China is facing a growing range of challenges, ranging from population ageing and environmental degradation to finding new and durable sources of economic growth, all at a time of increasing geopolitical tension. From the leadership’s perspective, digital technologies are critical in finding responses to these challenges, by enhancing the state’s governing capacity, developing greater economic efficiency and competitiveness and upgrading traditional industrial sectors. Its techno-industrial policies are exploring new models to enable these developments to occur as China’s access to global markets, resources, finance and technologies grows more difficult. This talk will review the framework of China’s techno-industrial approach, discuss how it seeks to navigate both China’s domestic and international environment, and assess its strengths and weaknesses.

Join us for a discussion of China's techno-industrial approach with guest speaker, Rogier Creemers (Leiden University) chaired by the Institute's Jane Hayward (King's College London).

This is an in-person event. Registration is required.

Speakers

Rogier Creemers is an affiliate of the Lau China Institute at King's and Assistant Professor in Modern Chinese Studies. With a background in Sinology and International Relations, and a PhD in Law, his research focuses on Chinese domestic digital technology policy, as well as China's growing importance in global digital affairs. He is the principal investigator of the NWO Vidi Project "The Smart State: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Law in China". For the Leiden Asia Centre, he directs a project on China and global cybersecurity, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also a co-founder of DigiChina, a joint initiative with Stanford University and New America.

Jane Hayward (Chair) is a lecturer in China and Global Affairs at the Lau China Institute, King's College London. She researches China’s agrarian question (how rural land is organised, who controls it and who gets to profit from it). She teaches postgraduate courses on China and Globalisation, and China and Global Governance. Dr Hayward has a PhD from the East Asian Studies Department of New York University. She has held post-doctoral positions at the Oxford University China Centre and the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where she worked at the Institute for Contemporary China Studies.