Dear SCPKU Friends and Supporters,
We hope that you are safe and enjoyed National Day and the Autumn Harvest Festival. During the last number of months because of COVID19, like the rest of the PKU, SCPKU has been closed while our staff have worked from home and programming has taken place via zoom. We have highlighted a few below.
During this difficult time, SCPKU also was able to help fight Covid19, if only in a small way. Thanks to the staff and a long-term friend of SCPKU we were able to donate eight boxes of 5000+ N95 procedural masks, made by a US-CDC-qualified manufacturer, to Stanford Health Care, which gratefully acknowledged the gift.
In April 2020, Josh Cheng and Leigh Wang of SCPKU at Stanford Healthcare Donation site
The heartening news is that after many months of keeping traffic and people to a minimum within the PKU campus because of the COVID19 pandemic, campus life may soon return to normal, including at SCPKU. On Sept. 20th Peking University officially re-opened, with a grand, outdoor ceremony welcoming Peking University students. Organized almost like an outdoor sports event, PKU featured a variety of live performances (singing, dancing, martial arts), and speeches by students, faculty, and university officials.
The opening ceremony of of Peking University 2020, PKU news
PKU is coming back to life but some restrictions still remain. Currently, protocols instituted by PKU still prohibit “third party” visitors, i.e., anyone other than a PKU student, faculty, or staff, from entering PKU. This also includes visitors to SCPKU, with no exceptions. Nonetheless, we are optimistic and preparing to open SCPKU after the Chinese National Holidays in Mid-October. We eagerly look forward to being able to welcome you soon in person to SCPKU.
Sincerely,
Jean C. Oi, Director, SCPKU
Josh Cheng, Executive Director, SCPKU
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Photo: China-US High-level Video Dialogue from PKU News
On August 19 and 22, 2020, the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding (iGCU), Peking University, Stanford China Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, and Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) jointly held a China-US High-level Video Dialogue. More than 20 Chinese and American experts and scholars held in-depth discussions on topics such as China-US competition and cooperation, domestic drivers and underlying factors of their respective foreign policies and so on. Former senior official respectively from China and from the US opened the Dialogue with welcoming remarks. A senior member of the iGCU of Peking University and the Stanford China Program at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center jointly presided over the Dialogue.
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Photo: Stanford Scholar Publications
Restarting Business in China After COVID-19: New Article in The Diplomat with a Chinese version in Caixin Highlights Results from China Program Survey. This article stemmed from a study jointly organized by the China Program at Stanford, SCPKU, and GSB alumni and follows from the program we virtual program titled "Rebooting Business after COVID-19: A View from China" we highlighted in our last Newsletter (see here for program highlights). Read more.
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Photo from Yahoo Images
On July 20, SCPKU hosted a roundtable discussion on Digital Transformation as the latest follow on from the "Rebooting Business” CEO survey. SCPKU provided entrepreneurs who participated in the survey an opportunity to gather virtually to discuss how to effectively achieve digital transformation. Key takeaways from the wide-ranging discussion included the following: 1) Transform your business mindset: Digital transformation is not merely digitizing your asset or business routine; it is transforming your business to be user-centric. Best-practice includes empathizing with the users by focusing on the user journey and restructuring the organization and rearranging human resources around the user journey. 2.) Transform your organizations: Break down silos and build agile teams. Good examples include Jeff Bezos' two-pizza team approach, where small teams work more productively, and his "Amazon API Mandate,” which defines the interface and way-of-working among teams. 3) Hiring talent is essential, but building a culture is more critical: Hiring external digital talent and bringing in a new culture, such as learning through trial-and-error, will boost morale and foster innovation. The key elements of talents include the manager's attitude, the stakeholder's attitude, and the change agent. In short, transforming business mindset is not only digitizing the asset or business routine, but also taking a user-centric approach. Digital transformation requires firms to focus on the user journey, break down silos and build agile teams, hire external digital talent, and bring in a new culture.
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As the glittering skyline in Shanghai seemingly attests, China has quickly transformed itself from a place of stark poverty into a modern, urban, technologically savvy economic powerhouse. But as Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell show in Invisible China, the truth is much more complicated and might be. A conversation with Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell on their new book, Invisible China. Read more. |
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Image by the United Nations
On Sept. 29, SCPKU and the China Program co-sponsored the event Rebuilding International Institutions with Thomas Fingar and Stephen J. Stedman. International institutions established after WWII and shaped by the Cold War facilitated attainment of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But what worked well in the past may no longer be adequate to address the challenges and opportunities in the world these institutions helped to create. Should legacy institutions be reformed, replaced, or supplemented by new mechanisms to manage new global challenges? This discussion examined whether existing institutions of global governance are adequate, and if not, why changing them will be difficult. Watch the webinar. |
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