Xi Jinping will preside over the Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on July 15-18. This meeting will focus on ideas to “further comprehensively deepen reform” and “advance Chinese-style modernization” amid growing concerns about Beijing’s ability to steward the country’s economic, geopolitical, and social development. Several days later the Party will issue an authoritative “decision” that should guide policymaking for years to come.

Join us for a rapid-reaction webinar hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA) that will analyze the context, contents, and consequences of this momentous policy document. CCA Fellow Neil Thomas will lead a discussion with CCA experts Bert Hofman, Lizzi C. Lee, and Guoguang Wu. Attendees will be invited to submit questions during the event.

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

Bert Hofman is an Honorary Senior Fellow on Chinese Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis. He is a Professor at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Mr. Hofman is also a senior fellow at MERICS in Germany. Before joining NUS, he worked with the World Bank for 27 years, 22 of which were in Asia, and 12 of those in China. He was the World Bank country director for China 2014–2019, the China country economist 2004–2008, and the Chief Economist for the East Asia and Pacific region 2011–2014. Mr. Hofman has also worked at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the OECD, and NMB Bank (Now ING). He studied economics in Rotterdam and Kiel.

Lizzi C. Lee is a Fellow on Chinese Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. Ms. Lee is an economist turned journalist. She graduated from MIT’s PhD program in economics before joining the New York-based independent Chinese media outlet Wall St TV. She is currently the host of "The Signal Live with Lizzi Lee" powered by the China Project, where she interviews the most knowledgeable minds on China for analysis of the ever-evolving business and technology ecosystem. 

Guoguang Wu is a Senior Fellow on Chinese Politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis. With a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University, he is now a Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Stanford University. His research specializes in Chinese politics and comparative political economy, including, in China studies, elite politics, national political institutions and policy making mechanisms, the transition from Communism, the politics of development, China’s search for its position in the world, and, in comparative political economy, the transition of capitalism with globalization, the emergence of capitalism in comparative perspectives, and the worldwide rise of the economic state. He is the author of four books, which include two major research monographs: Globalization against Democracy: A Political Economy of Capitalism after Its Global Triumph (Cambridge University Press, 2017); and China’s Party Congress: Power, Legitimacy, and Institutional Manipulation (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Neil Thomas (moderator) is a Fellow on Chinese Politics at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. At CCA, 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 numerous publications including China Story, ChinaFile, Foreign Policy, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Lowy Institute's Interpreter blog, 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 an MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a BA from the University of Western Australia, and certificates from Renmin University, Tsinghua University, and Zhejiang University.