China 2024: What Does the Two Sessions Mean for the Economy, Politics, and Foreign Policy?
VIEW EVENT DETAILSWhat can we expect for China in 2024? China’s new Premier Li Qiang will deliver his first government work report on March 5, the opening day of China’s National People’s Congress’ (NPC) annual parliamentary session. Li Qiang’s report will announce the Chinese government’s growth target, deficit projection, and overall direction for economic, social, and foreign policies for 2024. Other documents released at the NPC parliamentary session will reveal China’s development plan and military budget for the year.
Immediately following Li’s report, on Wednesday, March 6, join us for a webinar hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA) for a next-day analysis of these important developments.
The Two Sessions — the concurrent meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference — is also an opportunity to reflect on broader trends in Chinese politics and policymaking. How powerful is President Xi Jinping one year into his third term? What are his political and legislative priorities for 2024? How will he balance economic growth and national security? What lies ahead for U.S.-China relations and cross-Strait relations? Most importantly, what do the answers to these questions mean for policymakers, investors, and companies around the world?
CCA is pleased to present this online discussion with CCA Senior Fellows and world-leading China experts Christopher K. Johnson, Guonan Ma, and Jessica Chen Weiss. The conversation will be led by CCA Fellow Neil Thomas.
Attendees may also be interested in CCA’s flagship Decoding Chinese Politics product, which helps decode Beijing’s “black box” through interactive visualizations and explainer essays that map formal institutions, informal networks, key decision-makers, and major policy trends.
Speakers
Christopher K. Johnson is a Senior Fellow on Chinese Politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis. He is also the President and CEO of China Strategies Group, a political risk consulting firm. As one of the top China experts in the field, his insights frequently are sought out by the world’s leading corporate, financial, and other business interests to help develop strategies for clients pursuing opportunities in China and regionally. Chris is based in New York but spends nearly half his time in China and the rest of Asia. Chris also serves as a senior fellow in the office of the president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). His views and analysis on China frequently are featured in the world’s leading business, policy, and media outlets. An accomplished Asian affairs specialist, Chris spent nearly two decades serving in the United States Government’s intelligence and foreign affairs communities. Chris worked as a senior China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he chronicled China’s dynamic political and economic transformation, the development of its robust military modernization program, and Beijing’s resurgence as a regional and global power.
Guonan Ma is a Senior Fellow on Chinese Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis. He is an economist with four decades of experience conducting policy, market, and academic research, specializing in Chinese economic issues. He was a senior economist at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) for 15 years, before becoming visiting scholars and professors in recent years at various central banks, universities and think tanks. Before his BIS career, he worked as a market economist on Asia at different investment banks, including Bankers Trust, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup, and he has been a lecturer in economics at both the Australian National University and Beijing University. Dr. Ma received his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Pittsburgh and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Beijing University. Over the years, he has published many research papers, including those in Comparative Economic Studies, the Journal of Development Economics, Pacific Economic Review, International Economics, and the Journal of International Money and Finance.
Jessica Chen Weiss is a Senior Fellow on Chinese Politics, Foreign Policy, and National Security at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. She is also the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies in the Department of Government at Cornell University. From August 2021 to July 2022, she served as senior advisor to the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department on a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars (IAF-TIRS). Weiss is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her research appears in International Organization, China Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Quarterly. Weiss was previously an assistant professor at Yale University and founded FACES, the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford University. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, she received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.
Neil Thomas (moderator) is a Fellow on Chinese Politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, where he co-leads the Decoding Chinese Politics project and studies elite politics, political economy, and foreign policy. Previously, he was a Senior Analyst for China and Northeast Asia at Eurasia Group, the world’s leading political risk advisory and consulting firm, a Senior Research Associate at MacroPolo, the in-house think tank of the Paulson Institute, and a lecturer at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. He has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and his writing appears in publications including The China Story, ChinaFile, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Lowy Interpreter, The Washington Post, and The Wire China. He is regularly quoted by major media outlets such as Bloomberg, CNN, The Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He holds a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia, and certificates from Renmin University, Tsinghua University, and Zhejiang University.