Seventeen years ago, the first public internet connection was established between computer scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and Beijing's Institute of High-Energy Physics (IHEP). China now has 400 million online and 750 million mobile consumers and recruits web talent from Silicon Valley for its growing number of innovative web-based technology companies.

The two SLAC and IHEP computer scientists who helped to set in motion China's rise as an online power will be reconnected at the commencement of the China 2.0: The Rise of a Digital Superpower conference to be held October 18-19, 2010 in Beijing. Organized by the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE), China 2.0-Beijing is the second part of a conference held May 24-25, 2010 at Stanford University. 

Companies thriving in China will increasingly shape the global digital economy, either by their sheer scale at home or through investments and acquisitions in the United States and other developed economies. The conference will address the key questions: What are the drivers of innovation in China's web-based industries? For China 2.0, what are the patterns for flows of people, ideas, technology and capital across the Pacific?  How can we assess the likely future shape and implications of China's rise for consumers, industry players, investors, researchers and policy makers?  To answer these questions, SPRIE's forum will feature presentations by 35 business leaders from China's web-based technology industry, including such fields as gaming, mobile 2.0, and e-commerce.

Several U.S., China, and other international media outlets will cover the event and China 2.0 iPhone and iPad applications are now available. Video from the conference will follow on the SPRIE website and a book and documentary film based on China 2.0 are forthcoming.

For the China 2.0-Beijing agenda, a video interview with the SLAC and IHEP computer scientists, and video overviews of the conference, visit the China 2.0 website.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, some have dubbed China and the United States the G2, signifying their centrality in global economics and politics. Even so, the relationship between China and the United States is rife with new tensions. Trade and currency challenges persist, complicated by domestic politics and differing approaches to security issues.

In its annual conference to honor the memory of eminent China scholar Michel Oksenberg, Stanford's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center gathered distinguished policymakers and analysts to examine colliding—and overlapping—interests in U.S.-China relations.

The conference was kicked off by Jeffrey Bader, special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, who began by exploring the possibility of productive, stable relations amid values that appear to differ vastly. In support of this idea, Bader pointed to successive American presidents, going back to Richard Nixon, who found points of commonality with China. China poses a different challenge today, he argued, than even a decade ago, as its influence has grown alongside its commercial and economic presence. The Obama administration, Bader explained, has sought China's support on key issues and pursued partnership within the context of a broader Asian policy. He concluded by saying that China's rise is not intrinsically incompatible with American interest, but that does not preclude ongoing competition.

A panel chaired by Jean C. Oi, director of the Stanford China Program, next looked at competition and cooperation in the U.S.-China economic relationship. Despite the dangers of speculative bubbles and weakened export markets, the prospects for sustained economic growth in China remain very good, argued Nicholas Lardy, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Robert Kapp, former president of the U.S.-China Business Council, explored growing challenges facing American business in China, exemplified by recent clashes over Internet censorship. Despite the U.S.-China clash at the Copenhagen global climate conference, Stanford Law Professor Thomas Heller contended that behind the scenes global consensus on this issue has advanced.

Points of tension in the security relationship were the focus of a panel chaired by Amb. Michael H. Armacost, the Shorenstein Distinguished Fellow. China-Taiwan tensions have improved, but Smith College's Steve Goldstein cautioned that Taiwan's policies could shift again, particularly if the promised economic benefits of improved ties do not materialize. China and the United States must likewise manage challenging allies in North Korea and Japan respectively, said Alan Romberg, director of the East Asia Program at the Henry L. Stimson Center. Finally, the United States and China have both congruent and conflicting interests at stake in dealing with the situations in Iran and Pakistan, Stanford's Thomas Fingar, the Oksenberg/Rohlen Distinguished Fellow at FSI, told the gathering.

In an emerging economy like China's, institutions are not yet institutions. They are often the playthings of politics and bureaucratic rivalries. China's banking system is a case in point. Since 1949, banks have bounced around China's institutional landscape as the government tried out first one then another banking model. This mattered little to the outside world until the last decade when reform brought banks to the international capital markets in search of massive amounts of new capital. This did not, however, stop institutional in-fighting. It spread so that today the domestic struggle over bank roles, responsibilities and ownership has expanded to involve international markets, investors, regulators and the reputations of market professionals at a growing cost to the Chinese government and to the banks themselves. Carl Walter, managing director at JPMorgan China, will offer insight into China's banking system at a public seminar on November 1, 2010, part of the China in the World series co-sponsored by the Stanford China Program and the Center for East Asian Studies.

PESD Director Frank Wolak will be participating in the Singapore Electricity Roundtable 2010 hosted by Energy Market Company (EMC) as the keynote speaker, covering the challenges in developing regional electricity markets, as well as sit as an industry panelist.

 

EMC is gathering leading practitioners and thinkers in the electricity industry for this event, which is dedicated to connecting influencers, decision makers, potential investors and experts in the electricity and related industries. Senior executives and decision makers from the energy, electricity and related industries in Singapore and across the region look forward to this valuable opportunity to meet one another and discuss the challenges and issues of importance to the electricity industry in Asia Pacific and globally.

Topics this year will range from challenges of developing regional electricity markets and insight into the impact of pricing CO2 into electricity trading to smart metering and electricity derivatives markets plus updates on Thailand, China and the NEMS. Our much-anticipated panel discussion will cover Singapore's Economic Strategies Committee's (ESC) recommendations and implications for the power industry.

PESD Director Frank Wolak spoke at the 3-day City Leader Program event on Thursday, September 9^th which gathered 50 cities' mayors from China.  Frank Wolak presented on the topic of Visionary & Executive Leadership: Investment Management & Decision Making for Future Economic Development with a presentation titled "Managing an Increasing Renewable Generation Share Through Active Demand-Side Participation".

This year's event was hosted in collaboration with Cisco and held on Stanford campus.