Ian Williams and Michael Sheridan chaired by Sophia Yan

Veteran foreign correspondents Ian Williams and Michael Sheridan discuss modern day China and how the new UK government should face up to the challenges it presents.

Williams is a former foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News and NBC News who has reported on China for the last 25 years. In Vampire State: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Economy, he describes the ‘predatory and surreal’ nature of the Chinese economy. Williams says rules and agreements mean little. Markets are distorted, statistics fabricated and foreign industrial secrets and technology stolen. Williams says this is all part of President Xi Jinping’s ambition for China to be the world’s leading economic, technological and military power.

Sheridan was Far East correspondent for the Sunday Times for 20 years and has also worked for Reuters, ITN and The Independent. In The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and his New China, he explains how Xi Jinping fought his way back to the top through stealth, privilege and guile after being exiled to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Sheridan says family mafias struggle for power amid murder, corruption and sex scandals in Xi’s new China. Meanwhile, Xi’s word is law on everything from war and peace to the campaign against Covid, and his aim is to dominate world trade and defeat western democracy.

Discussions are chaired by Sophia Yan, an award-winning senior foreign correspondent for the Telegraph and host of documentaries and narrative podcasts investigating global human rights abuses and transnational repression, including Inside Xinjiang and How To Become a Dictator on the rise of Xi Jinping. Yan won the 2020 Marie Colvin Award for her coverage of China. She has been based in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei, and previously worked for CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. Yan is now based in Istanbul.