What we do?

Cynthia Sanborn, Director of the Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CECHAP), recently undertook a productive academic visit to the cities of Beijing and Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China. Her agenda included meetings with university peers and students, and officials from various public entities, as well as representatives from think tanks and international organizations. The goal was to promote academic exchange and collaboration on issues of mutual interest, especially concerning China’s role in the global energy transition and its implications for Latin America and Peru. Additionally, insights were gained into the various measures China is implementing to improve the environmental and social performance of its companies in the region. In Beijing, she was accompanied by Dr. Kehan Wang, postdoctoral researcher at CECHAP.

In Beijing, Sanborn and Wang visited Tsinghua University and met with Professor Teng Fei, a renowned expert at the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy. Professor Teng has played a key role in research and policy-making related to climate change and energy transition in China. They also met with Professor Chen Taotao from the School of Economics and Management, an expert in international business and Latin America. For several years, Universidad del Pacífico (UP) has maintained an active academic exchange program with Professor Chen and her graduate students, as part of a broader institutional effort by Tsinghua University to strengthen academic ties with Latin America. This effort includes the establishment of the China-Latin America Management Research Center at Tsinghua SEM and the Tsinghua Center for Latin America in Santiago, Chile.

At Peking University, our researchers reunited with Professor Guo Jie and her colleague Xu Liang from the School of International Studies. Professor Guo Jie was the first Chinese affiliated researcher at UP in 2013 and has maintained an active relationship with Peru since then. Also on the Peking University campus, they visited the Institute of New Structural Economics (INSE), which is collaborating with CECHAP on the Just Energy Transition project. They met with Professor Xu Jiajun, Executive Vice Dean of INSE and Secretary General of the Global Research Consortium on Economic Structural Transformation (GReCEST), along with researchers Zou Yang and Deng Hanyue, who visited UP in March 2024. Finally, they had a lively discussion on current geopolitical and geoeconomic issues with Professor Zha Daojiong from the School of International Studies at Peking University, who also leads a Center for Transnational Studies and holds a chair at the Ocean Research Institute at the same university.

At China Agricultural University, they met with Associate Professor Zhang Chuanhong from the Department of Development Studies at the College of Humanities and Development Studies, and Director of the Center for International Development Assistance Studies at the China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture (CISSCA). Professor Zhang specializes in gender and development, and China’s presence in the Global South, with a focus on rural transformation in China and international development cooperation.

Also in Beijing, Sanborn and Wang held meetings with staff from the Center for International Cooperation and Exchange at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the BRI International Green Development Coalition, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals (CCCMC), and the Responsible Critical Minerals Initiative (RCI).

In Shanghai, Sanborn participated in the Shanghai Forum and also met with Professor Zhang Jun, Dean of the School of Economics and Director of the China Center for Economic Studies at Fudan University, who is also a member of CECHAP’s Advisory Council. Zhang is considered one of China’s leading economists. She also had a meeting with colleagues from the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), including Vice President Dr. Li Kaisheng, researcher Niu Haibin, and other members of the Latin America Studies division of this prominent think tank, who expressed strong interest in learning about UP’s Chancay Observatory.

This visit represents an important step toward deepening CECHAP’s priority research areas and strengthening ties with counterparts in China.