Does Covid-19 tip the scales in China's geopolitical ambition?

July 8, 2020

Our senior fellows Marcus Freitas and Len Ishmael, both experts in Asian affairs, discuss the geopolitical ambitions of China in the current – Covid-19- context. During a webinar our experts address the following issues : 1 - China's use of crises to deepen and extend power and influence - looking at the financial collapse of 2008 using Europe as an example; 2 - Taking a look at the covid-19 pandemic - and how this has been used by China to influence external opinion - and how the backlash against China has also served to deepen nationalism back home, in Beijing; 3 - A wider look at how American allies and those in the Global South are choosing sides - or choosing not to; 4 - Some observations about the future.

Speakers
Marcus Vinicius de Freitas
Senior Fellow
Marcus Vinicius De Freitas is Senior Fellow at Policy Center for the New South, focusing on International Law, International Relations and Brazil, and is currently a Visiting Professor of International Law and International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, China. Previously, he was a Professor of The Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation in Sao Paulo, where he served as the coordinator of their International Relations Program from December 2012 until December 2013. He was president of the Sao Paulo Directorate of the Progressive Party, having run for vice governor of the State of Sao Paulo in 2010, where his party polled in third place with more than 1.2 million votes. He also served as the Administrative Director of the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Housing Co ...
Len Ishmael
Senior Fellow
Ambassador, Dr. Len Ishmael is a Senior Fellow of the Policy Center for the New South and a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Scholar of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is the Global Affairs Advisor of the Brussels Diplomatic Academy and visiting Professor of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Mohammed 6 University, Morocco. Dr. Ishmael is a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on COVID-19’s Regional Task Force for Latin America. She is the former Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Belgium and European Union, and past President of the 79-member African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She is a former Director & Head of the Regional Headquarters of the United Nations Economic ...

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