The second Kiel-Göttingen-CEPR Conference “China in the Global Economy” took place on July 17 and 18, 2025, at the Leibniz Association in Berlin. The conference brought together leading scholars, policy experts, and practitioners to discuss China’s evolving role in the global economy, its growing influence in international trade and investment, and the broader implications of its state-led economic model for Europe and the world. Organized in cooperation with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the University of Göttingen, and CEPR, the event provided an important forum for academic exchange and dialogue between research and policy.

China has become the world’s foremost exporter and a major global investor, with initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative extending its economic presence across more than 150 countries. At the same time, China’s economic rise has generated new questions about market access, competition, strategic industries, and the interaction between economic power and geopolitical objectives. Against this background, the conference aimed to deepen scholarly understanding of China’s role in the global economy and to connect academic research with current policy debates. Its central location in Berlin, close to the governmental district and the main railway station, further supported exchange between researchers and decision-makers.

The program featured two distinguished keynote speakers: Ruixue Jia from the University of California San Diego, who spoke on geopolitics and Chinese education, and David Yang from Harvard University, who presented on China and Autocracy 2.0. Additional confirmed speakers included Stephen Chaudoin, Bernhard Bartsch, Matthias Krämer, Rolf J. Langhammer, Ernest Liu, Janka Oertel, Larry Qiu, Sabrina Schulz, Claudia Steinwender, Heiwai Tang, Johannes Volkmann, and Yifan Zhang. Through keynote lectures, research presentations, and policy-oriented discussions, the conference created a platform for examining China’s economic transformation, its international impact, and the challenges and opportunities it poses for Europe and the global economic order.

The conference was organized by Lei Li, Xiaohua Yu, Moritz Schularick, Christoph Trebesch, Wan-Hsin Liu, and Andreas Fuchs. Andreas Fuchs gratefully acknowledges financial support from the VolkswagenStiftung within the Momentum project “Tapping innovative data sources to analyze the impact of authoritarian states on global development.”

For further information, please visit the external Conference Website.