With the rise of an ever more assertive China countries like the UK have a challenge to respond, with competing arguments made for both a complete decoupling and increased trade and cooperation. As Labour’s Shadow Asia Minister, Catherine West MP will outline a progressive way forward for the UK’s engagement with China and the challenges it poses, all with an emphasis on security, values, and trade.

This book (forthcoming from Yale University Press in 2023) examines four big topics in Chinese history and during the present times. The EAST in the title of the book stands for examination, autocracy, stability, and technology. Examination refers to the civil service exam, keju in Chinese, instituted in 587 and thevarious successor tools deployed today by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to homogenize ideas, evaluation metrics and organizational process.

The political economy of natural resources is not a new area of study, but the presentation on the Caspian Basin countries is from a less-researched angle. This talk focuses on the characteristics of petro-authoritarianism, factors of strength in despotic governance, and the political effects of rich natural resources in countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The main question is whether the non-transparent management of oil and revenues is paramount to establishing authoritarian governance and the klan regime.

This presentation explores the reframing of Russian identity and foreign policy amongst political and intellectual elites. These elites now face the urgent challenge of maintaining an appeal to so-called traditional values, and positioning Russia as an alternative to Europe, while attempting to intensify and extend relations with Asia, which increasingly means China. However Russia's weakened economic and political relationship with Europe also places it in an increasingly subordinate position in relation to its key partner in Asia.

The political economy of natural resources is not a new area of study, but the presentation on the Caspian Basin countries is from a less-researched angle. This talk focuses on the characteristics of petro-authoritarianism, factors of strength in despotic governance, and the political effects of rich natural resources in countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The main question is whether the non-transparent management of oil and revenues is paramount to establishing authoritarian governance and the klan regime.

A key feature contributing to public support for Putin over the past two decades is high levels of trust in him as an individual. This trust has shaped patterns of Russian political participation and allowed Putin to successfully deflect responsibility for unpopular government actions. This presentation will examine the relationship between trust in Putin, political participation and regime stability, while considering the impact of the war in Ukraine on public support for the regime.