https://www.scmp.com/rss/518656/feed Open Questions is a series of South China Morning Post interviews with global opinion leaders. SCMP Plus subscribers enjoy early access to these articles. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Yujie Xue Yujie Xue China’s abundant renewable power and government support could bring a once prohibitively expensive green energy solution into the mainstream – hydrogen. Extensive access to low-cost solar and wind power could let the country produce huge quantities of hydrogen in an environmentally friendly and affordable manner. The government is also stoking demand for the zero-emission fuel, potentially creating incentives for investors to put money into the infrastructure needed for production and... https://www.scmp.com/plus/business/climate-and-energy/article/3348964/green-hydrogen-drive-may-help-china-reach-carbon-neutral-goal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/business/climate-and-energy/article/3348964/green-hydrogen-drive-may-help-china-reach-carbon-neutral-goal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Apr 2026 01:00:19 +0000 Ralph Jennings Ralph Jennings Andrew Tilton, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Goldman Sachs, speaks to the South China Morning Post about the long-term future of China’s economy after the “two sessions” in Beijing and ahead of an expected Xi-Trump summit – all during an oil crisis sparked by the US-Israel war against Iran. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. What impact will the oil shock arising from the Iran war have on the growth of Asian economies this year? Asia is greatly... https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/china-economy/article/3348772/goldman-sachs-economist-sees-iran-war-testing-chinas-self-reliance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/china-economy/article/3348772/goldman-sachs-economist-sees-iran-war-testing-chinas-self-reliance?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Apr 2026 07:30:04 +0000 Kandy Wong Kandy Wong Professor Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University has repeatedly warned that the US dollar is approaching a crisis of legitimacy. Having written extensively on the global recession in the late 2000s, Rogoff has turned his focus to the US currency’s increasingly unstable place at the top of the world’s financial hierarchy. A former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and a chess grandmaster, he published Our Dollar, Your Problem in May last year. In this interview, Rogoff elaborates... https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/money-wealth/article/3347930/euro-chinese-yuan-end-us-dollar-dominance-top-economist-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/money-wealth/article/3347930/euro-chinese-yuan-end-us-dollar-dominance-top-economist-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Mar 2026 02:31:08 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma William Klein worked for more than two decades as a US diplomat, including in several senior roles at the United States’ embassy in Beijing from 2016 to 2021. He worked at the American Institute in Taiwan and on the US State Department’s China desk in Washington, and occupied US diplomatic posts in South Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. He is based in the Berlin office of FGS Global, a consultancy with a focus on US-China and EU-China relationships. SCMP Plus readers get early... https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/diplomacy/article/3347242/inside-look-trump-xi-summits-ex-diplomat-william-klein?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/diplomacy/article/3347242/inside-look-trump-xi-summits-ex-diplomat-william-klein?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2026 04:30:08 +0000 Seong Hyeon Choi Seong Hyeon Choi Zhao Tong is a senior fellow with the Nuclear Policy Programme at Washington-based think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and its East Asia-based research centre on contemporary China, Carnegie China. His research focuses on strategic security issues, including nuclear weapons policy, deterrence, arms control, non-proliferation, missile defence, hypersonic weapons, regional security in the Asia-Pacific and China’s security and foreign policy. SCMP Plus readers get early access... https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/military/article/3346333/us-israeli-war-iran-may-spark-nuclear-arms-race-carnegie-scholar-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/military/article/3346333/us-israeli-war-iran-may-spark-nuclear-arms-race-carnegie-scholar-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Mar 2026 07:39:17 +0000 Vanessa Cai Vanessa Cai Professor Pan Guang has spent decades focused on Jewish studies, the Middle East and its ties with China. Among his many roles, Pan is founding director of a research centre on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. Amid recent events in Iran, how do you assess the impact on China? Will China’s “petroyuan” settlement encounter problems, and what of the risks to the Belt and Road... https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/world/middle-east/article/3345551/iran-wars-impact-china-limited-mideast-scholar-pan-guang-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/world/middle-east/article/3345551/iran-wars-impact-china-limited-mideast-scholar-pan-guang-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Mar 2026 08:37:36 +0000 Carol Yang Carol Yang Li Yanqing, executive vice-president and secretary general of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi), discusses the impact of US trade policies, global market cycles and China’s strategic pivot towards high-quality manufacturing. As a shipbuilding veteran who also serves as chairman of the ISO/TC 8 ships and marine technology committee, which oversees international standardisation for shipbuilding and marine operations, Li is a prominent voice for China’s industry on... https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/global-economy/article/3345071/us-shipbuilding-revival-looks-dead-water-chinas-li-yanqing-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/global-economy/article/3345071/us-shipbuilding-revival-looks-dead-water-chinas-li-yanqing-says?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Mar 2026 03:15:11 +0000 Meredith Chen Meredith Chen Abraham Newman is an American political scientist and a professor in the School of Foreign Service and Department of Government at Georgetown University. His research focuses on the ways in which economic interdependence and globalisation have transformed international politics. Along with Henry Farrell, he is co-author of the book Underground Empire: How America Weaponised the World Economy, published in 2023. In this interview, he discusses how the concept of weaponised interdependence has... https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/china-economy/article/3344287/how-can-world-resist-us-china-economic-coercion-abraham-newman-explains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/china-economy/article/3344287/how-can-world-resist-us-china-economic-coercion-abraham-newman-explains?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Feb 2026 03:24:58 +0000 Frank Chen Frank Chen In January, James Zimmerman returned to the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) as its chairman. He previously served in that role for four one-year terms in 2007, 2008, 2015 and 2016. A lawyer by training and a resident of China for 28 years, Zimmerman has witnessed the rise of the world’s second-largest economy, the challenges it has faced and the attendant changes to how American businesses operate in the country. In this interview, Zimmerman assesses the potential of US... https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343252/amcham-chairmans-2026-wishes-more-us-china-talks-fewer-tariffs-no-shocks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343252/amcham-chairmans-2026-wishes-more-us-china-talks-fewer-tariffs-no-shocks?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Feb 2026 02:32:24 +0000 Finbarr Bermingham Finbarr Bermingham Luuk van Middelaar is the director of the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, a think tank he co-founded in 2022. A political theorist and historian by trade, he has written several books and was in the cabinet of the first European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy. Van Middelaar is widely read and cited across Europe for his analysis of the EU’s political evolution, with his books translated into many languages and awarded major European literary prizes. He writes regularly for leading... https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/world/europe/article/3342456/historian-trumps-new-world-order-ukraine-war-and-europe-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/world/europe/article/3342456/historian-trumps-new-world-order-ukraine-war-and-europe-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Feb 2026 04:20:36 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma Lawrence J. Lau is a Hong Kong economist specialising in economic development and East Asian economies. He was an economics professor at Stanford University in the United States before becoming vice-chancellor and president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong until 2010. Lau has held the Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics chair at the university since 2007. For other interviews in the series, click here. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series.... https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/china-economy/article/3341714/china-needs-more-education-higher-wages-advance-lawrence-lau-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/economy/china-economy/article/3341714/china-needs-more-education-higher-wages-advance-lawrence-lau-says?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Jan 2026 02:00:15 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Jeffrey Ding is an assistant professor of political science at George Washington University. He is the author of Technology and the Rise of Great Powers, an award-winning book exploring the impact of technology on geopolitical competition, as well as the founder of the ChinAI newsletter, which tracks developments in China’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry. In this interview, Ding explains why “diffusion”, not innovation, will determine whether China or the US will prevail in the AI race,... https://www.scmp.com/plus/tech/tech-trends/article/3340790/artificial-intelligences-practical-uses-not-race-agi-what-counts-jeffrey-ding-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/tech/tech-trends/article/3340790/artificial-intelligences-practical-uses-not-race-agi-what-counts-jeffrey-ding-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Jan 2026 06:30:13 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He has written extensively on security issues and international politics and is best known for his theory of offensive realism, which holds that to dominate the international system, great powers must constantly engage in security competition with each other, sometimes leading to war. In this interview, Mearsheimer discusses the US raid on... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3340023/china-wins-if-venezuela-ensnares-imperialist-trump-mearsheimer-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3340023/china-wins-if-venezuela-ensnares-imperialist-trump-mearsheimer-says?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:00:27 +0000 Orange Wang,Jane Cai,Meredith Chen Orange Wang,Jane Cai,Meredith Chen Zheng Yongnian is a leading Chinese political scientist and government adviser, with a focus on the country’s transformation and foreign relations. In his third interview for the Open Questions series, Zheng discusses the “Donroe Doctrine” and its implications for the existing world order – and an emerging one. For other interviews in the series, click here. On Venezuela, you have noted that the US pivot to Latin America could reshape the regional order and that Donald Trump’s warnings to other... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3339480/zheng-yongnian-trump-venezuela-and-why-china-doesnt-want-separate-kitchen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3339480/zheng-yongnian-trump-venezuela-and-why-china-doesnt-want-separate-kitchen?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2026 22:00:31 +0000 Kandy Wong Kandy Wong Daniel J. Kritenbrink is a partner at The Asia Group. Previously, Kritenbrink served in the United States government as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and ambassador to Vietnam. His diplomatic career spans three decades and includes assignments in Japan, China, Kuwait and Washington. In this interview, Kritenbrink discusses the many nuances of the US-China relationship, from cooperation to competition to rivalry, and argues both countries should weigh the... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3338374/be-realistic-about-us-china-ties-ex-diplomat-says-amid-trade-war-truce?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3338374/be-realistic-about-us-china-ties-ex-diplomat-says-amid-trade-war-truce?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Jan 2026 02:00:14 +0000 Finbarr Bermingham Finbarr Bermingham Ivan Krastev is a Bulgarian political scientist best known for his work on Europe’s democratic crisis, the psychology of post-communist societies and the political legacy of 1989. He is chair of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and the author of several influential books on European politics. In this Open Questions interview, Krastev reflects on Europe’s loss of bearings in a faster, harsher world, the fading of the... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3337762/europes-china-shock-and-how-political-scientist-ivan-krastev-sees-its-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3337762/europes-china-shock-and-how-political-scientist-ivan-krastev-sees-its-future?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Dec 2025 03:45:07 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma George Yeo was Singapore’s foreign minister for seven years, ending in 2011, after earlier holding ministerial portfolios related to technology, health and trade. Before entering politics, he served in the city state’s military. He is now a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He was also vice-chairman of Kerry Group in Hong Kong from 2012 to 2021 and chairman and executive director of its logistics arm from 2012 to 2019. SCMP Plus... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3336863/yeo-how-trump-wants-avoid-taiwan-upending-china-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3336863/yeo-how-trump-wants-avoid-taiwan-upending-china-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Dec 2025 04:28:08 +0000 Sylvie Zhuang Sylvie Zhuang Liu Cixin is the most influential contemporary science fiction writer in China. He is best known for his trilogy that starts with The Three-Body Problem, for which he won a Hugo Award for best novel in 2015. The trilogy earned international acclaim and has been adapted for television in both Chinese and English. Born in 1963 and raised in Shanxi, Liu started his working life as a computer engineer at a power plant in the central province. Inspired by British sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, Liu... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3335978/why-sci-fis-liu-cixin-hopes-ai-surpasses-humanity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3335978/why-sci-fis-liu-cixin-hopes-ai-surpasses-humanity?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Dec 2025 02:00:09 +0000 Frank Chen Frank Chen Huang Yiping is the dean of Peking University’s National School of Development and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank. He also sits on the Hong Kong stock exchange’s Mainland China Advisory Group. In his second Open Questions interview, Huang shares his thoughts on the need for caution in adopting new technologies like stablecoins and artificial intelligence, China’s next five-year plan and whether its tariff ceasefire with the... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3335170/ai-and-stablecoins-risks-and-rewards-china-huang-yiping-sees-them?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3335170/ai-and-stablecoins-risks-and-rewards-china-huang-yiping-sees-them?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Dec 2025 07:20:08 +0000 Shi Jiangtao Shi Jiangtao Zhou Bo is a retired senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army and a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy. His military career included roles in the Ministry of National Defence’s Foreign Affairs Office and as a defence attaché. Zhou is the author of the recent book Should the World Fear China? SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. This article will be available to regular SCMP subscribers next... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3334347/ex-pla-colonel-taiwan-question-ukraine-war-china-us-ties?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3334347/ex-pla-colonel-taiwan-question-ukraine-war-china-us-ties?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Nov 2025 02:00:13 +0000 Frank Tang Frank Tang Nicholas Lardy is a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, both Washington-based think tanks. He has studied the Chinese economy extensively, publishing several books on its growth and development since the late 1970s. His most recent, 2019’s The State Strikes Back, posits a rollback of Beijing’s economic reforms via renewed government intervention in the market. SCMP Plus readers get early access to... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3333495/nicholas-lardy-chinas-unique-economic-advantage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3333495/nicholas-lardy-chinas-unique-economic-advantage?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Nov 2025 05:15:08 +0000 Ji Siqi Ji Siqi Lu Feng is a professor of economics and a former deputy dean at Peking University’s National School of Development. In more than 40 academic papers, six books and numerous magazine articles, he has studied issues critical to China’s economy, including the exchange rate, industrial development, food security and external imbalances. Lu has also served as an adviser to several government agencies, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. SCMP Plus... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3332628/chinas-weak-consumption-and-how-economist-lu-feng-would-fix-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3332628/chinas-weak-consumption-and-how-economist-lu-feng-would-fix-it?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Nov 2025 02:00:22 +0000 Sylvie Zhuang Sylvie Zhuang Ken Liu is an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose prize-winning work includes Silkpunk epic The Dandelion Dynasty and short story collection The Paper Menagerie. He has won Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy awards and is also known for his English translation of the renowned Chinese sci-fi trilogy by Liu Cixin that opens with The Three-Body Problem. Liu was born in northwest China’s Lanzhou city, moving to the US with his parents when he was 11. He earned a bachelor’s degree in... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3331763/author-ken-liu-using-ai-and-being-paid-do-thing-you-love?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3331763/author-ken-liu-using-ai-and-being-paid-do-thing-you-love?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Nov 2025 08:28:06 +0000 Yuanyue Dang Yuanyue Dang Michael Sandel is a political philosopher and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University. His course on justice was the first at Harvard to be made freely available online and has been viewed by tens of millions of people. Sandel recently received the 2025 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture, which some have described as the Nobel Prize for philosophy. In this interview, Sandel discusses the roots of Donald Trump’s rise to power, the crisis in American... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3331010/harvards-michael-sandel-trumps-rise-meritocracys-downsides-need-dialogue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3331010/harvards-michael-sandel-trumps-rise-meritocracys-downsides-need-dialogue?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Oct 2025 04:35:08 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He has written extensively on security issues and international politics and is best known for his theory of offensive realism in international relations, which holds that to dominate the international system, great powers must constantly engage in security competition with each other, sometimes leading to war. In this interview,... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3330088/john-mearsheimer-taiwan-us-china-rivalry-trump-and-ukraine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3330088/john-mearsheimer-taiwan-us-china-rivalry-trump-and-ukraine?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Oct 2025 10:47:08 +0000 Xinyi Wu Xinyi Wu Liu Qian is the founder of Wusawa Advisory and formerly the managing director of The Economist Group in Greater China. She is also a prominent advocate for gender equality, and the only Chinese representative in the core working group of the UN Women Leaders Network. In this interview, she discusses how Chinese innovation differs from Western innovation, where the US-China rivalry is headed and the critical role of women’s voices in policymaking. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For... https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3329426/liu-qian-chinese-innovation-us-rivalry-and-women-holding-half-sky?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3329426/liu-qian-chinese-innovation-us-rivalry-and-women-holding-half-sky?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Oct 2025 22:00:16 +0000 Jane Cai,Zhang Tong Jane Cai,Zhang Tong Shing-Tung Yau, one of the world’s most influential mathematicians, is chair of Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, which is fast-tracking talented young students through a programme of his own design. Born in the southern province of Guangdong and educated in Hong Kong and the United States, the 76-year-old shares his ideas on science and education, key to China’s 15th five-year plan (2026-2030), which is expected to focus on the development of an innovation-driven economy. Speaking solely... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3328359/top-mathematician-chinas-talent-gap-role-pure-science?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3328359/top-mathematician-chinas-talent-gap-role-pure-science?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Oct 2025 08:35:07 +0000 Yuanyue Dang Yuanyue Dang Fuchsia Dunlop is a British author and chef specialising in Chinese cuisine, particularly Sichuanese food. She has written seven popular books and is arguably the Western world’s most knowledgeable person about the diverse food cultures and cooking techniques of China’s various regions. In this interview, Dunlop talks about the comparisons that are often made between Chinese and Western cuisines, as well as her passion for China’s food culture and views on how it is changing. What are your... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3327746/fuchsia-dunlop-tells-how-she-fell-chinas-cuisine-and-names-her-perfect-dish?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3327746/fuchsia-dunlop-tells-how-she-fell-chinas-cuisine-and-names-her-perfect-dish?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Oct 2025 22:00:26 +0000 Xinlu Liang Xinlu Liang Martin Powers, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, is a renowned art historian and sinologist specialising in the history of social justice in China. He is the author of four books (including two that won the Levenson Prize for best book in premodern Chinese studies) and numerous articles. His recent work, China and England: The Preindustrial Struggle for Justice in Word and Image, explores visual and verbal evidence of the English Enlightenment response to imperial China’s... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3327608/martin-powers-imperial-chinas-influence-over-western-ideas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3327608/martin-powers-imperial-chinas-influence-over-western-ideas?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Oct 2025 07:15:15 +0000 Yuanyue Dang Yuanyue Dang Chinese novelist Yan Lianke is considered a strong contender to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Yan uses magical and absurd imagery to depict the realities of rural China, particularly the lives of ordinary people in the Mao Zedong era. His awards include the Franz Kafka Prize, the Dream of the Red Chamber Award and the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. Yan is a professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing and a chair professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3326870/yan-lianke-chinese-novelist-and-nobel-prize-contender-writers-role?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3326870/yan-lianke-chinese-novelist-and-nobel-prize-contender-writers-role?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Sep 2025 11:05:30 +0000 Xinyi Wu Xinyi Wu Liu Qian is the founder of Wusawa Advisory and formerly the managing director of The Economist Group in Greater China. She is also a prominent advocate for gender equality and the only Chinese representative in the core working group of the UN Women Leaders Network. In this interview, she discusses how Chinese innovation differs from Western innovation, where the US-China rivalry is headed and the critical role of women’s voices in policymaking. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3326798/economist-liu-qian-chinas-innovation-rivalry-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3326798/economist-liu-qian-chinas-innovation-rivalry-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Sep 2025 06:45:08 +0000 Carol Yang Carol Yang Dong Yu has been executive vice-president of the China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University since 2019. Before joining academia, he held senior positions in several of China’s major economic decision-making bodies, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission. He has been part of the teams that drafted several of the country’s economic blueprint documents, including the 11th, 12th and 13th... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3325959/dong-yu-chinas-jobs-crunch-ai-and-why-plans-matter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3325959/dong-yu-chinas-jobs-crunch-ai-and-why-plans-matter?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Sep 2025 06:00:18 +0000 Orange Wang,Wendy Wu Orange Wang,Wendy Wu Zheng Yongnian is a government adviser and leading political scientist in China. His publications include the book Reconstructing Chinese Knowledge in the AI Era. In this interview, he talks about rebuilding a Chinese knowledge system and the risk that artificial intelligence may worsen dependence on Western theories. Open Questions also spoke to Zheng earlier this year. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. This article will be available to regular SCMP... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3325132/ai-risks-creating-artificial-ignorance-zheng-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3325132/ai-risks-creating-artificial-ignorance-zheng-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Sep 2025 06:00:14 +0000 Ji Siqi Ji Siqi Ian Goldin is professor of globalisation and development at the University of Oxford. He previously worked at development banks, including serving as vice-president of the World Bank. His publications include The Shortest History of Migration, which was published last year. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. This article will be available to regular SCMP subscribers next week. Where do you think globalisation is heading? Is globalisation... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3324283/oxfords-goldin-globalisations-asian-digital-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3324283/oxfords-goldin-globalisations-asian-digital-future?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Sep 2025 06:00:15 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma Geoffrey Hinton has been dubbed the “godfather of AI” because of his revolutionary neural network models, which were inspired by the structure of the human brain. He shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.” Hinton quit Google in 2023 to speak freely about the risks posed by AI. He joined the technology giant’s AI research team, Google Brain, a decade earlier through the acquisition of a... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3323440/godfather-ai-hinton-making-computers-care-about-humans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3323440/godfather-ai-hinton-making-computers-care-about-humans?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Aug 2025 07:00:12 +0000 Dewey Sim Dewey Sim Da Wei is director of Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy in Beijing. His research focuses on China-US relations and US security and foreign policy. In this interview, he discusses the prospects for a trade deal between Beijing and Washington and examines China’s role on the global stage in light of America’s current foreign policy. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. This article will be available to regular SCMP... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3322811/da-wei-trump-xi-summit-what-china-wants-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3322811/da-wei-trump-xi-summit-what-china-wants-it?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:20:07 +0000 Luna Sun Luna Sun Jing Qian heads the Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis, which he also co-founded with former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. His own research focuses on China’s elite politics and its impact on domestic and foreign policy, particularly US-China relations. In this interview, he assesses the extended US-China trade war truce, the possibility of a presidential summit and the challenges facing China’s economy. Jing also took part in an Open Questions in February. SCMP Plus readers get... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3321804/trump-xi-summit-would-be-political-theatre-jing-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3321804/trump-xi-summit-would-be-political-theatre-jing-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Aug 2025 06:00:15 +0000 Sylvie Zhuang Sylvie Zhuang Rana Mitter is a leading historian whose research focuses on the impact of Japan’s invasion of China during the second world war on the development of Chinese politics, society and culture. He is S.T. Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School and previously taught at Oxford University on the politics of modern China. He was also director of Oxford’s China Centre. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. As China... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3321056/80-years-wwii-chinas-interests-lie-peaceful-asia-pacific-rana-mitter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3321056/80-years-wwii-chinas-interests-lie-peaceful-asia-pacific-rana-mitter?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Aug 2025 21:00:08 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma Jeffrey Sachs is an economics professor and director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He was a special adviser to the UN Secretary General and has advised multiple governments on economic transition, debt crisis solutions and poverty alleviation policies. Part 1 of the Sachs interview, published in July last year, can be found here. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3320575/jeffrey-sachs-says-us-sabre-rattling-china-can-become-self-fulfilling-prophecy-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3320575/jeffrey-sachs-says-us-sabre-rattling-china-can-become-self-fulfilling-prophecy-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Aug 2025 22:00:10 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma Jeffrey Sachs is an economics professor and director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He was a special adviser to the UN Secretary General and has advised multiple governments on economic transition, debt crisis solutions and poverty alleviation policies. The Post’s previous interview with Sachs, published in July last year, can be found here. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3320220/jeffrey-sachs-dictatorial-trump-his-gift-china-trade?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3320220/jeffrey-sachs-dictatorial-trump-his-gift-china-trade?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jul 2025 04:01:12 +0000 Alice Li Alice Li Yuen Yuen Ang is the Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University. She is an influential scholar, writing extensively on China’s political and economic trajectory, its international relations and its adaptive development in a fragmented, unpredictable world. Originally from Singapore, her award-winning work includes the books How China Escaped the Poverty Trap and China’s Gilded Age. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series.... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3319381/innovation-changes-game-china-us-world-says-ang?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3319381/innovation-changes-game-china-us-world-says-ang?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Jul 2025 05:22:47 +0000 Kandy Wong Kandy Wong Sean Stein helps to promote trade between the world’s two largest economies as president of the US-China Business Council (USCBC), a Washington-based non-profit organisation that represents more than 270 American companies doing business in China. Previously, he served for nearly three decades as a diplomat, including as US Consul General in Shenyang and Shanghai. He was also board chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in China and is chair emeritus of the American Chamber of Commerce in... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3318543/mutually-assured-economic-destruction-cools-us-china-trade-war-stein?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3318543/mutually-assured-economic-destruction-cools-us-china-trade-war-stein?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Jul 2025 06:00:24 +0000 Dewey Sim Dewey Sim Welcome to Open Dialogue, a new series from the Post where we bring together leading voices to discuss the stories and subjects occupying international headlines. In this edition, Professor Li Cheng and Andrew Browne talk about the US-China relationship, whether the countries can strike a deal and the lack of trust between the two sides. Li is the founding director of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World. Previously, he spent 17 years at the Washington-based... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3317698/li-cheng-and-andrew-browne-lack-trust-us-china-relationship?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3317698/li-cheng-and-andrew-browne-lack-trust-us-china-relationship?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Jul 2025 08:31:50 +0000 Khushboo Razdan Khushboo Razdan Denis Simon is an expert on US-China collaboration in science and technology. He is teaching a graduate course on China’s science and technology policy at the Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University in Beijing. His previous roles include serving as executive vice chancellor at Duke Kunshan University in Suzhou, China, and director of the US-China programme at Penn State. In this interview, he talks about how it is becoming more difficult for US and Chinese scientists to work together, as well... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3316754/us-china-science-faltering-political-distrust-simon-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3316754/us-china-science-faltering-political-distrust-simon-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Jul 2025 06:00:08 +0000 Meredith Chen Meredith Chen Neysun Mahboubi, a US expert on Chinese law, is the director of the Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. Last month, he led a group of Penn students on a trip to China, where they had wide-ranging discussions with a variety of people, including Chinese students, government officials and foreigners living in the country. The 10-day tour included stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. The interview covers Mahboubi’s reflections on the trip and his... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3315861/us-china-dialogue-vital-amid-deep-disagreements-mahboubi-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3315861/us-china-dialogue-vital-amid-deep-disagreements-mahboubi-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Jun 2025 06:00:10 +0000 Ji Siqi Ji Siqi A veteran of international finance, Jin Liqun is president and chairman of the board of directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development lender headquartered in Beijing and established in 2016. He has been closely involved in the bank’s evolution since its inception and was elected to a second and final five-year term in 2020. Jin was among the first Chinese officials to gain direct experience in international finance in the 1980s, serving as alternate... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3315012/connectivity-economic-integration-can-ease-tariff-pressures-says-aiibs-jin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3315012/connectivity-economic-integration-can-ease-tariff-pressures-says-aiibs-jin?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jun 2025 04:48:15 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma Ryan Hass is director of the John L. Thornton China Centre and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is also a senior fellow at the think tank’s Centre for Asia Policy Studies. He is a former diplomat with a focus on China and served as a key member of the National Security Council during the administration of former US president Barack Obama. He served as a foreign service officer in the US embassies in Beijing, Seoul and Ulaanbaatar, and in... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3314138/trump-and-xi-wont-allow-free-fall-relations-hass-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3314138/trump-and-xi-wont-allow-free-fall-relations-hass-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Jun 2025 08:10:56 +0000 Ji Siqi Ji Siqi Welcome to Open Dialogue, a new series from the Post that brings together leading voices to discuss the stories and subjects occupying international headlines. Our first edition features prominent economists from China and the US, talking about the US dollar’s lost status in international markets and whether the yuan can begin to replace it as the global reserve currency. Dr Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank, is an advocate for a free-floating yuan and broad fiscal stimulus... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3313152/yu-yongding-and-kenneth-rogoff-yuans-future-international-currency?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3313152/yu-yongding-and-kenneth-rogoff-yuans-future-international-currency?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:24:12 +0000 Yuanyue Dang Yuanyue Dang Angela Zhang is a leading authority on Chinese tech regulation and a law professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She is currently focused on oversight of artificial intelligence (AI). Her latest book, High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, was released in March 2024. In this interview, she discusses the impact of the US export controls on China’s tech sector, the significance of DeepSeek and China’s approach to AI regulation. SCMP Plus... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3312244/us-tech-controls-make-china-more-creative-zhang-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3312244/us-tech-controls-make-china-more-creative-zhang-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 May 2025 06:00:13 +0000 Ralph Jennings Ralph Jennings This latest interview in the Open Questions series features Wendy Cutler, a trade expert and the vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. Cutler previously spent nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the US Trade Representative, where she worked in areas including US-China trade negotiations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In this interview, Cutler talks about the US-China trade war pause, the future of global trade and China’s push for economic... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3311324/china-us-tariff-truce-likely-carry-if-talks-make-progress-cutler-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3311324/china-us-tariff-truce-likely-carry-if-talks-make-progress-cutler-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 May 2025 06:00:22 +0000