Date: Monday 13 June 2022
Time: 6.30pm-7.30pm AEST
Location: Online event
About the event:
How, why and when do dominant narratives flip in different parts of the world, and what impact does this have on real world policies? Despite the best endeavours of the Chinese leadership to change the way that China’s rise is perceived and debated overseas, negative opinions have increased and become louder in many parts of Europe in the last five years or so. Indeed, the way that what is often called China’s Soft Power agenda has been pursued in Europe has become part of the problem for China rather than the solution. Of course, there are other drivers of change too; shifting internal power dynamics in both Europe and China, as well as the nature of economic interactions between the two. And it is a relationship that does not exist in isolation from China’s relationships with other parts of the world.
And yet even as China is increasingly viewed as the major challenge to the “rules based international order”, it is also still viewed as one of the best bets for future global economic dynamism, and a necessary partner in search of global environmental solutions. The challenge then, as in some ways it has always been, is how to access any benefits of China’s rise that might be going around, whilst resisting the perceived negative challenges that this rise also generates.
About the speaker:
Shaun Breslin is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. His latest book, China Risen? Studying Chinese Global Power, was published by Bristol University Press in 2021.
Image credit: Photo by Nik Ramzi Nik Hassan on Unsplash