A. Systems and Development

Current trends to be considered include: China’s New Data Regulation Laws, DSL and PIPL: Impact on MNCs in China, The Chinese State vs Tech Giants: The Struggle for Information Control, Foreign Tech Companies and Censorship, and Controlling Domestic Tech Companies.

• Will an autonomously successful firm always be considered too ‘independent’ for the comfort of the Party? 

• Are today's successful incumbent firms (private or public) ‘too big to fail’, or in the case of clusters, ‘too many to fail’? 

• Will the Party consider a major commercial failure or a prolonged stock market slump as a sign of lack of confidence in the all-powerful Party? 

• What will be the role of venture-capital funds in this picture? (There are inherent problems with state-run or -controlled venture-capital funds). 

B. Arts and Culture

From tradition to literature, music, and food - here, the evolving and blurred identities of groups and individuals comes into focus. The Humanities (Culture, Literature) group will delve into the most pressing cultural lines which crisscross the intersections of US and Chinese society, and correspondingly shed light on the stories of people who find themselves at the meeting point between two global powers. We hope that engaging with these questions will inform and clarify the great range of societal policies which play on these stories themselves.

• How can we locate and understand the cultural intertwining of the US and China?

• What are the most pressing challenges facing Chinese American third culture kids today?

• What is the contribution of the Chinese diaspora to modern-day culture?

• Why and how do societal questions born in the US take root in Chinese culture?

• How can we understand the extensive historical evolution of Chinese literature regarding the US?

C. Global Governance

Under this topic, present and future trends, challenges, outliers, specificities, implications in global governance will be considered at different levels: local, national, regional, and, most obviously, global that have ramifications at an international level. Focuses can range from purely institutional, discussing the political future of democratic regimes and analyzing the sudden rise and success of socialist/communist governments in context of global governance, to political/diplomatic, weighing the efficacy of present international organizations and analyzing diplomatic trends.

• Can interest groups (states, corporations, independent organizations, and individuals), balance their needs and interests for a greater purpose? 

• How will COVID-19 transform future diplomatic relations between Asia and Europe, and Asia and North America? 

• Has traditional forms of intergovernmental organizations become obsolete to tackle modern global challenges? What are potential remedies and solutions to these traditional forms of international organizations? 

• What is the future of global politics? What innovative systems of global governance are required to navigate new, rapidly evolving challenges?