As part of our mission to serve as a bridge between China and the rest of

the world, each year the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) hosts

a range of speakers from around the world at its headquarters in Beijing.

We have also worked to build various bespoke channels and platforms to

enhance dialogue between scholars, business leaders, policymakers, and

young people from China and abroad. This includes an annual program of

seminars, workshops, and flagship events such as the China and Globalization

Forum and the Inbound-Outbound Forum. Representatives of CCG

also participate in international events to exchange views with people

around the world.

As part of these efforts, at the Munich Security Conference in February

2020, CCG held a discussion on China-US relations and co-hosted a

roundtable on maritime security to consult with counterparts from the

US and elsewhere on these key issues. As it turned out, this conference

was to prove one of the last major in-person international events before

the world was turned upside down by COVID-19. Subsequently, international

meetings and diplomatic summits were canceled in quick succession

as borders closed and cross-border travel ground to a halt.

Right when the world was facing a global health and economic crisis

that called for dialogue and cooperation, many of the usual channels of

interaction between people from different countries closed down. As the

pandemic spread and geopolitical tensions rose, there was a greater need

than ever for calm, rational discussion to share views, make sense of the

momentous changes that were occurring, and find ways to work together.

As life was interrupted for everyone around the world and many countries

endured rolling lockdowns, like everyone else, CCG worked to adapt

to these new circumstances. We reached out to old friends and new to set

up dialogues in a virtual format which allowed us to speak with leading

experts around the world from CCG's new multimedia center in Beijing

via video link. Although we were often separated by thousands of miles,

twenty-first-century technology allowed us to converse in real-time and

even lent a certain "fireside chat" intimacy to our virtual dialogues as

participants spoke unscripted and candidly from their own homes and

offices in various continents.

When we started the CCG Dialogue Series, we had no idea what course

the pandemic would take and when in-person meetings would resume.

We were eager to converse with experts from different countries and

disciplines that could help us put current events in context and explore

solutions to our shared challenges. The series continued to develop,

attracting audiences of hundreds of thousands of viewers in China and

abroad. The list of participants grew to include prominent journalists

and authors, Nobel laureates, former officials with extensive experience at

the highest levels of government and multilateral institutions, and worldrenowned

scholars in fields such as international relations, economics, and

trade.