Publisher's Synopsis
As part of our mission to serve as a bridge between China and the rest of
the world, each year the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) hosts
a range of speakers from around the world at its headquarters in Beijing.
We have also worked to build various bespoke channels and platforms to
enhance dialogue between scholars, business leaders, policymakers, and
young people from China and abroad. This includes an annual program of
seminars, workshops, and flagship events such as the China and Globalization
Forum and the Inbound-Outbound Forum. Representatives of CCG
also participate in international events to exchange views with people
around the world.
As part of these efforts, at the Munich Security Conference in February
2020, CCG held a discussion on China-US relations and co-hosted a
roundtable on maritime security to consult with counterparts from the
US and elsewhere on these key issues. As it turned out, this conference
was to prove one of the last major in-person international events before
the world was turned upside down by COVID-19. Subsequently, international
meetings and diplomatic summits were canceled in quick succession
as borders closed and cross-border travel ground to a halt.
Right when the world was facing a global health and economic crisis
that called for dialogue and cooperation, many of the usual channels of
interaction between people from different countries closed down. As the
pandemic spread and geopolitical tensions rose, there was a greater need
than ever for calm, rational discussion to share views, make sense of the
momentous changes that were occurring, and find ways to work together.
As life was interrupted for everyone around the world and many countries
endured rolling lockdowns, like everyone else, CCG worked to adapt
to these new circumstances. We reached out to old friends and new to set
up dialogues in a virtual format which allowed us to speak with leading
experts around the world from CCG's new multimedia center in Beijing
via video link. Although we were often separated by thousands of miles,
twenty-first-century technology allowed us to converse in real-time and
even lent a certain "fireside chat" intimacy to our virtual dialogues as
participants spoke unscripted and candidly from their own homes and
offices in various continents.
When we started the CCG Dialogue Series, we had no idea what course
the pandemic would take and when in-person meetings would resume.
We were eager to converse with experts from different countries and
disciplines that could help us put current events in context and explore
solutions to our shared challenges. The series continued to develop,
attracting audiences of hundreds of thousands of viewers in China and
abroad. The list of participants grew to include prominent journalists
and authors, Nobel laureates, former officials with extensive experience at
the highest levels of government and multilateral institutions, and worldrenowned
scholars in fields such as international relations, economics, and
trade.
