The 11th Global China Dialogue (GCD XI)
Global AI and Data Governance

Friday, 4th December 2026
8:30-17:00, GCD XI：The British Academy, 10–11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, UK

The Global China Dialogue Series Forums warmly invite academics, policymakers, practitioners and students to participate in the 11th Global China Dialogue (GCD11), focusing on Global AI and Data Governance. How should AI and data be governed, by whom, and on whose terms? Participants will explore regulation, data sovereignty, global rule-making, and the ethical and social impacts of AI through the four panels listed below.

Since its inception in 2014, the Global China Dialogue has provided a platform for interdisciplinary and transcultural dialogue on major global issues, bringing together scholars, policymakers and professionals from China and around the world. GCD11 also marks the launch of Global China Dialogue 2.0.

Our call for papers and invitations drew a positive response from academics, policymakers and practitioners in the UK, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Egypt. To give more people the opportunity to share their ideas, each panel will feature six speakers instead of four, with eight-minute presentations instead of twelve. Longer papers will be included in the GCD11 Proceedings, together with transcripts of the video presentations.

The Global China Dialogue is the academic exchange platform of the Global China Academy. As at previous Dialogues, the opening session will be followed by the GCA Fellowship Award ceremony, together with the announcement of the Global China Academy Institutional Series. At the end of the closing session, we will announce the launch of the Fei Xiaotong Studies Research Volume Series, marking the 90th anniversary of Fei Xiaotong’s fieldwork in Kaixiangong Village. Both series will be launched at the conference dinner.

Organizers

• Global China Academy, UK
• University College London, UK
• The Lau China Institute, King’s College London, UK

The GCD XI include the following four panels:

• Panel 1: AI Governance and Advanced Technology Regulation
• Panel 2: Data Governance, Digital Sovereignty, and Power Structures
• Panel 3: Global Rule-making and Technological Competition
• Panel 4: Ethics, Societal Impact, and Sustainable Development

Visit Call for Papers for more details

Programme 

08:30-09:00   Registration

Venue: The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH

• Check-in (Lobby, Ground Floor)
• Networking (Gallery, 1st Floor)
• Display and video play (Music Room, 1^st Floor)

09:00-10:10    Opening Session

Room: The Beatrice Webb Room, 1^st Floor

Chair: Kerry Brown FGCA, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director, Lau China Institute, King’s College London, UK

Keynote addresses (15 minutes each):

• Global rules for technology: between diplomacy and state practice, Dennis Broeders, Professor of Global Security and Technology, Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University; Senior Fellow, The Hague Program on International Cyber Security, Netherlands
• Sana Khareghani, Professor of Practice in AI, King’s College London; Chief Strategy Officer Era4.com; inaugural Head of the UK Government Office for AI, UK
• RONG Ke, Professor and Director, Institute of Economics, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Digital Economy, China

9:50-10:00 Presentation of Certificates to GCA Fellows

Presenters:

• Maria Jaschok FGCA, Chair, Board of Trustees of Global China Academy; Senior Research Associate, Contemporary China Studies Programme, University of Oxford, UK
• Xiangqun Chang FGCA FRSA, President, Global China Academy; Honorary Professor, UCL (2015–20), UK; Distinguished Professor, Nankai University, China

Recipients (tbc)

10:05 Announcements & Group Photo

• Announcement of the Global China Academy Institutional Series (to be launched at the conference dinner)
• Group Photo (no break)

10:10-11:20  Panel I: AI Governance and Advanced Technology Regulation
Chair and discussant: Fiona Moore FGCA, General Secretary, GCD11 Organising Committee; Professor of Business Anthropology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

The panel moves from regulatory design to China’s approaches and then to implementation. It opens with AI policy, standards and the timing and architecture of regulation, turns to contested meanings of AI controllability and AI as a public good in China, and closes with how governance commitments are put into practice in multi-level government and in business. A video presentation by Noor J. Aziz is listed at the end of the programme. Speakers (8 minutes each):

• Dr Florian Ostmann, Distinguished Policy Fellow, Data Science Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
• AI Governance Design: Regulatory Timing and Architecture, Dr Zhiyu Li, Associate Professor in Law and Policy, Durham Law School, Durham University, UK
• The Politics of AI Loss of Control: Contested Meanings of AI Controllability in China, Tom Abram, Research Fellow, Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS); PhD candidate, Centre for International Studies (CERI), Sciences Po/CNRS, France
• Testing a Governance Operationalisation Ontology Against China’s Multi-Level Governance, Dr Lotfi Kaabi, Founder, MetaPolicy – Institute of Policy and Coherence, France
• Governing AI as a Public Good: A Marxist Perspective on AI Ethics, China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, and Inclusive Sustainable Development, FENG Xiru, PhD student, School of Marxism, Chongqing University, China
• Governing AI Across Borders, Hao Peng, Founder and CEO, RegSpire, UK

Discussion, Q&A

11:20-11:35    Coffee/tea break

11:35-12:45   Panel II: Data Governance, Digital Sovereignty, and Power Structures
Chair and discussant: LI Boyi, Associate Fellow, Global China Academy; General Secretary, GCD11 Organising Committee; Professor of Management, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China

The panel moves from the state to platforms and then to practice. It opens with sovereign power over communication and public data infrastructure, turns to how algorithms shape citizenship, welfare and visibility in China, and closes with data justice and the practice of data governance in industry. A video presentation by Sharon Juwah is listed at the end of the programme. Speakers (8 minutes each):

• Interception as a Mark of Sovereignty, Dr Bernard Keenan, Lecturer in Law, UCL Faculty of Laws, UK
• From Registry to AI-Ready State: Governing Population-Scale Public Data Infrastructure in the Global South, Saad A. Sheikh, Convener, Institutionalization Committee, Punjab Socio-Economic Registry, Government of Punjab, Pakistan
• Who Earns the Right to Stay? Algorithmic Citizenship and the New Welfare State in China, Dr Ling Li, Research Fellow, Max Weber Kolleg, University of Erfurt, Germany
• Governing Unequal Visibility: Social Position, Gender and Algorithmic Power on Douyin, Zimeng Zhang, PhD student in Media, Culture and Heritage, Newcastle University, UK
• Digital Rule of Law, Power and Data Governance, Dr Siddharth de Souza, Assistant Professor in AI and Society, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick, UK
• Making Data and AI Governance Digital, Simon Hall, Founder and Managing Director, APIMS, UK

Discussion, Q&A

12:45-13:45    Lunch

13:00-15:00    GCA Board of Trustees meeting in the Music Room

13:45-14:55    Panel III: Global Rule-making and Technological Competition
Chair and discussant: Peter Schröder FGCA, Vice-President (Fellowship), Global China Academy; Professor of the History of Political Thought, University College London, UK (tbc)

The panel moves from the global contest over rules to the actors and practices that shape them. It opens with the geostrategy of AI governance and a comparison of five regulatory systems, turns to the role of scientific communities in building consensus, and closes with China’s regulatory thinking and the perspective of the digital culture industry. A video presentation by Kirellos Abdelmalak is listed at the end of the programme. Speakers (8 minutes each):

• Strategy and Geostrategy of AI Technology and AI Governance: A Strategic Conceptual Meta-Framework, Thierry Michaux, Partner and Corporate Strategist, E-B-E, UK
• When the Rules Become the Contest: A Polycentric Reading of Global AI and Data Governance, SU Junbin, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University, China
• Scientific Communities in Global AI Governance: Prospects for Consensus-Building amid Political Divisions, Changtong Liu, Master’s student, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China; London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
• Beyond Privacy: Data Protection as Infrastructure Regulation and Its Implications for Global Rule-Making in the Age of AI, Dr YANG Li, Associate Professor, School of Law, Jiangsu University, China
• From ‘The Right to Define the Future’ to AI+IP: Digital Sovereignty and Cultural Competition in Global AI Governance, LIN Tianqiang FGCA, Chairman, Beijing Eternal Love Film & Media Co., Ltd.; Chair, Digital Culture Industry and Finance Committee, China Cultural Information Association; former Deputy Director, Institute for Internet Industry, Tsinghua University, China

Discussion, Q&A

14:55-15:10    Coffee/tea break

15:10-16:20 Panel IV: Ethics, Societal Impact, and Sustainable Development
Chair and discussant: Dr Thomas Clarke, Treasurer, Board of Trustees, Global China Academy; Principal Teaching Fellow in Technological Transformation, Imperial College London, UK

The panel examines who bears the costs and benefits of AI across society. It opens with gender, workforce wellbeing and the future of work in healthcare and beyond, turns to the ethical governance of AI-driven industrial transformation, and closes with AI in education and in the production of social knowledge. A video presentation by Islam Gouda is listed at the end of the programme. Speakers (8 minutes each):

• Beyond Efficiency: Gender, Workforce Wellbeing and Responsible AI Governance in Healthcare, Nora Colton FGCA, Founding Director, UCL Global Business School for Health; Professor of Leadership and Management for Healthcare, UK
• Shaping Inclusive AI Futures: Beyond Algorithmic Bias and Technological Fixes, Elisabeth Kelan, Professor of Leadership and Organisation, King’s Business School, King’s College London, UK
• Ethical Governance of AI-Driven Industrial Transformation: Efficiency, Equity and Sustainability – A Perspective on the Co-Evolution of Digital Technology and Industry (D-Industry), ZHANG Xiaodong FGCA, Non-Executive Chair (China), Council of the Global China Academy; Executive Director, Academic Committee, China Management Science Society; Chairman, Agile Think Tank, China
• Governing AI in Cross-Cultural Education: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities in Chinese Language Teaching in the UK, Dr Frances Yiying Zhang, Lecturer in Chinese Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
• Writing the Interviewer: Reflexivity as an Auditable Procedure in Human–LLM Interviewing, Dr Nathan Ferret, Associate Professor of Sociology, ENS de Lyon; Centre Max Weber, France

Discussion, Q&A (no break)

16:20-16:55  Closing session
Chair: Charles Grant, Trustee, Board of Trustees, Global China Academy; Director, Centre for European Reform; former Director, British Council, UK
Closing remarks (10 minutes each):

• Fiona Moore FGCA, General Secretary, GCD11 Organising Committee; Professor of Business Anthropology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
• Professor Kyung Ryul Park, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, KAIST; Director, KAIST Global Center for Development and Strategy (G-CODEs); Co-PI, AI Governance Research Cluster, NYU; member, Presidential National Economic Advisory Council, Korea
• Madeline Carr FGCA, Co-Chair, GCD Organising Committee; Professor of Global Politics and Cybersecurity and Co-Director, Doctoral Training Centre for Cybersecurity, University College London, UK

16:55 Announcements & Group Photo

• Announcement of New Book Series and Research Volume Series (to be launched at the conference dinner)
• Group photo of all participants

17:00  Close

*  *  *

18:00-21:00 Conference dinner (by Invitation only)

Venue: Imperial China at 25a White Bear Yard, Lisle St, London WC2H 7BA

Chair: Maria Jaschok FGCA, Chair, Board of Trustees of Global China Academy; Senior Research Associate, Contemporary China Studies Programme, University of Oxford, UK

18:30-18:50 Remarks by new GCA Fellows (tbc, 3 minutes each) 

19:00 Launch of GCA series and Fei Xiaotong Studies series (5 minutes each)

• Launch of the Global China Academy Institutional Series, Ingrid Cranfield, President, Global Century Press
• Launch of Fei Xiaotong Studies Research Volume Series, Xiangqun Chang FGCA FRSA, President, Global China Academy; Honorary Professor, UCL (2015–20), UK

21:00  Close

Video messages and presentations

Videos from invited speakers and from speakers whose abstracts were accepted but who are unable to travel to the UK will be shown during the day in the Music Room (1st Floor) and again during the conference dinner.

Video messages (1–2 minutes each, in alphabetical order by surname)

• Professor Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs; Director, Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, George Washington University, USA
• Professor Prasenjit Duara FGCA, Oscar L. Tang Family Distinguished Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies, Duke University, USA
• Mr Great Gu, China Chief Information Security Officer, China
• Professor Nathaniel Persily, James B. McClatchy Professor of Law; Co-Director, Stanford Law AI Initiative, Stanford University, USA
• Professor Linnet Taylor, Professor of Global Digital Politics, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• Professor XUE Lan, Cheung Kong Chair Distinguished Professor, Tsinghua University; Chair, National Expert Committee on AI Governance, China

Video presentations (excerpts; in panel order; full transcripts in the GCD11 Proceedings)

• From Principles to Proof: Building Board-Ready Evidence for Responsible AI, Noor J. Aziz, Senior GRC Expert, Leejam Sports Company; ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Auditor, Saudi Arabia (Panel I)
• Who Gets to Slow Down AI? Strategic Sovereignty and Compliance Capacity in Africa Sharon Juwah, Lawyer and AI governance researcher, Nigeria (Panel II)
• Global AI Governance Without Global Enforcement: Why International AI Norms Produce Divergent National Responses? Kirellos Abdelmalak, Assistant Lecturer in Political Science, Institute of Coptic Studies, Egypt (Panel III)
• The Humanized Revenue Index: Rethinking Sustainable Economic Value in the Age of AI, Dr Islam Gouda, Founder, Humanized AI Economy Initiative; Global AI Delegate to Egypt, Global Alliance for Artificial Intelligence, Egypt (Panel IV)

Supporters

• Centre for European Reform, UK
• China–Europa Forum, France
• Digital Economy and Sustainable Development Institute (DESDiN), School of Business Administration, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China
• Engage with China
• Linguistics Institute at Sun Yat-sen University
• Research Centre for Studies of Sociological Theory and Methods, Renmin University of China
• Society for Anglo–Chinese Understanding (SACU), UK
• The British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies (BPCS), UK
• Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China

Sponsors

• Global Century Press, UK
• Agile Think Tank, China
• Cypress Books, UK
• Wuxi Institute of New Culture (WINC), China
• Y.Union Software Company, China UVIC Group, UK
• Xueshuwan (Academic Harbour), China
• Peacock London Group

Registration

• Registration fee: £0-280
• Register at: https://globalchinaacademy.org/event-registration-for-gcd-11
• Registration deadline: 20 November 2026

Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Contacts:

• Professor Fiona Moore:
• Professor Boyi: +447867380271
• Ms Nora Zhou Fang +44 07460773791

Email: dialogue@gca-uk.org

Website: https://globalchinaacademy.org/global-china-dialogue-11/ 

More info: 

• GCD11 Registration
• GCD11 Call for Participants 
• GCD11 Call for Participants (Chinese)
• GCD11 Call for Papers
• GCD11 Call for Papers (Chinese)
• GCD11 Home 
• GCD11 Home (Chinese)
• Partnership Guidelines 
• Partnership Guidelines (Chinese)
• Global China Dialogue Series site (English only)