Winds of Change: China

The 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress marked a seminal moment in China’s history and established President Xi Jinping as perhaps the most influential Chinese leader since Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping.

Deng Xiaoping’s famous dictum, “Hide our capacities, bide our time”, was the core of Chinese foreign policy from the 1980s and marked its silent rise. With Xi Jinping’s advancement into party leadership, however, China seems to have moved on from this approach, and has now established itself as one of the most influential global powers. Regionally, the simultaneous rise of India, has brought forth talk about the 21st century being the “Asian Century”.

In this new generation of Chinese leadership, who will be the influential movers-and-shakers? What form will China’s activism take, and what effects will it have on international relations specially in the Asia-Pacific region? Join us as we try to understand the contemporary changes in China and its influence on the region in our discussion between Richard Rigby, Former Diplomat & Executive Director of the Australian National University (ANU) China Institute and Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Foreign Editor of the Hindustan Times.

Prof. Richard Rigby is the Executive Director at the ANU China Institute. After completion of his PhD in History (under Professor Wang Gungwu) in 1970, Prof Rigby joined the Australian foreign service. He was a diplomat for about 26 years, with postings in Beijing (twice), Tokyo, London, Shanghai (as Consul-General) and Israel (as Ambassador). Prior to taking up his current role in April 2008, he served as Assistant Director-General in the Office of National Assessments (ONA), responsible for North and South Asia from 2002-2008. Trained as a historian, he continued to pursue his scholarly interests throughout his official career, and apart from his book on the May Thirtieth Movement, wrote various reviews, articles and a number of literary translations.

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri was a 2007 Bernard Schwartz Fellow and is a member of Asia Society's Global Council. He is a senior associate at Rhodium Group and leads the firm’s India work, and is also the Foreign Editor of the Hindustan Times. Chaudhuri has recently completed four years as a member of the Indian government’s National Security Advisory Board (NSAB). Within the NSAB he has been a part of task forces on maritime security, neighbourhood policy, resource security and strategic communication. He writes a regular blog, Foreign Hand, and a column for his newspaper.

This programme is part of our Asia: Beyond The Headlines series.

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