Protect, Constrain, Contest: Approaches for coordinated transatlantic economic and technological competition with China
January 2021

The Biden Presidency offers opportunities for a renewed effort at formulating a coordinated allied approach to technological and economic competition with China. This report provides a guiding framework for transatlantic coordination, and offers insights into key elements of future cooperation. While challenges abound, the opportunities for action prove just as great in number.

Wings Along the BRI: Exporting Chinese UCAVs and Security?
May 2020

China’s pursuit of military innovation has met a more active diplomacy along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Filling the void left by traditional suppliers, Chinese Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) have proliferated along the BRI and are starting to affect Middle Eastern and African security landscapes. This Strategic Update explains the drivers and implications of these developments in the context of China’s modernising defence industrial base and more active role in security cooperation in the Global South. Read online / Download PDF

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Southeast Asia
October 2018

The Chinese Communist Party Congress: An Essential Guide
September 2017 

This Strategic Update is the essential guide to the Chinese Communist Party Congress, one of the world's most secretive and exclusive political meetings. Ahead of the 19th Party Congress in October 2017, the update also explores what will indicate if Xi Jinping plans to centralise his power in the party or maintain collective leadership. Read online / Download PDF

China's One Belt, One Road: A Reality Check
July 2017

The world is excited, yet confused about the potential of China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative. What exactly is it? This Strategic Update explains the origins of the idea, who in Beijing really runs OBOR, and the existential challenges to the project. Read online / Download PDF

From Deng to Xi: Economic Reform, the Silk Road, and the Return of the Middle Kingdom
May 2017

This report explores the extent to which Deng's momentous economic reforms in 1978 have shaped modern China, what the country's expanded international role under Xi means, and who really makes Chinese foreign policy. Read online / Download PDF

China's Geoeconomic Strategy
June 2012
This report assesses the economic bases of China’s foreign policy and the challenges the country faces as it makes the transition from rising power to superpower. Download PDF

Podcasts

China in One Country? Autarky, decoupling, and its implications
June 2020

Facing international upheaval due to COVID-19, and an increasingly hostile West, some speculate that China may experience a semi-Stalinist turn inward, and widespread technological and economic decoupling from the rest of the world. What is the truth behind these speculations, what is the internal debate within China, and what might this mean for China and indeed for the international community?

Made in China 2025: avoiding the middle-income development trap
March 2020

This panel discusses the challenges that China faces in avoiding the ‘middle-income trap’ of development and how this aims to be avoided through the ‘Made in China 2025’ industrial strategy.

Reassessing China's Economy in Uncertain Times
December 2019

This panel reassesses the Chinese economy and consider the effects of a slowing Chinese economy.

Redefining cross-strait relations: Taiwan elections 2020
November 2019

With the Taiwan elections approaching in January 2020, there grows a stirring, yet precarious, potential of a redefining shift in the nation’s foreign policy.

China's Peaceful Rise and the Thucydides Trap
January 2019

China first proposed a “peaceful rise” as early as by the end of 2003. As China emerged as a major economic and political power, however, there has been increasing concern regarding the role it plays in international trade and affairs over the last decade. In particular, a pivotal question about the world order in the present day is whether China and the United States can escape Thucydides Trap.

Clash of the Titans? China-US Relations from Nixon to Trump
December 2016

When Nixon opened a door to China in 1972  the world was turned upside down for ever. But what is the state of the US-China relationship nearly fifty years on? Margaret Macmillan and Christopher Coker discuss the past, present, and future of arguably the most significant relationship of the modern era.

The Decline of the West in the New Asian Century?
October 2016

Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman and experts from LSE IDEAS discussed his new book Easternisation, debating how far Asia's growing wealth will move the international balance of power away from the West, Chinese nationalism, and the US-China competition for allies in Asia.

UK-China: Stocks, Shakespeare, and Satellites
March 2016

British Ambassador to China Barbara Woodward on the 'Golden Era' of UK-China relations, the importance of public diplomacy, and building a strategic partnership.

Private Events

ICBCS and LSE IDEAS Belt and Road Initiative roundtable series - Which Emerging Markets will gain?

ICBC Standard Bank and LSE IDEAS are co-hosting a series of private discussions, bringing together leading experts from academic, policymaking and business communities to fully explore the global economic and financial impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The second explored the opportunities for emerging economies. 

ICBCS and LSE IDEAS Belt and Road Initiative Roundtable series - Can BRI bring China and Russia together?

ICBC Standard Bank and LSE IDEAS are co-hosting a series of private discussions, bringing together leading experts from academic, policymaking and business communities to fully explore the global economic and financial impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The first focused on how the BRI programme will impact China's relations with Russia. 

The New Silk Routes: How is infrastructure reconnecting Asia? 
LSE IDEAS-LSE Department for International Relations event

China’s recent revival of the historic ‘Silk Road’ has captured the imaginations of both policymakers and business leaders. At this event, representatives from the Reconnecting Asia project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC explained their ambitious initiative to map infrastructure projects across Eurasia.

China, Brexit, & the EU: Challenges, Uncertainties, & Opportunities?

This China Foresight-Dahrendorf Forum workshop explored strategic aspects of China-EU relations and how the Brexit debate will impact the newly revived bilateral relationship between Beijing and London. Included speakers from the Italian Foreign Ministry and the French Embassy.

Professor Chris Alden is Director of China Foresight. He is Director of LSE IDEAS and Professor of International Relations at LSE.

Professor Michael Cox is Senior Academic Adviser to the China Foresight Forum. He directed and taught on the LSE-PKU Summer School for several years. He has published widely on China’s relationship with the West and has been a central figure in the discussion as to whether China’s rise poses a serious threat or a major opportunity for the West.

Lukas Fiala is Project Coordinator for China Foresight.

China in One Country: interdependence or globalisation 'with Chinese characteristics'?
July 2020

In this Strategic Update, George Magnus investigates what is meant when China’s leadership speaks of globalisation, and what the implications of the answer are for the rest of the world. Read online / Download PDF

The Forum produces regular opinion pieces on our LSE Blogs.

Click here to visit the China Dialogues blog.

Upcoming Events

We do not have any upcoming Forum events. Be sure to check back for updates, or sign up to the LSE IDEAS Events Newsletter.

Past Events

Empire and Righteous Nation: Past, present and future of China-Korea relations
16 March 2021

This panel seeks to untangle the history of Korea’s relationship with China and, given that Sino-Korean relations will be of crucial importance in the future, build on this knowledge to recognize new opportunities, or avoid false paths, over the years to come.

2021: A Pivotal Year for China's Financial System?
9 March 2021

2021 may mark a turning point in the global standing of China’s financial system. From the digital yuan, to financial services liberalisation and US treasuries purchases, this panel seeks to explore key trends and place these in an increasingly fraught geopolitical context.

China in One Country? Autarky, decoupling, and its implications
11 June 2020

Facing international upheaval due to COVID-19, and an increasingly hostile West, some speculate that China may experience a semi-Stalinist turn inward, and widespread technological and economic decoupling from the rest of the world. What is the truth behind these speculations, what is the internal debate within China, and what might this mean for China and indeed for the international community?

The Forum comprises a wide range of expertise on China.  

Professor Christopher Alden, Professor of International Relations, LSE IDEAS

Gordon Barrass, Visiting Professor, LSE IDEAS

Hannah Bretherton, Member Engagement & Project Manager, Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce; Affiliate, Lau China Institute

Professor William Callahan, Professor of International Relations, LSE

Professor Christopher Coker, Director, LSE IDEAS  

Professor Michael Cox, Director, LSE IDEAS  

Professor Kent Deng, Professor of Economic History, LSE

Charles Dunst, Associate, LSE IDEAS

Jonathan Fenby, Associate, LSE IDEAS

Carrie Gracie, Senior Journalist, BBC

Patrick Horgan, Director of Government Relations, Rolls Royce

Sir Christopher Hum, Life Fellow, University of Cambridge

Nigel Inkster, Senior Advisor, IISS

Dr Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House

Guy de Jonquieres, Senior Fellow, European Centre for International Political Economy

Professor Jonathan Liebenau, Professor of Management, LSE

Michael Maclay, LSE IDEAS

George Magnus, Research Associate, Oxford University China Centre

Sir David Manning, Senior Advisor, Chatham House

Dr Bingchun Meng, Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Media and Communications, LSE            

Charles Parton, Senior Associate Fellow, RUSI

Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, Financial Times

Nadia Schadlow, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Lutfey Siddiqi, Visiting Professor in Practice, LSE IDEAS

Dr Xin Sun, Lecturer in Chinese and East Asian Business, KCL

Anthony Vinci, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director, US and the Americas Programme, Chatham House & Reader in International Relations, SOAS

Geoffrey Yu, Associate at LSE IDEAS and Senior Market Strategist at Bank of New York Mellon