Speaker Biographies

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Speaker Biographies

Xiaolan Fu (University of Oxford)

Xiaolan Fu (傅晓岚) is the Founding Director of the Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), Professor of Technology and International Development and Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include innovation, technology and industrialisation; trade, foreign direct investment and economic development; digital inclusive business model; emerging Asian economies; innovation in the low-income countries. She is appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Governing Council of the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Counties and to the Ten-Member High Level Advisory Group of the UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism.

She has published extensively in leading international journals. Her recent books include Innovation Under the Radar (forthcoming), China’s Path to Innovation, China’s Role in Global Economic Recovery, and The Rise of Technological Power in the South. She is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, and serves on the Editorial Boards of Industrial and Corporate Change, International Journal of Technology Management, and four other international journals.

Prof Fu has received the EFMD Gate2Growth 2005 'European Best Paper' Award, 2012 Emerald Outstanding paper Award, 2017 EURAM Annual Conference Best Paper Award, 2017 JCEBS Best Paper Award, 2018 International Business Review Best Journal Paper Award. She received large research grants from prestigious funding bodies including the European Commission, ESRC, EPSRC, British Academy, and the Cairncross Foundation.

She has advised UNDESA, UNCTAD, UNIDO, the World Bank, OECD, European Commission, ILO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, UKTI and the Chinese government. Prof Fu serves on the Advisory Expert Group of the OECD Global Investment Forum and the DFID/ESRC Economic Growth Directorate (DEGP), and is President of the Chinese Economic Association (Europe) and CEA (UK) in 2010-11. She is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and University of Tsinghua, and a Visiting Professor at Fudan University.

Prof Fu came to Oxford from Cambridge University, where she was a Senior Research Fellow. Before coming to the UK, she had five years’ work experience in the business sector in China before embarking on her academic career.

As a leading China expert, she has participated in various interviews and panel discussions in the mainstream media, including BBC Newsnight, BBC News, BBC World News, BBC Radio 2, CCTV, CGTN, Sky News, TRTWorld, Arise News, People's Daily, China Daily and China Radio International.

George Magnus (University of Oxford China Centre and SOAS China Institute)

George Magnus , formerly the Chief Economist and Senior Economic Adviser at UBS, has occupied a front row seat as events have challenged governments, economies and financial systems around the world since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. He is widely credited with having identified the trigger points leading to the crisis and with helping us to understand its lingering consequences.

George now works as an independent economist, author and speaker. He is a Research Associate at the University of Oxford China Centre and SOAS China Institute. His views and opinions appear regularly in the written and social media, radio and TV. He is the author of The Age of Aging (2008) which assesses one of our leading contemporary economic and social challenges; Uprising: will emerging markets shape or shake the world economy? (2011); and most recently of Red Flags: Why Xi's China is in Jeopardy (2018). The paperback edition of his book 'Red Flags - Why Xi's China is in Jeopardy' (Yale University Press) with a new preface and concluding chapter, is now available, in addition to the original hardback edition. You can follow George Magnus on Twitter @georgemagnus1.

Barry Naughton (University of California, San Diego)

Barry Naughton is the So Kwanlok Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), University of California, San Diego.  Naughton’s work on the Chinese economy focuses on market transition; industry and technology; foreign trade; and political economy. His first book, Growing Out of the Plan, won the Ohira Prize in 1996, and a new edition of his popular survey and textbook, The Chinese Economy: Adaptation and Growth, appeared in 2018.  Naughton did his dissertation research in China in 1982, and received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1986.

Naughton was a Visiting Scholar at the Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management in the Fall of 2012 and again in the Fall of 2013.  He wrote quarterly commentary on the Chinese economy for the Chinese Leadership Monitor (Hoover Institution) from 2002 until 2018.  He is currently coordinator of GPS’s new MCEPA Program (Master’s in Chinese Economic and Political Affairs), and working on a new book on China’s industrial policy.

Yongding Yu (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Yu Yongding is an Academician of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), member of the Advisory Committee of National Planning of the National Development and Reform Committee of the PRC; member of National People’s Political Consultative Conference (NPPCC); member of Committee of Foreign Affairs of NPPCC.

He was Director-General of Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) with the CASS (1998-2009), President of China Society of World Economy (2003- 2009), and Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China (2004-2006), Member of the Advisory Committee of Foreign Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC(2010-2014).

Yu Yongding joined the Institute of World Economics in 1979 and was appointed as Research Fellow (1983-1986), Head of Research Department (1986), Senior Research Fellow (1987) and Senior Fellow (1995).

He received his MA in economics from Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and D.Phil. in economics from the University of Oxford. His areas of research interest are Macroeconomics, International Finance and World Economics.

He published and edited more than 10 books. He also wrote numerous papers and articles for academic journals and newspapers.

Moderator

Steve Tsang (SOAS China Institute)

Professor Steve Tsang joined SOAS in 2016 as Director of SOAS China Institute. His research interests focus on Twentieth-century Chinese history; Chinese foreign policy; China's 'peaceful rise' strategy; China's rising military might; China's soft power; China-UK relations; China-EU relations; China-US relations; China-Taiwan relations; China-Asia relations; Chinese politics; nature of political system in China; the Chinese Communist Party and democracy; human rights in China; Taiwan politics; Taiwan's external relations; Taiwan's democratisation; Taiwan's security; US-Taiwan relations; Hong Kong politics; Hong Kong's relations with mainland China; colonial history of Hong Kong.

Steve is a frequent commentator for the BBC, including for programmes like Newsnight, BBC One News, BBC News Channel, Today, BBC World Service's various programmes such as Newshour and World Tonight. He has also appeared on Sky News, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News, Voice of America, France 24, Channel News Asia, CNBC, Al Jazeera and Russia Today.