We would like to cordially invite you to join the 8th China Global Think Tank Innovation Forum 2023, scheduled to take place on the 23rd and 24th of October 2023 in Beijing, China. It would be an honor to have you participate in this signature event.

International relations in the past three years have experienced unprecedented upheaval. The bilateral and triangular relationships between China, the United States, and the European Union are situated at the epicenter of the global maelstrom. With zero-covid behind, Beijing has resumed person-to-person high-level engagement. Since this spring, a stream of high-level visits from European leaders has taken place to drive bilateral cooperation and global efforts for a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine. The US-China relationship also witnessed a thaw in the recent months. These developments raise important questions about the unfolding of de-risking strategies, the future of Ukraine, and the trajectory of global governance in 2024.

The annual China Global Think Tank Innovation Forum was jointly initiated by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tank and Civil Society Program (TTCSP) in 2016. CCG and TTCSP had co-hosted five editions of this signature annual think tank conference until the tragic passing of TTCSP’s director Dr. Jim McGann in 2021. Since the covid pandemic, face to face contacts between Chinese and global think tank communities had remained limited due to travel restrictions and deteriorating relations between China and the west.

The Eighth edition of China Global Think Tank Innovation Forum will return to face-to-face congregation for the first time after more than three years, with prominent think tank leaders, policy experts, executives and practitioners around the world gathering in person to not only formulate policy solutions to pressing global challenges but generate forward-thinking visions for a better future. At the two-day conference in Beijing, leading think tank experts from the United States, Europe, and other continents and regions will discuss trends, share perspectives, and hear about inspiring new proposals that can be placed high on the global agenda.

TENTATIVE AGENDA

DAY 1 – Monday Oct. 23

09:00-10:00 Opening/Welcoming Remarks

10:30-12:00 Think Tank Presidents’ Roundtable “The Global order at a crossroads: ways forward”

12:30-13:30 Lunch/networking

14:00-15:30 China-West Dialogue Roundtable I “Reframing US-China Bipolar Dynamics by Pluralizing into China-West Relations”

16:00-17:30 China-West Dialogue Roundtable II “International Norms and Global Engagement Platforms”

18:00-19:30 Reception

DAY 2 – Tuesday Oct. 24

09:00-10:00 Bilateral meetings

10:00-12:00 EU-China Think Tank Exchange Roundtable I “China-EU relations since Ukraine: reflections and outlooks” (tentatively entitled)

12:00-13:30 Lunch/Networking

14:00-16:00 EU-China Think Tank Exchange Roundtable II “China-Europe global governance cooperation” (tentatively entitled) (closed-door, by-EPC-invitation-only)

16:00-17:00 Bilateral meetings

List of international participants invited (alphabetic, tbc)

Martin Albrow, Honorary Vice-President, British Sociological Association; Honorary President, Global China Academy (confirmed)

Alan Alexandroff, Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI); Research Director of the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto (confirmed)

Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government and Founding Dean of Harvard Kennedy School

Mohamed Amersi, Founder and Chairman of the Amersi Foundation (confirmed)

Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow, CATO Institute (tentatively confirmed)

Slim Bahrini, Executive Director, Maghreb Economic Forum (MEF)

Salih Booker, Senior Program Officer for International Programs, Ford Foundation

Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London (tentatively confirmed)

Kent Calder, former Dean of SAIS, Johns Hopkins University (confirmed)

Jean Christophe Bas, Member of Executive Board, Aspen Institute France (tentatively confirmed)

Sergio Bitar, Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue; Vice President of the Board of Advisers, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) (confirmed)

Ricardo Borges de Castro, Associate Director and Head of the Europe in the World Programme, European Policy Centre (EPC) (confirmed)

Colin Bratford, Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Global Economy and Development Program, The Brookings Institution; Co-Lead, the China-West Dialogue (CWD) (confirmed)

Gilles Carbonnier, Vice President, International Committee of the Red Cross (tentatively confirmed)

Richard Carey, Senior Fellow and Senior Advisor, African Center for Economic Transformation (tentatively confirmed)

David Dollar, Senior Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center, The Brookings Institution

Paul Dziatkowiec, Head of Diplomatic Dialogue, Geneva Centre for Security Policy

Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, AEI (tentatively confirmed)

Mohd Faiz Abdullah, Chairman, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) (confirmed)

Tony Fang, Professor at Stockholm University

David J. Firestein, President and CEO of the Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations

Trine Flockhart, Professor, University of Southern Denmark

Richard Fontaine, CEO, Center for New American Security (CNAS)

Julia Ganter, Editor of The Berlin Pulse, Körber-Stiftung (confirmed)

Nathan Gardels, Noema Editor in Chief at the Berggruen Institute

Ryan Haas, Director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, Brookings

Amy Hawkins, Senior China correspondent at The Guardian

Richard Higgott, Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy, Brussels School of Governance

Bert Hoffman, Director of the East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore (NUS) (confirmed)

Steve Howard, Secretary General, The Global Foundation (tentatively confirmed)

Charlie Humphreys, Director of Corporate Affairs, Asia House

Ian Johnson, Stephen A. Schwarzman Senior Fellow for China Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Christian Kastrop, Professor for Public Finance at the Free University Berlin; former German State Secretary (tentatively confirmed)

Frederick Kempe, President and CEO, Atlantic Council

Helena Kolenda, Program Director for Asia, Henry Luce Foundation

Grzegorz W. Kolodko, Director, TIGER – Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research

Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director, Gateway House

Charles Labrecque, Director of Research, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

Sang-Hyun Lee, President, Sejong Institute (tentatively confirmed)

Melissa Leach, Director, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)

Seong-Hyon Lee, Senior Fellow, George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, Visiting Scholar, Harvard University's Asia Center & Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Julia Dias Leite, CEO, The Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI)

Bruno Liebhaberg, Director General, Centre on Regulation in Europe

Marlos Lima, Director for International Affairs, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV)

Mary Lovely, Professor of Economics, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University

Bronwen Maddox, Director and CEO, Chatham House

Paolo Magri, Vice President, Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ispi) (confirmed)

Frédéric Martel, Zurich Centre for Creative Economies, Zurich University of the Arts

Agnes Michalik, Managing Director, The Global Solutions Initiative (confirmed)

Rana Mitter, Professor at Harvard Kennedy School

Nora Müller, Executive Director of International Affairs, Körber-Stiftung

Francoise Nicolas, Senior Researcher and Director of the Center for Asian Studies, French Institute of International Relations (ifri) (confirmed)

Janka Oertel, Director of the Asia Programme, European Council on Foreign Relations

William H. Overholt, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government

Gladden J. Pappin, President, Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (tentatively confirmed)

Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Emanuel Yi Pastreich, Director, The Asia Institute

Michael Pillsbury, Senior Fellow at Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, The Heritage Foundation (confirmed)

Danny Quah, Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics and Dean at NUS Lee Kuan Yew School (tentatively confirmed)

Stephen Roach, Senior researcher of the Jackson Institute of Global Affairs at Yale University and former chief economist of Morgan Stanley

Robert Ross, Professor, Political Science Department, Executive Committee, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University

Jeffrey D. Sachs, University Professor, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University

Tobby Simon, President, Synergia Foundation (confirmed)

Tetsushi Sonobe, Dean and CEO, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)

Tim Summers, Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Michael D. Swaine, Senior Research Fellow, , Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (tentatively confirmed)

Jorge Toledo, Ambassador of the European Union to China (confirmed)

Susan Thornton, Senior Fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs (confirmed)

Gunnar Wiegand, Professor of Diplomacy in Practice in College of Europe, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Asia-Pacific Program at German Marshall Fund of the United States, Senior Advisor at European Policy Center

Guntram Wolff, Director and CEO, German Council on Foreign Relations

Younes Zangiabadi, Executive Vice President, Institute for Peace & Diplomacy

Fabian Zuleeg, Chief Executive, European Policy Centre (EPC) (confirmed)

List of prospective Chinese participants (alphabetic, tbc)

CHEN Bo, President of China Institutes for International Studies (CIIS)

CHEN Dongxiao, President, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (confirmed)

CHI Fulin, President, China Institute for Reform and Development

CUI Hongjian, Director of European Studies, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) (confirmed)

CUI Liru, Senior Advisor, China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR)

CUI Tiankai, Former Chinese Ambassador to the US

DU Zhanyuan, President, China International Communications Group (CICG) (confirmed)

FAN Gang, President, China Development Institute

FENG Zhongping, Director of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)

FU Ying, Chair, Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University

JIANG Kejun, Director of Energy Research Institute (ERI) at National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)

LI Cheng, Director of the Centre on Governance of China and the World, Hong Kong University

David D. Li, Director of Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE), Tsinghua University

LI Zheng, Director of Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Tsinghua University

LIN Songtian, President, Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) (confirmed)

LONG Guoqiang, Vice Minister of Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council

SHI Yinhong, Chairman of Academic Committee of the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China

SU Hao, Founding Director at Center for Strategic and Peace Studies, China Foreign Affairs University

Tang Heiwai, Associate Dean, Business School of Hong Kong University (tentatively confirmed)

TENG Jianqun, Director of the Center for American Studies, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS)

TU Xinquan, China Institute for WTO Studies, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE)

WANG Jisi, Founding President of the Institute of the International and Strategic Studies (IISS) at Peking University

WANG Yiwei, Jean Monnet Chair Professor and Director of International Affairs, Renmin University of China

WANG Yong, Professor and Director of Center for International Politics and Economy Studies, PKU

WEI Jianguo, Vice Minister of China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE)

WU Hailong, President, China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA); Former Chinese Ambassador to the European Union (confirmed)

WU Hongbo, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on European Affairs (confirmed)

WU Xinbo, Director of Center for American Studies, Fudan University; Institute of International Studies, Fudan University

XUE Lan, Dean of Schwartzman College, Tsinghua University (confirmed)

YAO Yang, Executive Dean, National School of Development at Peking University 

YAO Yunzhu, Director Emeritus of the Center on China-American Defense Relations, Chinese Academy of Military Sciences

YU Yunquan, President of Academy of Contemporary China and the World (ACCW) (confirmed)

YUAN Ming, Dean, Yenching Academy of Peking University

YUAN Peng, President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR)

ZHANG Yuyan, Director of Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

ZHENG Yongnian, Presidential Chair Professor and Founding Director of the Advanced Institute of The Institute for International Affairs, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

ZHU Xufeng, Dean of School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University