The Art of Dealing with China in the Age of Uncertainty
VIEW EVENT DETAILS
As the Chinese economy slows and geopolitical tensions rise, multinational companies are reconsidering their footprint in China. Many of the most experienced and knowledgeable China-based businesspeople, analysts, and journalists have left the country in recent years, especially post-COVID. Political tightening under Xi Jinping and growing suspicions of foreign entities have made it more challenging for China analysts to access the top policymakers and to understand recent dynamics in Chinese politics and society.
However, with the uncertainty created by a second Donald Trump administration, it is more important than ever to master the art of dealing with China.
In this virtual event, three veteran China watchers — from business, a think tank, and journalism —make sense of what these dynamics mean for policymakers, investors, businesses, and anyone interested in China.
Please join us for a panel discussion with Joerg Wuttke, former President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China; Katja Drinhausen, Head of Program at the Mercator Institute for China Studies; and Seth Faison, former New York Times Shanghai bureau chief. Lynette H. Ong, Senior Fellow on Chinese Society at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis and Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Toronto, will moderate. G.A. Donovan, Fellow on Chinese Society at the Center for China Analysis, will give introductory remarks.
Speakers

Joerg Wuttke was President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce: in China from 2007 to 2010, 2014 to 2017, and again from 2019 to 2023. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Wuttke was the chairman of the German Chamber of Commerce in China. Since its establishment in 2013, Mr. Wuttke has been a member of the Advisory Board of Germany’s foremost think tank on China, the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), in Berlin. He lived in China for more than 30 years.

Seth Faison began his career in journalism in Hong Kong and ascended to the role of Shanghai Bureau Chief of the New York Times for five years, on top of journalistic stints in Beijing and New York. A distinguished writer, he won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team covering breaking news at the New York Times. He is the author of South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China, an acclaimed book about political, economic, and social change in China, and is presently co-leader of the Brunswick Group’s China Hub.

Katja Drinhausen heads the Chinese Politics & Society research program at the Mercator Institute of China Studies (MERICS), where her research focuses on the development of China’s legal and governance system. Ms. Drinhausen is a co-founder and author of the Decoding China Dictionary, an online resource that explains China’s official interpretation of key terms in international relations. Before joining MERICS in 2018, she worked as a researcher and project manager in the Beijing Office of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, where she tracked the development of Chinese law, governance, and civil society in China.

Lynette H. Ong (moderator) is a Senior Fellow on Chinese Society at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis and Professor of Political Science at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. Her research lies at the intersection of authoritarian politics, contentious politics, and the political economy of development. She is the author of several books, including Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China (Oxford University Press, 2022). Outsourcing Repression is the recipient of the American Sociological Association Gordon Hirabayashi Human Rights Book Award and the International Studies Association Human Rights Section Best Book Award, and the project has been shortlisted for the inaugural Routledge Area Studies (Impact) Award 2022.

G.A. Donovan (intro) is a Fellow on Chinese Society and Political Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. G.A. leads research initiatives on the social, cultural, and intellectual trends shaping China’s future. He experienced the country’s transformation firsthand while living and working in-country over the course of more than three decades. A former Foreign Service Officer, G.A. handled a broad range of political and economic issues as an American diplomat in Beijing, Chengdu, and Kathmandu. Subsequently, he was the senior researcher and assistant director at the Harvard Business School Asia-Pacific Research Center, traveling throughout China to conduct field research on business and financial topics. He also served as communications director and speechwriter for the CEO of Hong Kong’s securities commission.