Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Like in many other Western countries, attitudes concerning China and the Chinese presence and impact in the Netherlands have taken a sharp turn for the worse. Between 2016 and 2023, I conducted a series of projects for the Leiden Asia Centre and the Dutch government on aspects of the Chinese influence in the Netherlands. This work has given me a detailed understanding not only of the extent and nature of Chinese influence but also of the rapid changes in attitudes and opinions in the Netherlands. In this presentation I will first give an overview of my main findings regarding Chinese influence among Chinese, the higher education sector and Chinese-invested businesses. I will then discuss the reception of the reports that I have written in the media, politics and government to gauge the direction where the Netherlands has been heading in its relationship and engagement with China, which factors and events have been pivotal, and which direction the Netherlands is likely to take in the next few years.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Frank N. Pieke studied Cultural Anthropology and Chinese Studies at the University of Amsterdam and the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his PhD in 1992. After lectureships in Leiden and Oxford, he took up the Chair in Modern China studies at Leiden University in 2010. In Oxford, Pieke set up and directed the University of Oxford’s China Centre. In Leiden, he was the co-founder and first executive director of the Leiden Asia Centre. Between 2018 and 2020, he was the director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin. Pieke’s research revolves around governance in China and the evolution of the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese globalization and the impact of China on Europe. His new, forthcoming book Superpower China asks how being an emerging superpower status will change China. His earlier books include The Good Communist (2009) and Knowing China (2016), both published by Cambridge University Press. In 2021, Pieke and Koichi Iwabuchi published the edited volume Global East Asia with the University of California Press.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this hybrid event has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the talk.