The Chinese Economy: Growth Prospects and Current Challenges

Economic growth in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been slowing down since the onset of the global financial crisis. Does this represent the start of a new and downward growth trend? Can the PRC maintain a growth rate of eight percent in the near future? Principal Economist at the Asian Development Bank, Dr. Guanghua Wan will outline major challenges facing the PRC today and discuss growth potential of the Chinese economy for the next 5-10 years. In spite of three decades of rising income inequality in the PRC, which is eroding social and political stability, Dr. Wan will offer a cautiously optimistic view of the PRC economy.

The Asian Development Bank, in collaboration with the Kissinger Insitute on China and the United States and the Program on America and the Global Economy  Present:

The Chinese Economy: Growth Prospects and Current Challenges
 
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
 
Speaker:
Guanghua Wan
Principal Economist
Asian Development Bank
 
Commentator:
Pieter Bottelier
Senior Adjunct Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
 
Moderator:
J. Stapleton Roy
Kissinger Institute on China and the United States
 
For more information and to RSVP please visit the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States website.
 
*Media organizations are requested to contact the Kissinger Institute in advance at 202-691-4057 or sandy.pho@wilsoncenter.org. Please allow for routine security procedures when you arrive at the Center. A photo ID is required for entry. The Center is located in the southeast wing of the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. The closest Metro station is Federal Triangle on the blue and orange lines. For detailed directions, please visit the Center’s website, www.wilsoncenter.org/directions.

Dr. Guanghua Wan is Principal Economist at the Asian Development Bank. Previously, he was Senior Economist with the United Nations and taught in a number of Universities in Australia and China. Trained in development economics and econometrics, Dr. Wan is a leading scholar on the Chinese economy and an expert on Asia, with an outstanding publication record of more than 100 professional articles and a dozen books, including two published by Oxford University Press.
 
As honorary professor of more than 10 top institutions in China, including Fudan and Zhejiang Universities, Dr. Wan is among the top 10 percent economists globally and top 5 percent in Asia, according to the latest ranking of Research Papers in Economics (REPEC).
 
Professor Pieter Bottelier has been a senior adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) since 1999. He was Senior Advisor on China to The Conference Board between 2006 and 2010, and a non-resident visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace since September 2009. He has taught as an Adjunct Lecturer at Harvard University (KSG), 2001-03 and at Georgetown University in 2004.
 
Professor Bottelier’s professional experience includes nearly 30 years of service at  The World Bank (1970-1998) as: Senior Advisor to the Vice President for East Asia, 1997-98; Chief of the Bank’s Resident Mission in Beijing, 1993-97; consecutive directorships for Latin America and North Africa, 1987-93; Division Chief for Mexico, 1983-87; resident Chief Economist in Jakarta, Indonesia, 1979-83; as well as various other assignments as desk economist for East- and West African countries, 1970-79.
 
Employment prior to The World Bank include Amsterdam University, 1964-65; advisor Ministry of Finance Zambia (Lusaka), 1965-67; consultant to UNCTAD (Geneva) on the global market for virgin and scrap non-ferrous metals, 1968; Chief Economist and Marketing Director of the (then) Zambian State-owned copper company (Lusaka), 1968-70.
 
Professor Bottelier was educated at the University of Amsterdam 1954-62, receiving his Drs degree (MA equivalent) in1962.
 
Ambassador J. Stapleton (Stape) Roy is Director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.
 
Stape Roy was born in China, where his parents were educational missionaries, spending much of his youth there during the upheavals of World War II and the communist revolution. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service immediately after graduating from Princeton in 1956, retiring 45 years later with the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the service. In 1978 he participated in the secret negotiations that led to the establishment of U.S.-PRC diplomatic relations. During a career focused on East Asia and the Soviet Union, Stape’s ambassadorial assignments included Singapore, the People’s Republic of China, and Indonesia. His final post with the State Department was as Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research.
 
Following his retirement from the State Department in 2001, Ambassador Roy joined Kissinger Associates, Inc., a strategic consulting firm, becoming Vice Chairman in 2006. In September 2008, he moved to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to head the newly created Kissinger Institute, while continuing as a Senior Advisor to Kissinger Associates. In 2001 he received Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson Award for Distinguished Public Service.