Topic：Sino-European economic relations in times of trade wars, BRI, and AI-Development

Speaker：Markus Taube, Professor, University of Duisburg-Essen

Time: 9:30-10:30am, Friday, March 15,2019

Site：B249

Host：Guo Rufei

Abstract：Europe and China look back to decades of very successful and constructive economic cooperation. In recent years, however, these relations have been put to the test. Disruptive forces arise first of all from new (economic) nationalisms and strong forces trying to re-organize the global economy. These new developments find their strongest manifestation in aggressive trade policies by the Trump administration. The presentation will highlight European perspectives on the latter and discuss their impact on Sino-European relations. On another side bilateral relations can be expected to change in the context of the unfolding Belt & Road Initiative. While Chinese and European interests might not be 100% identical, great potential exists which will be discussed. As a third major shaping force of contemporary Sino-European relations, the different societal and political perspectives on Artificial Intelligence will be discussed. What kind of cooperation is possible is this field?

Introduction to the Speaker：

Prof. Dr. Markus Taube holds the Chair for East Asian Economic Studies / China as a faculty member of the Mercator School of Management. He is the Director of the IN-EAST School of Advanced Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen as well as a Co-Director of the Confucius Institute Metropolis Ruhr. Furthermore, Markus Taube holds various advisory board positions and acts as President of the Euro-Asia Management Studies Association (EAMSA).

Markus Taube is honored to have been appointed as a Guest Professor at Wuhan University in 2018.

Markus Taube started his academic career studying sinology and economics at the universities of Trier and Wuhan (PR China) and received his doctorate at the Ruhr University Bochum. With his dissertation he became the Walter-Eucken Prize laureate of 1998. Before joining the University of Duisburg-Essen he worked at the ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich. He is a founding partner of THINK!DESK China Research & Consulting.

He has published extensively in the fields of industrial policy as well as institutional developments and transformation processes in China. He is especially interested in the formal as well as informal institutional foundations of cooperation and innovation in societies. In recent years the evolution of the Belt and Road Initiative and its implications for global economic governance have become a major area of his research interests.