Co-organised by the Global China Institute, the Lau China Institute, (King’s College London), the China Media Centre (University of Westminster), and the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies (Renmin University of China), the event will take place on 7 December 2018, with additional options of Pre- and Post-Dialogue events.

Panels: 

• Inclusion  
• Environment
• Rights
• Conflicts    

Schedule: 

• Pre-Dialogue event: Thursday 6 December, 14:00-17:00 Digital Interconnection and Intelligent Manufacturing– Social Change and Cultural Transformation in Global Society Workshop, the University of Westminster
• Friday 7 December, 08:30-17:00 The Dialogue, the British Academy [Friday 7 December, 18:00-20:00 Reception, the UK Parliament (invited speakers and participants who have paid the full registration fees)]
• Post-Dialogue event: Saturday 8 December, 10:00-16:00, Academic Publishing and Knowledge Service Forum on China and China in Comparative Studies, King’s College London.

Programme (to be updated): Attached separately or click HERE

Speakers (in alphabetical order):

• Professor Sandra Fredman FBA, QC (hon), Rhodes Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the USA, Facuty of Law, University of Oxford, UK [tbc]
• Professor Lord Anthony Giddens, former Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK
• Ms Dorothy Guerrero, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Global Justice Now, UK
• Dr Marek Hrubec, Director and a Senior Fellow of the Department of Moral and Political Philosophy and the Centre of Global Studies, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
• Dr HUANG Jialiang, Associate Professor, Deputy Dean of the School of Sociology and Demography, Renmin University of China; Secretary General of Legal Sociology Specialized Committee, Chinese Sociological Association, China
• Professor Martin Jacques, Senior Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, UK; Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, China
• Dr Walter Wan Fai Lee, Assistant Professor and Programme Leader for Global and China Studies, School of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University of Hong Kong
• Professor LI Hong, School of Sociology, Northeast Normal University; Executive Director of Jilin Sociological Association, China
• E. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Embassy to the UK [tbc]
• Professor Dr Elke Mack, Chair of Department of Christian Social Ethics and Social Sciences, University of Erfurt, Germany
• Dr Maurizio Marinelli, Senior Lecturer in East Asian History, Co-Director Sussex Asia Centre, University of Sussex, UK
• Mr David Meyer, Head of International, Ministry of Justice, UK
• Professor Susan Robertson, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge; Editor in Chief – Globalisation, Societies and Education
• Professor Charles Sampford, Director of the Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law (IEGL), Griffith University, Australia
• Dr Li Sun, Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds; Consultant to UN, World Bank, OECD, and China
• Mr Steve Trent, co-Founder & Executive Director, Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), UK
• Professor WANG Fan, Vice-President of China Foreign Affairs University; Vice-President of China National Association for International Studies
• Dr WANG Jiangli, Director of UK office of Zhejiang University; former Deputy Director of Department of Political Science in School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, China
• Professor WANG Tie, former director of Institute of Information Sciences, Wuhan Academy of Social Sciences, China   
• Dr XIAO Hong, Professorial Editor-in-Chief, China Academic Journal (CD) Electronic Publishing House, Director of Chinese Scientific Bibliometrics Research Centre of CNKI, General Manager of International Publishing Centre of CNKI, China
• Dr Maung Zarni, Fellow of the Sleuk Rith Institute (a Permanent Documentation Centre), Cambodia
• Dr ZHANG Xiaodong, General Secretary and Executive Director of the Academic Board of China Management Science Society; ECO of Agile Think Tank, China; Deputy Director of Global China Institute, UK
• Professor ZHU Guanglei, Vice President of Nankai University; Deputy Director of the National Political Science Education Steering Committee, China

Organizing Committee (in alphabetical order):

Chairs  

• Professor Xiangqun Chang, Director of Global China Institute; Honorary Professor of University College London
• Professor Kerry Brown, Director of Lau China Institute, King’s College London
• Professor Hugo de Burgh, Director of the China Media Centre, University of Westminster

• Professor WANG Wen, Executive Dean, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China (RDCY), China

General Secretary Mr Philip Hao, CEO, UVIC Group, UK; Vice-General Secretary, Global China Institute

Members

• Professor Martin Albrow FAcSS, Honorary Vice-President of the British Sociological Association (BSA); Honorary President, Global China Institute, UK; Emeritus Professor of the University of Wales, UK 
• Dr Dongning Feng, Senior Lecturer, former Director of the Centre for Translation Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK
• Mr Chris Henson, Membership Secretary, Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, UK
• Professor Martin Jacques, Senior Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, UK; Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, China
• Professor LI Qiang, Dean of Institute of Minsheng Economic Research, Tsinghua University; Honorary President, Global China Institute, UK; former President of Chinese Sociological Association, China    
• Professor Wei Li FAcSS, Chair of Centre for Applied Linguistics, University College London, UK
• Professor LUO Jiaojiang, Dean of Institute of Social Development, Wuhan University, China; Deputy Director of Global China Institute, UK  
• Professor Tony McEnery, FAcSS, FRSA,  Director of Strategy at Trinity College London; former interim Chief Executive and Research Director of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); Distinguished Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Lancaster University, UK
• Professor ZHANG Letian, Director of the Centre for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Director of Contemporary China Social Life Data and Research Centre (CCSLC), Fudan University, China; and Co-Director of Global China Institute, UK 

Supporters and sponsors: click HERE

Key dates:

• Early Bird online registration (10% off): by 30 September 2018
• Standard online registration: 31 October 2018
• Final programme: 15 November 2018

Languages: English and Chinese

Publications: The Global China Dialogue Series is the only international event in the world which publishes its proceedings in English and Chinese separately, and with a DOI number for each set of speech notes in both editions. Click HERE

Registration fees:

Free: 

• 6 December, participating in Pre-Dialogue event
• 7 December, assisting at the GCD V, without evening Reception
• 8 December, participating in Post-Dialogue event 

UK:

£180: 7 Dec. without evening Reception 

£280: 7 Dec. with evening Reception 

International: In order to attract as wide a participation as possible, the Global China Dialogue Series and related events are arranged in four different venues in London. We offer five- and seven-day packages inclusive of fees and all costs except international flight tickets:

£980: 5–9 December 

£1180: 5–11 December

Contact: Ms Lisa Wilkinson info@gci-uk.org 

Website: http://dialogue.global-china.org/

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Just earlier this month, CNNIC (the China Network Information Centre) came out with its 35th report about the Chinese Internet. Done twice every year, it reported that China has (still!) yet to reach the point at which over half the population was online. It also reported a few others ups and downs, although even here with the slower-than-expected growth, the Chinese Internet of tomorrow still remains an interesting place to keep oneâ€s eye out for.

Even a mere skim of the report reveals fascinating insights about how the Internet of China might develop. Here are some of the more interesting findings:

• By December 2014, China had an online population of 649 million. Whilst this was 31.17 million more than last year, the percentage of those online in comparison to the wider population still remained just short of the 50% mark: it was at 47.9%. (However, in late 2013, this figure was lower: 45.8%.)
• Also by late December 2014, the Chinese Internet was increasingly more and more mobile-centred. Of the 649 million Internet users, 557 million of them access the Web via their mobile devices. This was an increase of 56.72 million — a more sizeable increase than the general growth on a nationwide scale.
• Much of the online population in late 2014 remained in the cities — users in the countryside accounted for a mere 27.5% of the entire e-population, at a “mere” 178 million. It still was able to register an increase, however, this time adding 1.88 million new users from the period after late 2013.
• New in the late 2014 report (over the late 2013 report) was the addition of Internet-ready TV as a new connection device. Where this figure was in essence “zero” for late 2013, this grew to 15.6% for late 2014.
• More users started using both school and public Internet (including probably at wifi cafés that were not regarded as “traditional” Internet cafés). In particular for the latter, where 14.6% connected via a “public location” in late 2013, this had gone up to 18% by late 2014.
• The Internet, once the domain of students and the jobless, is now increasingly that of the self-employed and the freelancers. The largest increase from late 2013 to late 2014 in terms of users by profession was that of the self-employed and freelancers (18.6% in late 2013, 22.3% in 2014). The population of students and the jobless sank the most. Only second in terms of growth were that of “regular employees” at the average workplace (11.4% by late 2013, 14.2% by late 2014).
• More and more of Internet users also had incomes. The most visible increases in the monthly income bracket groups were that between Â¥3,001–¥5,000 (roughly £300–¥500), registering an increase of 4.4%. In the meantime, those with no income drastically shrank from 9.7% in late 2013 to a mere 2.2% by late 2014; what was the 6th most populated group in late 2013 became the least populous by late 2014.
• Probably due to the increased censorship on Weibo (as well much more strict legislation), Weibo saw probably the most significant loss of users; where as 45.5% of Internet users were using the service in late 2013, this registered a 11.4% loss so that by late 2014, a mere 38.4% were using the service. The user base loss was even greater on the mobile version of Weibo, where a 13% loss was seen (39.3% by late 2013, a mere 30.7% by late 2014).

Both via reports and through general observations, one is able to forecast the following, going into 2015:

• The Internet is slowly reaching a saturation point in China — whereas some were more upbeat and predicted the country breaking the 50% barrier in terms of “e-proliferation” by late 2014, this was somewhat unexpectedly not met. The result, however, also defies more recent trends: whereas in late 2012, the number of users not online who indicated an intention of “definitely remaining offline” or “probably remaining offline” reached a recent peak of 77.3%, in 2013 and 2014, this figure was lower. What can be seen, however, is the simultaneous reduction in the number of offline users committed to going online — as in those who stated in the research that they were “definitely” or “likely” going online (down to 11.1% in late 2014 from a recent peak in 2011 of 16.3%).
• E-commerce on mobile has seen probably one of the largest increases in the past year (2014). The report mentioned growths of 63.5%, 73.2%, and 69.2%, respectively for mobile shopping, mobile purchases, and mobile banking, over figures for the year before (2013). Probably the largest increase was seen in mobile e-commerce when it came to booking travel online — the 194.6% increase is probably attributable to Chinese national railways rolling out (at long last!) its own official mobile booking app.
• A new development in 2014 was the rolling out of O2O services. 39.2% of those in Tier 1 cities, mostly Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou (Canton), were using O2O services; one expects more growth in Tier 2 cities (such as Wuhan in central China) and Tier 3 (“lesser”) cities.
• The rise of WeChat will continue as Weibo continues tanking; however, interestingly enough, the report did not make specific mention of WeChat as a different kind of application (it was most likely “generalised” as an instant messaging application, a little unusual given its Swiss Army Knife-like uses).
• The era when the Internet was mostly the domain of the young, jobless, and students, has come and gone. More Internet users are ageing, and there is a visible increase in those users who actually earn income. With these people settling into the workplace, general discourse online could be expected to turn from the irrational to more rational issues.
• China is increasingly moving away from the “traditional” Internet when it comes to modes of access (as in what devices were used to surf the Web). Increasingly, tablets and even Web-ready TV sets are being used to connect. What is also of note, however, is that less than half of laptops (44.1% in late 2013, 43.2% in late 2014) are used to connect. This might seem to negate the primary reason for owning such a machine! It can also be hypothesised, however, that the relatively lightweight and more easily accessible mobile phone has a visible advantage over a comparatively more “clunky” laptop, even in this day and age of super-lightweight machines such as Appleâ€s MacBook Pro.

Here are trends we might wish to watch as we head further into 2015:

• Urbanisation is still in progress and is likely to continue making an impact. As a result, one would expect a continued increase in the number of users connecting from cities.
• In much the same vein, city-wide wifi may become much more the norm than a novelty (as was the case back in 2007). This will see an increase of those connecting “from public places”.
• In terms of general growth, oneâ€s attitude, in terms of the recent deceleration in Internet proliferation, will probably be more of a “wait and see” attitude when it comes to when Internet proliferation in China will break the 50% barrier.
• The ageing of China might mean one would see more users who are retired, although at 2.4% for late 2013 figures, and 2.8% for late 2014 statistics, this might still as yet be a minority.
• The explosions in popularising mobile Internet travel bookings is likely to see a visible decrease, as the user base is only so large (as long as the general user base does not see explosive growth). Mobile payments and other such types of transactions, however, will likely to see sustained increases; after the recent shaking on WeChat over Chinese New Year, reasons for such growth are made much more obvious.
• Finally, one cannot, when it comes to technology, rule out the emergence of a newer-still form of Internet communication in this day and age. In 2009 and 2010, Weibo was the “big newcomer”; by around 2012 and 2013, this was WeChatâ€s turn. Now in 2015 and going into 2016, one might be forgiven for imaging a yet newer arrival, although given WeChatâ€s strong foothold at present, the hypothesised “new bigcomer” would have to have more “oomph” and impetus to convince users to use such a service for it to growth at the rates that Weibo and WeChat have done in the past.

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Happy Year of the Sheep!

Some of us might remember what the shake does in Google Maps — we had quite a few that “shook” the phone with the app running by mistake — and were asked to provide feedback at a time when we were more likely shaking the app for having led us into a cul-de-sac! (Obviously, the timing wasn’t quite right!)

The shaking continued, as of late, but in a different part of the world…

In China, where the Year of the Goat (or Ram, or Sheep) was being celebrated, WeChat, a very popular instant messaging and social media network (which, given its functionality set, no longer qualifies as a “mere Facebook for China”), was the centre of activity. It probably mattered less than the main show on Chinese New Yearâ€s Eve was supposedly the New Yearâ€s Gala on Central Television; to most, it was more about shaking oneâ€s smartphone. At fixed time, the social network would release “red packets of money”, which would be electronically credited to a userâ€s account — and to get that, users would shake their smartphones with the WeChat app running. Obviously, because this was getting something for nothing, much of the audienceâ€s attention was fixed — to the five-inch screen of the average smartphone rather than the fifty-inch television screen in the main room!

A glance at the statistics (from Chinese site TMT Post) would give readers more insight on the “mass shaking”…

• 11 billion times: This was how many “shakes” were registered for the entire duration of China Central Televisionâ€s 2015 Spring Festival Gala (running from 20:00 on 18 February 2015 to 00:48 the next day)
• 810 million shakes: At 22:34 on 18 February 2015, this was how many “shakes” were registered.
• 1.01 billion: The total amount of “red packets of money” sent on Chinese New Yearâ€s Eve (a general total).

Unsurprisingly, most of the shaking took place in the better-developed eastern half of China, with the coastal areas between Shanghai and Guangzhou (Canton) being the most active. (This is because most of the larger cities in China are in the eastern part of the country.)

Users werenâ€t always guaranteed a win, however, and in most cases, a surprising number of people went into the new year empty-handed. However, there were also cases to “shake and greet” friends and family on WeChat — which made a message quite unique.

What This Means for the Spring Festival Gala

WeChat remains highly popular with the young — and it shows a further “split” in audiences. Jokes often tell of those born in the 1950s watching TV using 50-inch screens, whilst those born in the 1990s would watch it on their 9-inch phablets. This probably couldnâ€t have been truer with the rush for “red packets of money”, most likely from users born in the 1970s and later.

Increasingly, the younger generation have steadily tuned out of the Spring Festival Gala in past years, regarding it more as an official propaganda show “with Spring Festival characteristics”. In response, directors have tended to “rejuvenate” the show, using more than a mere sprinkling of Internet language. (This has also provoked a backlash from the elder generation, whom now were unable to wade through the “young netspeak”!)

To try to attract as many young viewers as possible, Chinese Central TV has made efforts to make the show more relevant to younger audiences. Linking it up with WeChat and getting young people excited about “shaking” for prizes has proven to be a hit — to the extent many of the servers were tottering during peak demand periods.

This year, there were other interactive elements with a WeChat element on the Spring Festival Gala. Users were able to submit their pictures of family gatherings so they could win the chance of having it shown publicly on television. In a country excited as ever about singing (this still being the case even with the recent closure of a noted karaoke centre in Beijing), Central TV decided to “crowdsource” the singing of parts of the song, Itâ€s Hard to Forget Tonight (难忘今宵), which is often played at the very end of the gala.

That element also worked well, although viewers reported hearing people singing out of tune (but what can one expect when hundreds, if not thousands, are singing — apparently uncoordinated — at the same time?). The gala has certainly come a long way since its very first editions in earlier years — the Chinese President no longer comes on stage to make deliver political speeches, and the audience is increasingly given more “stage access”, even if they are comparatively more minor.

What This Means for Interaction on Television

Television was never a “truly” interactive medium in the strictest of the sense. A camera set and an external microphone are probably the mere essentials when associating with “anything TV”; this, in fact, doesnâ€t even come close to what is needed for what some might term as “the full enchilada”: also highly essential are editing tools and the means to make your TV channel visible to the audience — often a case of “the more, the merrier”. Budgets easily run into five or six digits on the roughest of all guesses for the mere essentials; anything more sophisticated, and the number of figures before the decimal point will continue to build.

The Internet, on the other hand, is much more interactive than television. Even if no external devices were purchased and only the average high-end Apple smartphone is used, the cost is still well within £800 (or around RMB 8,000), or just a little more if a data pack with Internet access comes into play. Users are given, on platform such as YouTube (internationally) or Youku (inside China), much the same level playing field as the traditional broadcasters — whom also happen to be on the service.

Due to the fact that setting up a TV station can be prohibitively expensive, setting up something digitised that is similar on the Internet is much more attractive. This means that, through the Internet, audiences will be increasingly more interactive. In fact, Ha Wen, director of the gala, was quoted as hoping people would be “happy” in taking part in interaction (as well as watching the traditional gala on TV). This obviously worked — but it also took away more eyes from the big screen as some were addicted to shaking for prizes.

What This Means for Platforms Like WeChat

For platforms such as WeChat, the one big differentiator that will continue to build — and make the service unique — is just how much it wonâ€t be a mere “Facebook for China”. At the very least, shaking your smartphone with Facebook running will likely turn out a far less spectacular result — than getting something for nothing!

WeChat has caught on as it is appearing to become “the one app for everything”, but also because it has hit a sweet spot with the authorities. Weibo and other the microblog providers provided users with a stage to be heard (provided you were retweeted by key users known as the “big Vs”), but this also has meant there were far greater risks for the site operators — even if keywords were checked before posting, the creativity of some users would mean that content Beijing finds objectionable might still be able to escape and be disseminated.

WeChat, on the other hand, doesnâ€t force users to adopt a “real” real-name policy (unless you register for a public account, whereupon you have to have a picture of you holding your Chinese ID card taken). However, posted on the basic service are only available to a userâ€s friends; there is no “follow” option for random strangers, and users often will create lists or tag lists to limited what is shared with whom. If one elects to deliberately neglect WeChatâ€s public accounts, the speed at which content Beijing might find objectionable will spread at much faster rates on Weibo than on WeChat. The Chinese government is probably less scared about critical comments than it is of people using the Internet to mobilise. The combination of “one app for all”, plus a system which brings less headaches for the censors, might make WeChat the social service for China.

Where a network continues to grow, it will inevitably add new “bells and whistles”, and the redone “shake” function to, with a bit of luck, beget users an extra bit of pocket money in the form of “red packets of money” is a plus for users and vendors alike. For commercial enterprises, it is in particular a big winner when branding is included. For users, especially those in China, they could always want a little more of a little something for free.

(The ultimate example would have been what happened to Beijing in 2003. When a new pay ringway opened in the Chinese capital, very few cars used it; they favoured a heavily congested, but still free, ringway a little closer to the centre of town. The Chinese are far likelier to pay for something that is of real value — and what value is there not “red packets of money” that contain money — given to you (or won by you) for free?)

What This Means for the Future

Itâ€s still too early to say if the era of non-interactive TV is over — not just for China but on a wider basis. TV channels in central China have tried to get people excited by showing QR codes or getting people to shake at random times — with prizes the dimensions of TVs at times.

Television has remained rather “non-interactive” in the day of the Internet. It might have started an “interactive” medium in its earlier days, but with platforms as dynamic and interactive as the Web, it no longer has what it has to keep audiences merely glued to the screen.

Whether or not this will “stick” in future still remains to be seen. Itâ€s tempting to say that what has happened now has moved mountains — a more accurate reflection would have been that it was a good, interactive addition to a show that has been part of the Spring Festival, certainly in more recent decades. Whether or not this will stick for other Chinese festivals, such as the Moon Festival, will be something one will only find out when we get nearer to the day.

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25 MA students  from Hong Kong Baptist University, specialising in Financial Journalism, attended the CMC study trip “Financial and Economic Reporting in the UK” from 3 January until 10 January 2010. The delegation was lead by Prof Huang Yu, who took his PhD at the University of Westminster under Professor Colin Sparks and is Head of Department of Journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University. Among highlights were visits to the Financial Times, London Stock Exchange, BBC and City of London. The trip was designed by Dr Zeng Rong and managed by Alja Kranjec.

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China Central Television was the venue for a 2-day Workshop on British journalism organized by China Media Centre in October 2009. Speakers were Hugo de Burgh, CMC Director, Kevin Sutcliffe, C4â€s Head of Current Affairs, Steve Hewlett, presenter of BBCâ€s The Media Show, Zhang Jie, Editor of CCTVâ€s News Investigation and Yang Rui, Presenter of CCTVâ€s Dialogue.

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‘China and the New Green Dealâ€, a China Media Centre conference, was held in Parliament in June 2009. It was the 6^th conference on China held by CMC in Parliament.

A one-day CMC seminar was held in the Houses of Parliament to address the implications of China’s management of its environmental challenges for government policy and British business. It was hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on China and sponsored by Norton Rose. 170 people attended, from business, the policy world and media.

One of CMCâ€s research themes, along with regulation, journalism and innovation in the media, is the relationship between media and environment. This seminar is one of several initiatives connected with this theme, including a workshop at Caijing magazine in  Peking, producing a report on journalism and the environment for International Media Support and being knowledge partner for the October Wilton Park Conference on Chinaâ€s environment.

• Programme: 090625OnDayProgramme2x
• 306009 Speakers biographies

This is a conference of the China Media Centre for the APPCG, with Knowledge Partner, Norton Rose LLP. With assistance from the Chinese Embassy and Chinadialogue http://www.chinadialogue.net/

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The CMC director, Hugo de Burgh, joined the Chinese Ambassador Ms Fu Ying on a panel which also included the Lib-Dem Leader in the Upper House, Lord McNulty, and the Shadow Foreign Affairs Secretary Michael Moore MP.

WILTON PARK

The CMC partnered Wilton Park (an Executive Agency of the Foreign Office) with a conference called Working in China on Sustainable Growth — The Climate Change, Environment, Energy Nexus. The Vice Chancellor, Prof Geoffrey Petts, Visiting Professor Hu Zhengrong (Deputy President, China Communications University), Prof Hugo de Burgh and Dr Zeng Rong participated and represented University of Westminster. For further information please click on the link below.

Report on Wilton Park Conference WP1000 Final 281009

CONFERENCE ON BRITISH JOURNALISM

CUC and CMC are holding a conference in Beijing in October 2009. CMC is supplying 2 celebrity UK journalists Stephen Hewlett and Kevin Sutcliffe (paid for under the IMS contract) and its Director to speak at a CUC conference in October 2009. Steve Hewlett both presents The Media Show and writes regularly for The Guardian. He has a terrific track record as reporter and producer as well as in newspaper journalism.  Kevin Sutcliffe is Deputy Head of News & Current Affairs at C4 and has been responsible for the renaissance of the investigative series DISPATCHES. CUC has undertaken to provide an audience of influential media managers from the mainstream

FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR

Copyright by Frankfurt Book Fair

EU Commissioner Orban and Chinese Minister for Culture, a French Diplomat and the CMC Director are the speakers at the EU-China Forum at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 15 October.

STATE COUNCIL

The highest-level ever delegation from Chinaâ€s State Council Information Office undertook a three week course designed for the China Media Centre by Simon Goldsworthy and Visiting Professor Trevor Morris, experts in branding and PR. Among the highlights were a colloquy with Lord Bell and senior figures at Chime Communications plc; visits to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Cabinet Office, the BBC and the Guardian Newspaper; talks about advertising from Sir Chris Powell and on the use of new media from former Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson MP; and a lecture in Edinburgh from John Brown, a PR expert who formerly shared an office at Scottish TV with his brother the current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and CMC Director Professor Hugo de Burgh.

SUMMER SCHOOLS

The China Media Centre has held its first 2 Summer Schools for Chinese media students. In July this was directed by former Reuters Editor Paul Majendie and in September by TV producer Dr Richard Wright. The students both learnt about the European media and undertook practical tasks, making TV features under the direction of Journalism Head of Department Geoffrey Davies. Both summer schools were managed by Alja Kranjec, who hopes to hold at least two each year from now on.

INNOVATION 1

In October CMC launches another first, a course specially designed for Chinese TV executives by Dr Zeng Rong entitled Innovation, creativity and programme development in UK television. This course is full; if successful CMC expects to offer it twice each year.

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Empire: How Britain made the Modern World is the most succinct description of how todayâ€s world came to be as it is. It will be a long time before a definitive exposition is written of how viagra generic China came to supplant that role. But a good many people are ready with the first drafts. Last week I listened to Stephen Green, Chairman of HSBC, tell the Vice Chancellors of Britain that the global balance was shifting.  A few days later, at the 48 Group New Year Celebration at the Dorchester, John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister, a couple of Ministers and the top cheeses of two of our big companies said much the same. Martin Wolf and lesser wiseacres in the FT concur.

They may be in too fast. My Chinese friends, despite being avid watchers of the CCTV series ‘Rise of the Great Powers†prefer to be modest about Chinaâ€s ascent. They remind me that thereâ€s a lot of poverty and that the recovery from 40 years of communist destruction is only just started. And there is a bevy of foreign China watchers, chaps like Will Hutton, who say it cannot possibly happen until China sorts out its politics and becomes like Britain, so there! But something big is happening in the world and the economic crisis has just accentuated it. Even if you donâ€t agree that China is about to displace the USA, then you may sign up to the widely acknowledged fact that the economic drive plus vast population of China poses some big challenges for the Anglophones, who, first under Britainâ€s leadership, and then the USAâ€s, have dominated, hard and soft, the world for a very long time.

The aim of this blog is to discuss the impact of these challenges on England. I will contribute some ideas regularly – but Iâ€m also writing to all the smart cookies I know to ask them to write in.

Today Iâ€m contacting two people Iâ€ve just enjoyed discussing Barack Obama with on an inauguration day chat show – Diane Abbott the socialist MP and Peter Oborne the Tory polemicist and investigative journalist. And Iâ€ll ask Stephen Green and the very bright China buffs from Pinsent Masons and Standard Chartered too. When we in the China Media Centre ran the Westminster Hearings on Chinaâ€s Impact in Parliament last year one of the best speakers was Liu Mingkang, Chairman of the Banking Reform Commission. And so on. These guys have ideas worth hearing, arguments worth tackling. Happy New Year. And I, by the way, am an Ox.

QUESTIONS WEâ€D LIKE YOU TO ADDRESS IN YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BLOG:

• What are the challenges that Chinaâ€s rise poses for this country? [do we need to change how we work, educate or provide social security?]
• What can we learn from China? In what ways can each countryâ€s culture be improved by learning from each other?
• What kinds of cooperation are possible between this country and China?

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In his review, Professor de Burgh opposes Will Huttonâ€s negative assessment of Chinaâ€s economic and political situation. Professor de Burgh argues that in order to understand the situation accurately an historical approach, which takes into account Chinaâ€s unique political, cultural and social past is required.

The China Review is produced by the Great Britain-China Centre. which is the leading UK body in the development of non-governmental relations with China. You can log onto The China Review website to view Professor de Burghâ€s article. Professor de Burgh has written widely on China – his most recent book is: China: Friend or Foe?

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If you would like to find out more about the CMC Westminster hearings, please download the attached brochure.Westminster Brochure.

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