China’s Century?: Implications for us all

Lord Stephen Green

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Abstract

The next hundred years will bring more change than we can easily imagine: more opportunities for more people to achieve the fulfilment of a good life - and more risk of catastrophe and harm to the whole planet than we have ever known before. Asians in general - and perhaps China in particular - will play a leading role in all this.

Viewed geopolitically, the main question is whether and how the world views of the two most important and influential powers on the global stage - China and America (the one fundamentally Confucian, the other essentially individualist) - can be constructively synthesised. At a deeper level, though, the great question is how the irreversible fact of urbanisation will affect the growth of the human identity in every society, such that the wisdom of others transforms and enriches all the great Eurasian cultures. These questions have huge implications for the human spirit, with all their risks and possibilities for our grandchildren.

Biography

Stephen Green was educated at Lancing College, Sussex, and at Oxford University where he graduated in 1969 with a BA (First Class　Honours) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He also obtained a Masters Degree in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975.

He was created a Life Peer in 2010 and was appointed Minister of State for Trade and Investment in January 2011. He retired from this position in December 2013.

Lord Green began his career in 1970 with the British Government’s Ministry of Overseas Development. In 1977, he joined McKinsey & Co　Inc, management consultants, with whom he undertook assignments in Europe, North America and the Middle East.

He joined The　Hongkong　and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1982.　 In 1998, he was appointed to the Board of HSBC Holdings plc as an Executive Director. He became Group Chief Executive in 2003 and Group Chairman 2006. 　He retired from HSBC in December 2010.

Lord Green was Chairman of the British Bankers’ Association from 2006 to 2010. He also served as a Trustee of the British Museum. He served as a non-executive director of BASF until 2010.

He is Chairman of the Natural History Museum, Chairman of Asia House and President of The Institute of Export and International Trade.

Stephen Green has written six books – Serving God? Serving Mammon? [1996]; Good Value, Choosing a Better Life in Business [2009];　Reluctant　Meister - How Germany's Past is Shaping its European Future　[2014];　The European Identity – Historical and Cultural Realities We Cannot Deny [2015]; Brexit and The British [2017]; The Human Odyssey [2019].

Chair: Prof. Steve Tsang (Director, SOAS China Institute)

Organiser: SOAS China Institute

Contact email: sci@soas.ac.uk

Contact Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4823