Lecture and Colloquium Tech & Society: “Can Regulation Revive China’s Sagging Economy?”
Aspen Institute España and Fundación Telefónica hosted the first Lecture and Colloquium of the VIII Edition of the Tech & Society Program on “Can Regulation Revive China’s Sagging Economy?” next Tuesday, June 11th with Angela Zhang, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong and Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Center for Chinese Law. José Ignacio Torreblanca, journalist and director and senior researcher at the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), moderated this lecture. This meeting took place in English and was interpreted in LSE.
Can Regulation Revive China’s Sagging Economy?
China’s economy is at a crossroads, facing its most significant challenges in recent memory. Amidst this economic turmoil, a fierce debate has emerged among experts: Is the current economic downturn a result of ingrained structural issues, recent policy shifts, or escalating geopolitical tensions?
In this talk, Professor Angela Zhang will offer a fresh perspective, steering the conversation towards the impact of law on the Chinese economy. Drawing insights from her latest book, “High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy,” Professor Zhang will introduce the “Dynamic Pyramid Model” to demystify China’s regulatory governance. Through this lens, she will explain the consistent regulatory pattern in some of the biggest policy challenges China has faced in recent years, including tech regulation, the covid-19 pandemic control, the energy crisis in 2021, the ongoing property crack down and China’s demographic crisis. This discussion aims to shed light on the political logic underpinning China’s regulatory policies, while also identifying potential pathways toward economic revival.
Angela Zhang
Angela Zhang is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong and Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Center for Chinese Law. Widely recognized as a leading authority on China’s tech regulation, Angela has written extensively on this topic. She is the author of “Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation” (Oxford, 2021), which was named one of the Best Political Economy Books of 2021 by ProMarket. Angela’s second book, “High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy,” was released by Oxford University Press in March 2024. In fall 2024, Angela will join the University of Southern California as a Professor of Law.
José Ignacio Torreblanca
Director of the Madrid office and Senior Researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and teaches Political Science at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) in Madrid. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the journals Esglobal, Política Exterior and Ethic, a trustee of the Felipe González Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Real Instituto Elcano de Estudios Internacionales. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Hermes Institute, dedicated to the promotion of digital rights. To his academic and research activity he adds a public communication dimension as a weekly columnist for the newspaper El Mundo, a regular contributor to Radio Nacional de España (RNE) and Radio Televisión Española (RTVE). Previously, he was the editorial director of El País and a member of its Editorial Board. He has interviewed Anne Applebaum, George Soros, Paul Collier, Ivan Krastev, Felipe González, Javier Solana and Josep Borrell. Torreblanca regularly advises European institutions, governments, and companies on technology and geopolitics. Recently, he has collaborated with the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the design and analysis of the contents of the EU-LAC Digital Alliance launched in Bogota in March 2022 as well as in the design and contents of the EU Digital External Strategy approved by the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) in July 2022. His latest publications on technology and geopolitics include: ‘Onwards and Outwards: Why the EU Needs to Move from Strategic Autonomy to Strategic Interdependence’ (ECFR, August 2023); ‘The EU: A force for (digital) Good? (in Tech4Democracy, IE University, July 2023); ‘The EU and Latin America: Convergences and divergences’ (EUISS, July 2023), co-authored with Carla Hobbs et al.; ‘Digital diplomacy: How to unlock the Global Gateway’s potential in Latin America and the Caribbean’ (ECFR, May 2023); ‘Insights from an AI author: ‘The geopolitical consequences of ChatGPT’, co-authored with Víctor Muñoz’ (ECFR, February 2023),’Ukraine one year on When tech companies go to war’ (ECFR, March 2023) and ‘Critical material: The EU’s and Chile’s new relationship in the multipolar world’, co-authored with Lucía Dammert (ECFR, diciembre 2023).
VIII Edition of the Tech & Society Program
Aspen Institute España and Fundación Telefónica launched the VIII Edition of the Tech & Society Program.
