India-China Luncheon Lectures – An Indian vision of China’s political trajectory under Xi Jinping

The ECFR Asia Programme is delighted to invite you to our online webinar which is part of our virtual luncheon series dedicated to the future of India-China relations. 

The webinar series features one prominent Indian speaker a month, who will shed light on the various aspects of the Sino-Indian relationship and help to understand what the possible implications are for Europe’s growing engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. In this session, Jayadeva Ranade will discuss how Xi Jinping has shaped China’s role in the world from the inside and how this is related to his foreign policy ambitions, including Xi’s relationship to Vladimir Putin. 

When Xi Jinping was appointed General Secretary of the CCP CC, Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and President of China after a somewhat tumultuous year in China’s politics, he took over a country that was becoming confident of its comprehensive national strength. Xi quickly concentrated virtually all levers of powers in himself and further underscored China’s potential global leadership role when he proposed a ‘Community of Common Destiny’. Washington’s response in the form of a trade war came within two months. China’s relations with the US then rapidly deteriorated. Xi’s decision to back Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be decisive for international relations. Putin and Xi have made their determination to overthrow the existing hegemony in international relations unambiguous. Will they succeed? And what consequences does this polarization have for Europe on the one hand and for India on the other?

Jayadeva Ranade is President of the ‘Centre for China Analysis and Strategy’. He retired as Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India in August 2008 and is a former Member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB). He is a Member of the Core Group on China of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) and Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), New Delhi. Mr. Ranade has specialized for over 40 years in analysing developments relating to China, Tibet and East Asia and his foreign assignments include Hong Kong, Beijing and Washington DC. Mr. Ranade is author of the books ‘China Unveiled: Insights into Chinese Strategic Thinking’, released in January 2013; ‘Xi Jinping’s China’ and ‘Cadres of Tibet’ both released in October 2017; and ‘Xi Jinping: China’s Third New Era’ published in February 2022.

The debate will be on the record and held in English. If you have any questions about this event, please contact [email protected].