FEPS President Maria João Rodrigues at the 2024 Understanding China Conference

FEPS President Maria João Rodrigues participated in the 2024 Understanding China Conference, “Carry through the reform to the end – Chinese modernisation and new opportunities for world development,” held in Guangzhou from 2 to 4 December. This conference was organised by the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy (CIIDS).

Maria João Rodrigues co-chaired the session on the China-Europe relationship and contributed to the discussion in the session Towards an inclusive and universally beneficial economic globalisation. On this occasion, she met with Ms Zhou Hong, CIIDS Vice Chairwomen.

Moreover, as part of the conference, FEPS President Maria João Rodrigues was invited to join a delegation of strategists from all over the world to visit the Chinese government headquarters in Beijing and meet with Ding Xuexing, the first-ranked vice-premier of China.

In the context of this conference, FEPS President presented key insights from the book A New Global Deal: Reforming world governance. This book identifies various global governance reforms to be implemented in order to get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track, face global challenges, and address increasing inequalities.

Authored by European progressive experts and policymakers, this book offers innovative proposals across key policy areas, including climate action, social justice, digital transformation, trade and supply chains, industrial policy, and peacebuilding.

The book has also been presented at the UN Summit of the Future, which took place in New York, and at the Brazil G20 Summit, as well as in Kenya, Nigeria, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Chile.

FEPS also launched its new book ‘China: dangerous rival or cooperation partner?: How can EU-China relations develop in a changing world with geopolitical conflicts‘, authored by Gerard Stahl, visiting Professor at the Peking University HSBC Business School in Shenzhen (China) and former Secretary General of the European Committee of the Regions.

Maria João Rodrigues delves deeper into the intricate relationship between Europe and China, highlighting the opportunities a global partnership could create to enhance global governance, in the interview she gave to Global Times.