On May 9, FLAD will host Elizabeth Economy, one of the most renowned authors and experts on China, for a conversation about how the country led by Xi Jinping wants to transform the world in its image (and interests). This will be the last session of the Democracy: The Way Ahead cycle, and will be moderated by Raquel Vaz Pinto.

Throughout its history, China has proven to be a difficult country to understand for outsiders, with periods of extreme isolationism – as happened during the Ming dynasty – and which has elevated secrecy about its intentions and internal dynamics, especially since the Chinese revolution of 1949, to an art form. Gone are the days of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening-up, and Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao’s more moderate stance on the international stage.

Since coming to power in 2012, Xi Jinping has transformed China into a more interventionist, revisionist and belligerent power. From the regional squabbles in the South China Seas, to the threats to Taiwan and the effective end of the One Country, Two Systems principle in Hong Kong, to the direct challenge to the leadership of the United States in the institutions that make up the international order, support for Russia in the war with Ukraine, and the growth of its influence in Africa, in Central Asia and Latin America.

In this complex scenario, and with key elections taking place this year in the United States and Europe, FLAD invited one of the most renowned experts in international relations specialized in China, Elizabeth Economy. Author of several books that portray China’s evolution over the past two decades, including The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State (2018) and The World According to China (2022), Elizabeth Economy is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Between 2021 and 2023 he was part of the Biden Administration, as senior foreign advisor for China at the Department of Commerce. She was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations between 1994 and 2021, of which she was also C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and director for Asian Studies.

The Democracy: The Way Ahead cycle, which is now ending, is an initiative created by FLAD in January 2023, with the aim of promoting a space for reflection and debate on the current problems facing the Euro-Atlantic community, and, using international experts, seeking solutions for the coming decades.

As part of this cycle, FLAD received John Ikenberry, Professor at Princeton University, and Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, journalists Peter Baker (New York Times) and Susan Glasser (New Yorker), and international relations experts Robert Kaplan, Walter Russell Mead and Kori Schake, Bruno Tertrais and Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook.

The session The World According to China will take place on May 9 at 6:30 p.m., in the auditorium of FLAD, in Lisbon, and will be moderated by Raquel Vaz Pinto, Researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations of the New University of Lisbon.

The events organized by the Foundation are free and free of charge, subject only to prior confirmation. If you would like to attend, please RSVP here.