Following the Threads of China’s New Science Silk Road

The China Studies Centre supports research on China at The University of Sydney by bringing together researchers on China from across faculties and disciplines, enabling international academic collaboration with researchers from China and other countries, and being an informed voice in Australia's public China discourse.

China Studies Centre

Join us for the last event of our international research webinar on China's new science Silk Road.

CSC International Research Webinar SeriesAs the People’s Republic of China becomes an increasingly prominent player in global science, its science policy is also turning outward. One aspect of China’s much-discussed Belt and Road Initiative that has received little attention to date is its emphasis on strengthening scientific cooperation between participating countries—the Science Silk Road. This project involves investments in research infrastructure abroad as well as new partnerships and exchanges, and some observers suggest it may even come to challenge established OECD science alliances. This talk follows the threads of China’s new Science Silk Road to examine what is currently known about its patterns, scope, and significance. Drawing on preliminary findings from a collaborative research project, it also reflects critically on the methodological and practical constraints of conducting ‘research on China from outside China’.About the speakerAnna Lisa Ahlers leads the Lise Meitner Research Group “China in the Global System of Science” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. Her current research focuses on the evolution of science policy in the People’s Republic of China and science-policy interactions in China’s (local) governance. She is also Professor of China and Contemporary Geopolitics at the University of Oslo. Trained in sinology and political science, she has held research positions at the Universities of Tübingen and Bonn, the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics), Academia Sinica (Taiwan), the University of Chicago, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (IAS). Her work on China’s local governance and science policy has appeared in The China Quarterly, Modern China, Higher Education, and other journals. Among her latest book publications is The Great Smog of China: A Short Event History of Air Pollution (AAS Asia Shorts/Columbia University Press, 2020; with Mette Halskov Hansen and Rune Svarverud). She serves on the editorial board of The Environments of East Asia series (Cornell University Press), the international advisory board of Routledge Studies on Local China, and the executive committee of the European Journal of East Asian Studies (Brill).Marina Zhang (Moderator) is an academic, author and commentator whose work examines how technology and geopolitics shape the world. With a career spanning startups, multinationals and universities across Asia, Europe and Australia, she blends scholarly depth with policy relevance. She has authored industry reports, academic publications and opinion pieces on critical technologies and geopolitics, and advises governments, industry associations and think tanks globally. Her recent book, Demystifying China’s Innovation Machine: Chaotic Order (Oxford University Press, 2022; with Mark Dodgson and David Gann), frames China’s innovation system as a complex ecosystem that fuses bottom-up entrepreneurship with adaptive top-down policy.

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