“China, Europe and the Relations Between China-Europe in the Changing World” ——Webinar on the 2021 Annual Meeting of International Academic Committee of China-CEE Institute
On 6 December 2021, the China-CEE Institute successfully hosted a webinar on its Annual Meeting of International Academic Committee (IAC) and on the “China, Europe and the Relations Between China-Europe in the Changing World” via Zoom. Members of International Academic Committee of China-CEE Institute, including Prof. CAI Fang, Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Chairman of the IAC, Prof. FENG Zhongping, Director-General of the Institute of European Studies (IES) of CASS and the President of the China-CEE Institute, Prof. HUANG Ping, former director-general of IES, Prof. CHEN Xin, Deputy Director-General of the IES and Executive President of China-CEE Institute, Prof. LIU Zuokui, Deputy Director-General of the IES and Vice President of China-CEE Institute, Prof. KONG Tianping, Senior Research Fellow of the IES, Prof. Bogdan Góralczyk, from the Centre for Europe at the University of Warsaw, Prof. András Inotai, Senior Research fellow at the Institute of World Economics of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Professor Metka Tekavčič, Dean of the School of Economics and Business at University of Ljubljana, Mrs. SHAO Binhong, Research Director of China-CEE Institute, Dr. MA Jinxing and Dr. QI Qiangfei, Project Managers, attended the meeting. In addition, China-CEE Institute’s non-resident researchers and staffs participated the meeting.
Prof. Gheorghe Zaman, member of the IAC and Correspondent member of Romanian Academy, who passed away in October 2021. The meeting was preceded by a one-minute silence in his memory.
Prof. FENG Zhongping gave the welcome remarks. He expressed his gratitude for the support from IAC members and non-resident researchers; then he touched on the relationship between China-US and China-Europe in his speech, and hoped that all participants could work together to address common challenges. During which Prof. CAI Fang gave a keynote speech on “Importance and Relevance of Common Prosperity to China”, he illustrated on the Promoting of the common prosperity in the course of high-quality development and building the necessary institutional structures to achieve this.
In the next keynote speeches, IAC members shared their thoughts with the topic of international system and international order, relations between China-US, China-Europe in the changing world, et al. All members agreed that China and Europe were facing new challenges under current circumstances, it is of great significance to reduce the full confrontation in international political affairs. Confrontation is not the solution, and there are no real winners in international conflicts. The COVID-19 epidemic made a profound impact on the international community, and China has well performed in the past two years, meanwhile some European politicians provoked full confrontation both in the local region and across the world, they will only bring conspiracy theories and disorder to the world. Regarding the normal travel and communication were blocked by the epidemic, unilateral media reports made some China’s actions appear in the worst possible light, and Decisions based on unilateral information were full of false and hostile facts. The Media War and Competition on high-tech fields have brought uncertain influence on relations of China-US, China-EU, and the international system. All Participants emphasized the importance of cooperation in the field of global climate change, international security, and global economy development, meanwhile they called on the younger generation to participate in bilateral academic exchange.
Mrs. SHAO Binhong gave an annual report of the Institute for 2021 and the work plan for 2022 after Q&A Session. China-CEE Institute had many academic activities in 2021, included: Weekly briefings covered Central and Eastern Europe countries; working papers which finished by authors from Italy, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina et al. have been published in succession; three international roundtable discussions and conferences were co-organized with partner Institutes; 14 think tank reports have been published, and the Opinion poll on how the CEE citizens view China’s development in 2021 will be open in recent. The publication “China Watch” and public online lectures have been launched since this autumn.
Finally, all participants supported the China-CEE Institute to conduct more academic exchange activities at the right time and place, deepen mutual understanding and achieve more academic products.