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Open Questions series

Open Questions series
Open Questions is a series of South China Morning Post interviews with global opinion leaders. SCMP Plus subscribers enjoy early access to these articles.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
Illustration: Victor Sanjinez
SCMP Highlights

Open Questions | China’s rise, potential recession, no WWIII yet: 11 key interviews from 2024

From a Nobel laureate and economists to scholars and historians, here are some of our best Open Questions interviews of the year.

Environment

Open Questions | Why eco-warrior Ma Jun sees hope for China’s role in Cop29 amid US uncertainty

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History

Open Questions | Historian on why we aren’t heading towards WWIII yet and how wars have changed

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China-Middle East relations

Open Questions | China’s evolving role in Middle East conflicts, according to an academic

Prominent academic Pan Guang gives his view on Beijing’s role in conflict mediation, its engagement with the Global South, and belt and road security.

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez
China's economic recovery

Open Questions | This economist says China’s property oversupply is far from over. Here’s why

Chinese economist Mao Zhenhua, who was among the first to spot weaknesses in the country’s real estate sector, says the era of large-scale construction which fuelled the property crisis has ended.

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China's economic recovery

Open Questions | Ex-World Bank economist on why ‘China will not be misled’, dodging Japan’s fate

Professor and economist Justin Lin Yifu says China’s industrial policy is paramount to continued development, tech innovation and the transition to higher productivity.

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China manufacturing

Open Questions | Arthur Kroeber: why China decoupling is unlikely, and talk of reform incomplete

Founder of Gavekal Dragonomics says efforts to dislodge China from global supply chains are unlikely to succeed and discussions of ‘reform’ from outside the country often miss vital context.

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Illustration: Henry Wong
US-China relations

Open Questions | South China Sea flare-up risk ‘much higher’: Taiwan’s former unofficial US envoy

There is no easily identifiable off-ramp for Beijing and Manila on the Second Thomas Shoal, Douglas Paal, unofficial US representative to Taipei from 2002 to 2006, tells the Post.

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China’s military

Open Questions | China used water cannons as ‘deterrence’ against Philippines, PLA’s Zhou Bo says

Senior Colonel Zhou Bo shares his insights on global and regional challenges, based on long experience in military diplomacy.

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China’s Communist Party

Open Questions | Idea that China is peaking as a power a ‘dangerous assumption’: David Lampton

‘No government in its right mind’ would want China’s collapse, but what China and the US want from each other is unlikely to materialise ‘any time soon’, warns David Lampton, China watcher since the times of Deng Xiaoping.

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez
US-China relations

Open Questions | ‘Troubled, no matter what’: James Heimowitz on US election’s impact on China

Veteran China watcher says revived people-to-people exchanges are key to a more stable US-China relationship.

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez
China-EU relations

Open Questions | ‘The magic of China’: still lots for foreign firms, top business leader says

What does one of the most influential business leaders think is the magic of China, and why could hubris rear its head if lessons are not learned from the perils and pitfalls of other economies?

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US-China relations

Open Questions | US-China all-out trade war unlikely but soft-power gap will persist: Joseph Nye

Global affairs expert Joseph Nye shares his assessments of what China has done right, and what will hold it back.

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US-China relations

Open Questions | Top China scholar says US tensions will be ‘with us for a long time’

Political scientist Li Cheng talks geopolitics, Trump, Taiwan and Hong Kong in wide-ranging interview.

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez
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