China Field Notes – with Scott Kennedy

On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with Yuan Haiying, one of the pioneers of the government affairs profession in China. Yuan explains the origins of the industry, how it has changed and evolved throughout his career, how the field help Chinese and foreign multinational companies navigate current geopolitical challenges, and the profession’s future. Yuan then provides his outlook on the recently concluded Third Plenum economic conference and other opportunities and challenges in China’s economy today.

Yuan Haiying founded Yuan Associates in February 2004, and since then he and the firm have become major players in China’s growing government affairs industry. Yuan has thirty years of experience in the Chinese Government, including senior diplomatic postings in Washington D.C., as China’s Agriculture Attaché, and in Rome, as the Alternate Representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He has been involved in negotiations on numerous bilateral and multilateral agreements in the areas of trade, investment, agriculture, forestry, fishery and environmental protection. For his efforts, he received an Outstanding Contribution Certificate from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and Outstanding Contribution Awards from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In China, Yuan was the Director of the Ministry of Forestry’s Department of International Cooperation. After retiring from public service, Yuan worked as a Senior Vice President at Edelman Public Relations and as a Vice President at APCO Worldwide. Yuan chaired the Government Affairs Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce and the China Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC) of the Chinese Government Cooperation Committee.

On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with Michael Laske, a sage veteran auto industry consultant in China. In this in-depth conversation, he explains how over the last three decades China’s domestic auto firms went from being students in joint ventures to achieving global leadership in electric vehicles and batteries. He analyzes why Chinese industrial policy has been more effective in this sector than in others as well as the important value to the West of having their firms in China and Chinese firms in the Western markets.

Since 1995, Michael has led the development of AVL List GMBH in China. AVL List is the leading provider of engineering and technology development support, and hardware and software testing solutions necessary for innovation and technology development in mobility sectors, particularly automotive applications. He has witnessed and directly participated in the growth of the automotive sector in China, as China eventually emerged as the largest market and later as a major source of technical innovation and exports. Michael believes that the automotive sector and its global relationships provide important insight into and strongly influence global geopolitical strategy and commercial developments. Michael Laske received an MA and an East Asian Institute Certificate from Columbia University’s School of International Affairs in 1980. Following four years in Taiwan, Michael and his family moved to China in January 1989, where he remains based.

On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with Jack Chang, one of the world’s foremost experts on Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. They discuss the industry in-depth, from the original policies that led to the establishment of companies like TSMC and UMC to disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic. The conversation then shifts to the current semiconductor landscape, including the challenges of U.S.-China tensions, increasing overseas investments, and debates about the meaning of supply chain resilience. Finally, they discuss future industry trends, including shifts to more advanced nodes and the exploration of alternative semiconductor materials like germanium.

Dr. Jack C. Chang recently retired from the Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Chutung, Taiwan, after 34 years of service. Most recently, he was senior strategy executive director for sustainability. During his tenure at ITRI, Chang served as principal investigator of various technology, policy & market research projects from public and private sectors. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the Graduate Institute of Patent of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei.

On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with Veronica Li of Primavera Capital Group. They discuss her pathway to a career in finance and how Primavera weighs U.S.-China competition, China’s economy, and entrepreneurial innovation in China when making when making investment decisions. They focus on the trajectory of the EV industry and how markets may change in response to emerging technologies.

On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with Yu Tiejun, Professor and President of Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS). This conversation accompanies a new report and event culminating a two-year initiative of the CSIS Trustee Chair and IISS to avoid U.S.-China scholarly decoupling and restore ties amongst scholars, students, universities and think tanks. Yu and Kennedy recount the benefits and surprises of their exchanges between Beijing and Washington, the background that led to Yu to study international affairs, the role of IISS in China, and the importance of renewed collaboration in the current environment.

On this timely episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy is joined by Xie Tao, Dean and Professor of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Xie speaks to Scott after a remarkable trip with his students to the United States to observe the 2024 Iowa caucuses amidst a historic blizzard. They discuss how Xie became interested in studying American politics, the importance of field research, the difficulties he encountered entering the U.S., his impressions from Iowa, and his view of America’s future. Although Xie is from China, his observations most strikingly reflect the perspective of a political scientist.

Xie Tao is Dean and Professor of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University. He holds a PhD in political science from Northwestern University (2007). His research interests include U.S. Congress, elections, public opinion, and U.S.-China relations. His research has been published in the Journal of Contemporary China and American Politics Research, as well as leading journals in China. He is the author of U.S.-China Relations: China Policy on Capitol Hill (Routledge 2009 and Living with the Dragon: How the American Public Views the Rise of China (with Benjamin I. Page, Columbia University Press, 2010).

On this special episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy is joined by Trustee Chair Senior Fellow Ilaria Mazzocco for a timely conversation with Li Shuo, Director of the new China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Li joins Scott and Ilaria at the tail end of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai. They discuss how Li became passionate about the environment and climate issues, the pros and cons of China’s “all of the above” energy strategy, US-China climate cooperation, and China’s evolving role in global climate governance.

Join Scott Kennedy for a discussion with Joerg Wuttke, one of the most influential foreign business leaders in China in the past fifty years. They discuss Wuttke’s long career in China, the different approaches to China of the European and American chambers of commerce, the legacy of Dr. Henry Kissinger, and China’s future trajectory.

Join Scott Kennedy for a timely conversation with veteran Hong Kong public servant Regina Ip Lau Suk Yee. They discuss Ip’s career in public service, from her days in the bureaucracy to her leadership of the New People’s Party, the nature of the city’s relationship with Beijing after the introduction of the National Security Law, its future in international organizations such as APEC, United States policy toward Hong Kong, and more.

The Honorable Mrs. Regina Ip Lau Suk Yee is currently a Legislative Council Member, Chairperson of the New People's Party, the Savantas Policy Institute, and the Maritime Silk Road Society as well as Court Member of the University of Hong Kong. Mrs. Ip joined the Administrative Service of the Hong Kong civil service in September 1975 and worked in a wide range of policy areas, including home affairs, security, trade, and industry. She rose through the ranks to Director of Bureau in May 2000. She served as Secretary for Security from August 1998 to July 2003. She has been a Legislative Council Member returned by geographical constituency through direct elections since 2008. Mrs. Ip was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2021.

Join Scott for a wide-ranging conversation with Wang Zichen, a rising star amongst Chinese public intellectuals who is now with the Center for China and Globalization, based in Beijing. They discuss Wang’s first trip ever to the United States, the difficulties in U.S.-China relations, how Chinese think tanks try to influence public policy, and much more.

Wang Zichen 王子辰 is Research Fellow and Director for International Communications at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading non-governmental thinktank in Beijing. Before joining CCG in October 2022, he worked, in China and Europe, for 11 years at Xinhua News Agency, China's state news agency. He is a recipient of many internal awards from Xinhua and the Chinese authorities. While at Xinhua, he founded Pekingnology, a China newsletter, as a personal project that he now continues to edit at CCG. Pekingnology now has nearly 12,000 subscribers and amassed over 1 million views from both email and web pages in the year to date. He also edits The East is Read, another China newsletter with 10,000 subscribers, at CCG. The newsletters translate, contextualize, interpret, and summarize Chinese leaders' speeches, China's policy documents, and substantive and technical policy discussions mostly from within China. Zichen visited the United States in Fall 2023 on the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) at the invitation of the State Department.