Drawing Back the Curtain: An Executive Roundtable on the Complexities of Chinese Politics with Neil Thomas, Fellow at ASPI's Center for China Analysis

Curious about the inner workings of the Chinese political system? On Oct 19th, join Neil Thomas, Fellow for Chinese Politics at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, and Joseph Torigian, Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, for an off-the-record, Executive Roundtable on ‘decoding Chinese politics.’ Thomas and Torigian will draw back the curtain on the opaque ins-and-outs of the Chinese government’s formal institutions, informal networks, and key decision-makers, to better understand the important structural and cultural nuances of Chinese politics. Thomas will also explain the impact of these political complexities on key policies related to trade, economics, security, and technology. Join us in roundtable discussion to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese politics and consider how the U.S. might reimagine its approach to U.S.-China relations with careful consideration of China's political structures, practices, and mindsets.

This program is a part of our Seeking Truth Through Facts U.S.-China Program Series, which focuses on new strategic frameworks for the bilateral relationship, plurilateral relationships, rebalancing trade, national security, technology, and climate change; as well as the global impact of the political and economic landscape. 

This Executive Roundtable Program is for Innovator, Groundbreaker, Advisory Council, and Board Members and will be held on Thursday, Oct 19th from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Pacific in San Francisco.

This event is private and off-the-record. Registration and confirmation are required at least 24 hours before the event. Space is limited. Lunch will be served. 

Agenda:

Date: Thursday, Oct 19, 2023 from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Pacific

Board, Advisory Council, Groundbreaker and Innovator Members Event.

• 11:00 a.m.     Event Registration and Networking 
• 11:30 a.m.     Event and Q&A Discussion, lunch will be served 
• 12:45 p.m.     Networking 
• 1:00 p.m.       Event Concludes

Location: San Francisco

Your participation will be confirmed via email 1 week before the program begins.

Speakers:

Neil Thomas is a Fellow for Chinese Politics at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, where he 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, 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.

Joseph Torigian is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, a Global Fellow in the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program, and a Center Associate of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. Previously, he was a Visiting Fellow at the China in the World Program at Australian National University, a Stanton Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton-Harvard’s China and the World Program, a Postdoctoral (and Predoctoral) Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), a Predoctoral Fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, an IREX scholar affiliated with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. His first book, “Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao” was released with Yale University Press, and he has a forthcoming biography on Xi Jinping’s father with Stanford University Press. He studies Chinese and Russian politics and foreign policy.