Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Global China Dialogue

Yao Gou

At the dinner celebrating the 10th Anniversary and the conclusion of the 10th Global China Dialogue, held at Peacock London (临江宴), a prestigious Chinese restaurant on the Westminster bank of the River Thames, GCA Fellow Mr. Ian Stafford chaired the evening session

. A multiple award-winning British sportswriter, journalist, and broadcaster, Ian brought both wit and insight to the occasion. Reflecting on his role as host of the 9th Global China Dialogue at Tongji University in Shanghai, he shared vivid memories of his journey in China last year, highlighting how discussions around Artificial Intelligence, education, and global governance have become increasingly interconnected.

The Chair of Global China Academy, Professor Tony McEnery, FAcSS FRSA FGCA ; Council Member of Academy of Social Sciences; Distinguished Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Lancaster University, delivered greeting speech.  He highlighted how Sino–UK cooperation in higher education, particularly through transnational partnerships, plays a vital role in global education governance, demonstrating how balanced, adaptive governance can turn shared challenges—such as technological change, climate crisis, and geopolitical uncertainty—into opportunities for sustainable and mutually beneficial collaboration.

Newly appointed Vice President of Global China Academy, Professor Laurence Roulleau-Berger, FGCA; Emeritus Research Director at National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS); Professor of Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Triangle, France 12 Global China Dialogue X Programme delivered greeting speech.   She reflected on the success of the 10th Global China Dialogue in advancing governance innovation and cross-cultural learning, while outlining the Academy’s longer-term vision for Post-Western Social Sciences and future dialogue on Global AI and Data Governance.

Newly awarded fellow of Global China Academy, Professor Fiona Moore, FGCA, Professor of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK also delivered greeting speech.   She offered a reflective and forward-looking contribution, encouraging the Global China Academy to engage more deeply with diasporic Chinese identities, Chinese business cultures in a globalised world, and the role of speculative fiction in opening new perspectives on China and global futures.

The Chair of GCA Board of Trustees, Professor Maria Jaschok, FGCA, delivered greeting on behalf of  Professor David Parkin, FBA FGCA, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, Fellow of All Souls College, and former Head of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA) and the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (1996–2008), UK.  He emphasised the crucial distinction between soft power and hard power, arguing that dialogue, education, and the language of negotiation are essential tools for fostering peaceful global engagement, and positioning the Global China Dialogue as a vital forum for advancing these alternative modes of international interaction.

GCA Trustees, members of the GCA Council, and GCA Fellows who are absent from the event, also shared their greeting via short videos , which was played during the dinner.

Dr Yuan Cheng, Trustee of the GCA Board of Trustees; Greater China Chair, Russell Reynolds Associates, UK

Professor BING Zheng, FGCA and Chinese Chair of the GCA Council; Former Executive Vice-President of Jilin University

Professor Li Wei, FBA FAcSS FGCA and Non-Executive Chair of the GCA Council; Dean and Director of the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society

Professor ZHANG Xiaodong, FGCA and Chinese Non-Executive Chair of the GCA Council Executive Director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Academy of Management Science; CEO of Agile Think Tank

Professor XIE Lizhong, FGCA and Chinese President of GCA; Distinguished Chair Professor and former Head of the Department of Sociology, Peking University; Former Vice-President of the Chinese Sociological Association

Professor CAO Qing, FGCA and Vice President of GCA; Director of Centre for Comparative Modernities, Durham University, UK

Professor Shigeto Sonoda, FGCA, Vice-President of GCA (Asian engagement); Professor of Comparative Sociology and Asian Studies, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, Japan

Professor LI Boyi, Associate Fellow and Secretary of the Chinese Council, Global China Academy; Director of Digital Economy and Sustainable Development Institute (DESDiN), School of Business Administration, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China

Professor WU Yan FHEA FLSW, Secretary of GCA Council; Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies, Swansea University, UK

Professor Robin Cohen FGCA, Emeritus Professor and Former Director of the International Migration Institute, University of Oxford, UK (sociology)

Professor Prasenjit Duara FGCA, Distinguished Professor of East Asian Studies, Duke University, USA (history / Asian studies)

Professor HAN Sang-Jin FGCA, Chairman of Joongmin Foundation, Seoul National University, Korea (sociology)

Edward W Holroyd Pearce, Assoacate Fellow of Global China Academy; Co-founder and President of Virtual Internships in the UK

Professor HOU Shiyuan FGCA, Academician and former Associate President and former Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China (anthropology and ethnology)

Professor Chenggang Xu FGCA, Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on China’s Economic and Institutions and a Visiting Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford University, USA (economics)

Other speakers, accepted the conference invitation or had their abstracts accepted but are unable to travel to the UK to attend in person, had their short video recordings with English and Chinese subtitles played. They are: 

Professor Geoffrey Pleyers, FNRS Research Director and Professor, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; President of the International Sociological Association (Greeting)

Professor CHEN Zhi, FHKAH, President of Beijing Normal–Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU), China (Greeting)

Professor LIN Tianqiang, CEO and Director of Beijing Eternal Love Film & Media Co., Ltd; Chair of Digital Culture Industry and Finance Committee, China Cultural Information Association (CCIA); Former Deputy Director of Institute for Internet Industry, Tsinghua University, China

Ms Beibei Gao, PhD candidate at the Lau China Institute, King’s College London, UK

Ms LI Rongwei, PhD candidate of the Institute of High Education, Fudan University, UK

The event concluded with the announcement that the 11th Global China Dialogue (GCD11) will focus on Global AI and Data Governance, continuing the Academy’s commitment to advancing dialogue on the most urgent governance challenges facing an interconnected world. 

• Click here to visit the GCD10 Website.
• Click here to view A celebratory dinner marked the conclusion of GCD10
• Click here to visit New Fellowships awarded in 2025
• Click here to visit GCA Fellowship section. 
• Click here to learn more about the 9th Global China Dialogue was successfully held in Shanghai.
• Click here to visit the 9th GCD webpage.