Henry Wang on China's Role in the New Emerging World Order

Henry Huiyao Wang (0:02)

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Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:24)

Tracy, you know, we talk all the time about US-China relations multiple times a month, it seems, for obvious reasons. We usually get it from something resembling a US perspective. Not always, but I think it's a bit skewed.

Tracy Alloway (0:39)

Yeah, there is a geographic bias at play for sure.

Joe Weisenthal (0:42)

And a linguistic one.

Tracy Alloway (0:44)

Yes, but you're right, there is always a lot going on with US-China relations, and especially recently, right? So we're recording this on September 16th, and we have Chinese and American officials gathering in, I think it's Madrid, to talk trade, try to hammer out some sort of deal on the tariffs. By the time this episode comes out, maybe US-China relations will have changed completely, but somehow I doubt it.

Joe Weisenthal (1:07)

There's going to be some new era of peace. Everything is going to be solved. There's going to be no more anxiety about trade. A TikTok deal will have been made with the perfect algorithm that satisfies everyone, everything. No, probably unlikely. Probably we're going to be talking about some version of this for a long time. I don't want to say, you know, it's not like our perspectives are just strictly US. You know, we talked to Cameron Johnson, who works in China regularly. So it's not none, but we obviously have to change the mix up.

Tracy Alloway (1:35)

I admire your efforts at being unpartisan.

Joe Weisenthal (1:39)

Well, cross-border, you know, we have to still do it via Zoom, obviously. But isn't this a long, historic trend, you're trying to, like, build dialogue between multiple sides and get multiple perspectives in the hopes of achieving something bigger down the road?

Tracy Alloway (1:54)

All I'm going to say is we need to go to Beijing. Mostly for the food, but also for inter-US-China dialogue.

Joe Weisenthal (2:01)

The dream is that in 2026, we host a live Odd Lots in Beijing. We're putting it out into the world right now in the hope that we can manifest it into existence.

Tracy Alloway (2:10)

Yes.

Joe Weisenthal (2:10)

All right, well, I am really excited to say that in these efforts, we really do have the perfect guest. We're going to be speaking with Henry Wang. He is the founder and president for the Center for China and Globalization. It's the largest independent think tank in China. Someone perfectly placed to talk about all of these topics from a Chinese perspective that we don't usually get. Henry, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Henry Huiyao Wang (2:35)

Thank you. Yeah, my pleasure.

Joe Weisenthal (2:37)

What is the Center for China and Globalization? Why did you found it? What is its goal? And what is this independent think tank that exists?

Henry Huiyao Wang (2:44)

Yes, we actually found it since 2008, actually, right after the Beijing Olympic. You know, at that time, you know, when we watched the Beijing Olympic, the slogan for the Olympics then was one world, one dream. So we thought that actually it's a globalization. And China actually embarked on a globalization year because I think Beijing Olympics in 2008 was something that China started to really look globally. And so that's where we start to find this think tank. First, I have to take out all the savings. You know, I was doing a business before, but we really want to start this. But I really have found this think tank to kind of combine my experience in the government business and academic. And also, you know, since then, it's 17, 18 years now, and we become one of the top 100 think tank in the world, actually ranked four times in the top 100 by the University of Pennsylvania Think Tank and the Service Society Program. So CCG, you know, abbreviation for Center for China and Globalization is a bridge. It's a communication platform, dialogue platform, and also it's a research platform for big issues, policy issues regarding US and China, global governance, global economy, and of course, global migration. So just to name a few.

But since then, we've been doing OK. We had about over 60, 70 people, and we've been based in Beijing and Hangzhou and Guangzhou, a few places in China, and we've been very active. We're doing 100 events a year. We published a dozen books and multiple reports. So thank you for asking that.

Tracy Alloway (4:28)

So you described the center as something of a bridge, and I was reading an economist article from a couple years ago where you yourself are described as something of a go-between for technocratic government ministries, Chinese entrepreneurs, and foreign embassies in Beijing. So my question is, how busy have you been lately?