The Taiwan Studies Programme (TSP) is delighted to announce a Public Lecture by Charlie Parton China Ink on "China's diplomacy: what sort of 'community of shared future for mankind' and what might it mean for Taiwan?"
Biography
Charlie Parton spent 22 years of his 37 year diplomatic career working in or on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In his final posting he was seconded to the EU Delegation in Beijing, where, as First Counsellor until late 2016, he focussed on Chinese politics and internal developments, and advised the EU and Member States on how China’s politics might affect their interests. He has also had postings in Afghanistan, Cyprus, Libya and Mali. In 2017, he returned to Beijing for four months as Adviser to the British Embassy to cover the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress. He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, and was a Specialist Adviser on China to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee for its recent China Inquiry. He runs his own advisory company on China, China Ink, and is a trustee of the environmental NGO Chinadialogue.
Talk abstract
The gap between the rhetoric of 'win-win' and 'community of a shared future' and the reality of China's increasingly assertive diplomacy is growing. Beijing seeks to persuade or pressure foreign countries into accepting that China's rise is inevitable and irresistible. Acceptance of this viewpoint is rewarded by the promise of sharing in the economic benefits of that rise; resistance meets threats of exclusion from access to China's markets or Belt and Road Initiative. Charles Parton looks at the changing nature of Chinese diplomacy and how it may affect foreign countries relations with Taiwan over the next few years.
Talk Reflection
by Leticia Richards, 3rd Year Politics and International Relations
I really enjoyed TSP’s talk by Charlie Parton OBE, on ‘China's diplomacy: what sort of 'Community of Shared Future for Mankind' and what might it mean for Taiwan?’ It was very insightful to look beyond rhetoric and analyse the actions and motivations of the CCP for their increasingly assertive diplomacy tactics. In particular, how China attempts to change the norms within organisations like the UN and others to adopt party policies of diplomacy.
