In:Sight China with Pan Chengxin

China is becoming ever more important to global affairs. But political and geopolitical challenges, as well as the covid-19 pandemic, have diminished Europeans’ ability to engage with Chinese thinkers and understand their views and ideas about the world. In this mini-series, Mark Leonard and Janka Oertel try to change that by engaging in conversations with some of the best Chinese academics, researchers, writers, and journalists on diverse topics in Chinese internal debates that matter most to Europeans.  

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In our third episode, we are joined by Pan Chengxin, associate professor of international relations and public policy at the University of Macau and one of China’s leading scholars of quantum relational theory and its application to world politics. Pan talks us through an innovative way of looking at international relations using quantum physics, specifically the concept of quantum holography. What is quantum holography and how does it change our understanding of basic concepts like power? How can we better understand the rise of China under this conceptual framework? And what are the potential implications of this quantum view of the world for how we deal with global challenges like climate change? 

• China’s Rise and Rethinking International Relations Theory by Chengxin Pan and Emilian Kavalski (Eds.)
• Enfolding Wholes in Parts: Quantum Holography and International Relations in European Journal of International Relations by Chengxin Pan
• Reclaiming Substances in Relationalism: Quantum Holography and Substance-based Relational Analysis in World Politics in Millennium: Journal of International Studies by Chengxin Pan
• Quantum Mind and Social Science: Unifying Physical and Social Ontology by Alexander Wendt 
• Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm

This podcast was recorded on 21 February 2023.