The University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme presents a hybrid panel talk.
From China’s 20th National Party Congress Onwards with panellists Charlie Parton, Professor Rumi Aoyama, Peter Mattis, Lt Col Jasinder Singh Sodhi(Rtd) and Dr Li-Chiang Yuan
- Lunch: 12 noon to 1pm
- Talk: 1 to 2.30pm
Venue: B01 Hemsley Building, University Park
Talk abstract
The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will be held on October 16th 2022. The National Party Congress will select the CCP (and China’s) leader for the next five years. It is expected that the current President Xi Jinping will continue to serve a third term of presidency, since Xi already changed the constitutional regulation on presidential term limits in 2018.
For China watchers and global watchers, the importance of the 20th National Congress is on anchoring China’s foreign relations, and especially cross-Strait/China-Taiwan relationship. It is for this reason that TSP at University of Nottingham will hold this timely hybrid event, to invite five panellists who are long term China/Taiwan watchers, to share their perspectives right after the 20th Party Congress on 20th of October.
About the speakers
Charlie Parton (in person) 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 worked in Afghanistan, Cyprus, Libya and Mali. In 2017 he returned to Beijing for four months as Adviser to the British Embassy to cover the CCP’s 19th Congress. He is a senior associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, an associate fellow of the Council on Geostrategy, and was a Specialist Adviser on China to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee for its 2018-9 China Inquiries. He runs his own advisory company on China, China Ink. He has published extensively in academic journals, many UK newspapers, the Spectator, Standpoint and appears regularly on the BBC, France 24, LBC and other media.
Prof. Rumi Aoyama (online) is the director of Waseda Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies, and the Professor at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University. She has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University (2005-2006) and George Washington University (2016-2017). She earned her Ph.D. in Law from the Graduate School of Law, Keio University. She specializes in China’s contemporary foreign policy and politics. Her publication, "Contemporary China’s Foreign Policy" (Keio University Press, 2008), was honored with the 24th Masayoshi Ohira Foundation Memorial Prize. Other recent publications include: "Decoding the Rise of China" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); "A Diplomatic History of the People’s Republic of China" (University of Tokyo Press, 2017); "China and the Future of International Order" (University of Tokyo Press, 2015); "China’s Asia Policy in the Post-cold War Era" (University of Tokyo Press, 2013); "China’s Global Strategy" (Akashi Press, 2011); and "China’s Public Diplomacy Strategy" (The Japan Foundation, 2009).
Peter Mattis (online) is a Director of Intelligence at the Special Competitive Studies Project. He previously served as Senator Marco Rubio’s staff director at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), where he was a part of the legislative team that passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, the Tibetan Policy and Support Act, and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. He began his government experience as a counterintelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Mattis also has worked at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Jamestown Foundation, and the National Bureau of Asian Research. He has written and spoken widely about the Chinese Government and Communist Party’s politics, foreign policy, internal security, intelligence, and political influence activities. Mattis is the author of Analyzing the Chinese Military: A Review Essay and Resource Guide on the People’s Liberation Army (2015) and co-author of Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer (2019). He is a graduate of the University of Washington and Georgetown University.
Lt Col Jasinder Singh Sodhi (Retired) (online) is a Veteran from the Bombay Sappers, Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army with over 21 years of distinguished service. He is a seventh generation Indian Army Officer and a third generation Corps of Engineers Officer. He is now a media personality whose articles on defence and strategic issues are frequently published in many reputed publications and he often appears on leading television and FM radio channels for discussions.
Dr. Li-Chiang Yuan (online) is the Deputy Director of the Taiwan Studies Centre at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. He was a retired Taiwan air force colonel and former Defence Attache at the Taipei Representative Office in the UK. He taught at Taiwan’s National Defence University and was the Director of International Master Programme in Strategic Studies. He served in a variety of units throughout his military career, including Air Force Academy, intelligence department of the Ministry of National Defence, Air Combat Command, Combined Logistics Command and National Defence University. Dr Yuan received his PhD from Department of War Studies, King’s College London.