offering them indispensable judicial support.

Through a robust analysis of the tumultuous 2020-2022 tech crackdown, Zhang explores the model's profound impact on three vital pillars of Chinese platform regulation, including antitrust, data, and labor enforcement. As Zhang demonstrates, the tech crackdown has led to the private sector's retreat and the state's advancement in the tech industry. These regulatory shifts have also steered investors from consumer tech businesses toward hardcore technologies that are essential for China's bid to overtake the United States in innovation.

More than just a study of China, Zhang offers a global perspective by comparing China's regulatory landscape with rapidly moving developments in the United States and the European Union. This comparative analysis reveals the shared regulatory challenges all face and sheds light on the future direction of Chinese tech regulation. Finally, she peers into the future of China's tech governance, specifically focusing on the burgeoning realm of generative artificial intelligence.

Providing an unparalleled deep dive into China's rapidly evolving digital economy, High Wire is a must-read for those interested in how the manifold ways in which China regulates and governs its economy.

Buy a copy of High Wire from our store.

Sign up link:

https://bit.ly/49Rmmvg

The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and participants and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, do not reflect the opinion, position or official policy of Asia Society Hong Kong, its members, or its committees. Asia Society Hong Kong does not endorse or approve and assumes no responsibility for the content of the information presented.