China and Geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific after COVID-19

Welcome Remarks

• Ian Lesser, Vice President and Executive Director, Brussels, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
• David Dutton, Deputy Chief of Mission, Australian Embassy to Belgium, Luxembourg and Mission to the European Union and NATO

Outline

Join two Lowy Institute experts, Richard McGregor and Hervé Lemahieu, to discuss China’s post-coronavirus outlook, its troubled relationship with Australia, and the geopolitics in the region. Richard McGregor is an award-winning author on China’s political system, whose most recent book, Xi Jinping: The Backlash, outlines how President Xi has transformed the country’s one-party state and how in turn this has sparked a backlash at home and abroad. Hervé Lemahieu will outline China’s strengths and weaknesses from the data-driven perspective of the Lowy Institute Asia Power Index. The index provides a comprehensive assessment of the changing balance of power in the Indo-Pacific and of the geopolitical consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speakers

Richard McGregor is senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia. He was the Financial Times bureau chief in Beijing and Shanghai between 2000-09 and headed the Washington office for four years from 2011. McGregor’s book, The Party, on the inner-workings of the Chinese Communist Party is considered the pre-eminent text for understanding the CCP and was called a “masterpiece” by The Economist and a “must read” by the Washington Post.

Hervé Lemahieu is director of the Power and Diplomacy Program at the Lowy Institute. His research focusses on the implications of Asia’s economic transformation for war, peace and the global balance of power in the twenty-first century. Among other projects, he directs the annual Lowy Institute Asia Power Index. Hervé joined Lowy from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies where he was research associate for Political Economy and Security.

Garima Mohan is a fellow in the Asia program, where she leads the work on India, research on the Indo-Pacific, and heads the India Trilateral Forum. Based in GMF’s offices in Berlin, her research focuses on Europe-India ties, EU foreign policy in Asia, and security in the Indo-Pacific. Prior to joining GMF, she was the acting team leader and coordinator for the EU’s Asia-Pacific Research and Advice Network (APRAN), which supports EU policymakers on issues concerning the Asia-Pacific. She also led the Global Orders program at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin.