“China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China's Rise and the World's Future,” Dr. Scott Michael Moore's new book, explores China’s leadership in technology and what America’s answer should be.
Moore is the director of China programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. He also conducts research as an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China and the Water Center at Penn and teaches in the Department of Political Science.
On Sept. 23, the Center for Strategic & International Studies held a virtual panel discussion regarding Moore’s book.
“So here it is, we must center our thinking about China and its role in the world in terms of sustainability on one hand and technology on the other particularly emerging technologies,” Moore said. “And that's not only because China is indispensable in addressing shared global challenges, like climate change, like public health, like emerging technology development, that are increasingly pressing, but also because those issues are skyrocketing up the priority list for China's leaders and are increasingly shaping policy areas that at first glance might have a little to do with either the environment or with technology.”
We have to re-envision China and its role in the world in terms of the two issue areas of sustainability and technology, and whatever direction relations between the United States, China and other countries take, he said.
Moore was asked what inspired him to write another China book.
“Things are changing so fast that as a practical matter, governments and states, whether in Beijing or D.C. or elsewhere simply can't keep up. And you end up with individual companies, laboratories, universities, again, even individual researchers, in some cases being the de facto regulators and the people on the ground implementing standards and rules to try to contain risks. And so for those reasons, I think we have to take much more seriously the role that these non-state and sub state actors play in China's relationship with the rest of the world," he said.
