On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with Chen Dongxiao, the President of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). He discusses how China's shifting role to the center of global politics and economics has shaped his career, and he offers a frank assessment of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship during the late-Biden and early Trump administrations. The discussion concludes with a strong defense of the value of U.S.-China track-2 dialogue for thinking creatively about the world's most important challenges and offering reforms to global institutions.
Chen Dongxiao is president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). He specializes in the studies of the United Nations, Chinese foreign policy, and U.S.-China relations and has published extensively on UN reform and China’s multilateral diplomacy. Chen is the editor in chief of China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies, published by SIIS and World Scientific Publishing in Singapore. He is also an adjunct professor at Shanghai International Studies University. Chen is a high-level advisor to the independent team of advisors for the UN Economic and Social Council dialogue on longer-term positioning of the UN development system, a member of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations’ Regional Forum Experts and Eminent Persons Group, senior advisor on economic diplomacy to China’s foreign ministry, and senior advisor to the mayor of Shanghai’s international business leaders’ advisory council. He is also vice chair of the China National Association of International Relations. Chen has led numerous research projects commissioned by China’s National Social Science Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, among others. Chen received his PhD from Fudan University.
