Monday, April 1, 2024 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (ET)
Capen 10 (Buffalo Room)
Bruce Acker716-645-2580backer@buffalo.edu
Featured Speakers
Fei Yan, Associate Professor of Sociology, Tsinghua University, and 2023-24 Radcliffe-Harvard Yenching Fellow
Haizheng Li, Professor and Associate Chair of Economics, Georgia Tech
Yige Dong, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, University at Buffalo
Moderator
Zhiqiang Liu, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, University at Buffalo
Co-sponsored by the World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara, in conjunction with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ China Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections, and the UB Asian Studies Program
In 2022 China reported its first population decrease in over six decades. Concurrently, China has experienced a gradual decline in economic growth over the past decade, recently exacerbated by post-pandemic conditions. Scholars, government policymakers, and corporate leaders around the world are assessing the implications of these challenging trends and waiting to see how Chinese leaders will respond.
This Asia Research Institute policy roundtable will explore the complex interconnections between demographic and economic challenges in China. Presentations and discussion will focus on the critical relationships between several key factors: on one side, an aging population, a diminishing labor force, and a decreasing birth rate; and on the other, escalating local government debt, rising youth unemployment, a consistent slowing of year-on-year economic growth, and falling housing prices. In the midst of these challenges, China is experiencing changes in occupational aspirations among youth that reflect a broader shift in work values and economic opportunities, including in the internet economy and through social media.
In the context of these trends, the roundtable will explore the implications for trade, consumption, soft power, and other areas of importance to Chinese government and party leaders at the national and local levels and to U.S. government and corporate policymakers.
The roundtable will be moderated by Zhiqiang Liu, professor and chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York and a noted expert in the area of human capital.
Please join us for this unique opportunity to learn from top experts and engage in robust discussion of these important demographic and economic trends that have significant policy implications for China and globally.