Lecture: ‘A frozen Europe and a fast changing China: the dilemma of the Sino-European relationship’

11am

Leiden Asian Centre, University of Leiden

Griffith-Tsinghua Conference: “Chinese Scholars Debate International Relations”, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation

Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made the ‘China Dream’ one of his key policies. This dream is broadly defined as the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. What are its implications for China’s neighbours? And whose dream is it anyway? Martin Jacques and others in discussion.

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Anyone eager to get answers about the rise of China as a superpower and its effects on Asia can attend a lecture by renowned author Dr Martin Jacques.

The lecture, titled “China and the World in the 21st Century”, will be held at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations’ (IDFR) auditorium in Kuala Lumpur at 10am on Nov 5.

Dr Jacques, the author of the bestselling book When China Rules the World, was a journalist in Britain.

He served as the editor of London-based monthly Marxism Today and deputy editor of The Independent newspaper. He has also contributed to other newspapers as a columnist.

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Carmen N. Pedrosa

With President Rody Duterte at its helm, the Philippines is poised to restructure relations with other countries. He said it best in his own words.

“We will be friends with every country provided it is in the Philippine interest.”

His visit to China this week is a dramatic application of that policy. So far, the visit has been going well with Filipinos and the Chinese reviving an ancient friendship between their peoples.

This was not the case with the previous administration. It had a bias towards the United States.

With China and the US competing for first place as the world power the Philippines was caught in between. This has been difficult because the US asserted itself as its former colonizer. We did what we were asked to. For a long while it was futile to think that we could get over the colonial rot of being America’s patsy in the region. But things change.

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Andrew Moody

The leaders of the leading emerging nations need to demonstrate the BRICS organization still matters when it meets for its eight summit in Goa on Oct 15, experts say.

The two-day meeting takes place against the backdrop of uncertainty surrounding some of the economies within the bloc.

High on the agenda will be institutional reform so the organization’s members, consisting of Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa as well as China, can work more effectively together to deliver results.

The summit, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend, and which will have a lotus flower in the color of each of its members as its emblem, will have a five-pronged approach to build a more coherent organization, which will include integration, innovation and exploring synergies among existing mechanisms.

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