The FCCC holds regular social and professional events, including talks by policymakers, novelists, scholars and other prominent individuals.
This event is part of an ongoing series of talks by journalists about culture, organised by UCCA and FCCC.
Please join fellow journalist Marcus Muhariwa and Tanaka Masayoshi for a discussion on reporting in Africa. Marcus covered politics and society in his native Malawi and will return to journalism there after a year studying in Beijing, while Tanaka-san was stationed in Kenya and Paris before moving to China for NHK in 2004.
DATE: March 21
TIME: 11 am (Sunday)
REGISTRATION: no
VENUE:
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, 798 Art District, JiuXianQiaoLu No.4, ChaoYang District, Beijing, 100015, 北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路4号，798艺术区，尤伦斯当代艺术中心 100015
Spring has already arrived in Beijing even if you can’t see it out your window. Spend this cool Friday evening in warm company at The Bookworm. One week later, one hour later. We will start at 7 pm instead of the usual 6 pm starting time. See you there!
DATE: Friday, March 12
TIME: 7-10:30pm
VENUE: The Bookworm
ENTRANCE: Free. Non-members very welcome as always
DRINKS DISCOUNT: FCCC members wielding a valid membership card get the usual crazy discounts on draught Carlsberg and Yanjing, bottled Tsing Tao, house wine and mixed drinks.
TITLE 1: Is China “Unhappy”? (TITLE 2: “Coming Currency Wars?” please see below)
DATE: Thursday, March 11 – 19:30-21:00
SPEAKER: Mr Wang Xiaodong (王小东), author of “China is Unhappy”
International news reports on the riots in Tibet and Xinjiang, and on the 2008 Olympic torch relay, caused a stir among young Chinese, who accuse the Western media of distorting the truth and the real China. Washington’s recent arm sales to Taiwan and President Obama’s meeting with Dalai Lama saw a robust response from Beijing, which issued an unprecedented public warning of sanctions against US arms companies. Has China changed or have we ever really known the real China? What is the real China? Mr Wang Xiaodong, one of the co-authors of the controversial book “China is Unhappy”, asks these questions. He argues that it is better for the “Western press” and China to enhance their understanding of each other, “rather than stick to banal opinions”. He will seek to explain why China is “unhappy”.
TITLE 2: Coming Currency Wars?
DATE: Friday, March 19 – 12:00-13:30
SPEAKER: Gong Shengli (巩胜利), author of “China is Very Happy”
Fending off foreign pressure, China’s central bank has said at least three times that the Yuan will not appreciate. But Mr Gong Shengli will show why it must — and soon. Come hear him give his reasons for that, and why he also thinks the Yuan “will have to fight for its place on the global stage”. Will the Yuan one day become as accepted as the world’s currency as the Dollar and the Euro? He will seek to answer that in this talk.
VENUE for both talks: Face Bar
26 Dongcaoyuan, Gongti (behind the Cervantes Institute)
工体南路东草园26号 (map, website)
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 50 rmb on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com so we know numbers and for security clearance. When you sign up for these talks, please specify which of the two sessions you’ll be attending.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Wang Xiaodong (王小东) is a researcher at the Communist Youth League-affiliated China Youth and Children Research Center. He is better-known as one of the co-authors of the controversial book “China is Unhappy” and is widely seen as a leading thinker among China’s nationalists.
Gong Shengli (巩胜利) is an independent scholar and the current chief researcher of Guoqing Neican (国情内参), a weekly magazine published as internal reference for China’s ministries. Mr Gong has been studying international and Chinese social and economic issues for over 30 years. His articles have been published at home and abroad in several publications including People’s Daily, Southern Weekend, Fortune Magazine, Newsweek. He is also the main author of the book “China is Very Happy”.
SPEAKER: Linda Jakobson, Acting Director of the China and Global Security Programme of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
With global warming, the prospect of the Arctic being navigable during summer months has become real. That has impelled the Chinese government to allocate more resources to research on the energy-rich Arctic region.
Several Chinese academics have encouraged their government to be aware of the political, economic and military implications of shorter shipping routes and untapped energy resources. However, Chinese officials advocate caution for fear of causing alarm and provoking countermeasures among the Arctic states. Beijing-based SIPRI Senior Researcher Linda Jakobson will discuss a new report she authored: “China and the High North prepare for an ice-free Arctic”. The report is is based on Chinese sources and interviews with Chinese scholars and officials. Press Release, Report
DATE: Monday, March 8 2010
TIME: 14:00-15:30
VENUE:
Royal Norwegian Embassy
1, Dong Yi Jie, San Li Tun
100600 Beijing
挪威使馆，朝阳区三里屯东一街1号
Tel: +86 10 8531 9600, website , map
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 50 rmb on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com so we know numbers and for security clearance
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Linda Jakobson is the Acting Programme Director and Beijing-base Senio Researcher of the China and Global Security Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). She previously worked for ten years at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), most recently as Director of China Programme and Senior Researcher. Jakobson has lived and worked in China for over 15 years and published six books on Chinese politics, foreign policy, and East Asian society. Jakobson’s research at SIPRI focuses on China’s foreign and security policy as well as regional security issues in Northeast Asia.
SPEAKER: Professor Victor C. Shih, Northwestern University
Did China achieve the impossible by chalking up nearly 9 per cent GDP growth while maintaining deficit at a low level? The reality: only a small share of the 26 trillion yuan or so in central and local stimulus projects is financed out of Chinese government budget. To raise money for these stimulus projects, local governments set up some 8,000 local investment companies, which issued equity and bonds, and borrowed from banks.
Prof Shih estimates that local government investment companies have borrowed US$1.68 trillion dollars (11 trillion yuan). Local investment companies continue to take on more debt to finance projects. This debt is onerous for local governments, most of which run perennial deficits. Totting up the total debt of the Chinese government – rather than just official debt – China, in fact, has a relatively high debt-to-GDP ratio.
And this debt burden has other broader implications, Prof Shih will show. In the years to come, millions more urban residents will be forced to relocate so that land can be sold – to repay banks.
DATE: Wednesday, March 17th 2010
TIME: 12:30-14:00
VENUE:
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business 长江商学院
Oriental Plaza, 12th floor, Tower E3 (Ernst&Young Tower 安永大楼)
1 East Chang An Avenue, Beijing 100738, China
Tel: 010-85188552 (website)
中国北京市东长安街 1 号东方广场东 3 座 12 层
English map, Chinese map
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 50 rmb on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com so we know numbers and for security clearance
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Professor Victor C. Shih is a political economist at Northwestern University specialising in China. An immigrant to the US from Hong Kong, Prof Shih received his doctorate in Government from Harvard University, where he researched banking sector reform in China with the support of the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship and the Fulbright Fellowship.
He is the author of a new book published by the Cambridge University Press entitled Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation. It is the first book to probe the links between elite politics and banking policies in China. He has also written numerous articles for academic and business journals, including The China Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, The Asian Wall Street Journal and The Far Eastern Economic Review. He is also frequent adviser to the private sector on the banking industry in China. His current research covers the dynamics of elite politics and local government debt in China.
