China Week

China Week is our annual flagship, week-long series of events designed to help contribute to an informed understanding of China's growing global influence through research and public engagement. 

Hosted by the Lau China Institute, each year China Week brings together experts from across academia, industry and government to explore the key themes in China's modern development through interactive discussions and debates. Previous China Week themes have examined climate change and the environment, technology and AI, education and research and China's economic challenges. 

China Week 2025 | 20-24 October 

China and the New World Order

This year’s China Week looks at China’s rising influence in the world – from its economic power, innovation in technology to an expanding military presence. And, amidst ongoing geopolitical tensions, how the world’s second largest economy is reshaping, redefining and challenging a new world order. 

Keynote speakers

We're delighted to announce this year's keynote speakers are former politician, author and economist, Sir Vince Cable and host of the well-known Sinica Podcast, Kaiser Kuo. Vince Cable will be discussing his new book 'Eclipsing the West: China, India and the forging of a new world' and Kaiser Kuo will be in conversation with author and academic, Elizabeth Ingleson from the LSE about US-China relations. 

Sir Vince Cable, former politician, author and economist

Vince Cable is a Visiting Professor at London School of Economics and Political Science and Nottingham University and a Distinguished Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute. He was previously Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade. He served as MP for Twickenham for twenty years until retiring in 2019. His books include After the Storm(2015), Money and Power (2021) and The Chinese Conundrum (2022).

Kaiser Kuo, Sinica Podcast host

Kaiser Kuo is the host of the Sinica Podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China that has run since 2010. He was Head of Podcasts and Editor-at-Large for The China Project, and previously served as Director of International Communications for Baidu. In his over 20 years in China, his career ran the gamut from rock music to tech journalism to corporate communications. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and holds an M.A. from the University of Arizona.

Special guests

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Former Foreign Secretary of Britain

Malcolm Rifkind is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute. Sir Malcolm was one of only five ministers to serve for 18 years, throughout the whole Prime Ministerships of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major. In 1997, he was knighted in recognition of his public service.

Sir Malcolm was re-elected as a Member of Parliament in May 2005 for Kensington and Chelsea. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Kensington in May 2010 and remained in Parliament until 2015.He served as UK representative on the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group 2010-2011 and as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, which provides oversight of the UK’s intelligence agencies, MI6,MI5 and GCHQ, from 2010 until 2015. He is currently a member of the OSCE’s Eminent Persons Group, which has reported on relations between Russia and the West. He also serves on the Board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington DC.

Xiaolu Guo, Author

Xiaolu Guo's novels include A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize), Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, and I Am China. Her memoir Once Upon A Time In The East won the National Book Critics Circle Award 2017 and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her nonfiction Radical was published by Vintage 2023, followed by My Battle of Hastings. Her 2025 novel Call Me Ishmaelle is a retelling of Melville’s Moby Dick. Named as a Granta’s Best of Young British Novelist, she also directed a dozen films including the Golden Leopard winner of her feature She, a Chinese. Guo has been a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York, and a Samuel Fischer Professor at the Free University in Berlin. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.