Lecture Announcement – Discursive Warfare, Digital Sovereignty, and China’s Geopolitical Vision in the 21st Century
2026-04-14 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Lower Saxony
Lecture Announcement – Agricultural Economics Seminar (SoSe 2026)
CeMEAS is pleased to co-host the following lecture as part of this semester’s Agricultural Economics Seminar series:
“Discursive Warfare, Digital Sovereignty, and China’s Geopolitical Vision in the 21st Century”with Tong Zhang (BI Norwegian Business School, Norway)
🗓️Tuesday, April 14🕓 16:15–17:45📍 Z-Campus, ZHG 001
Organizer: Prof. Xiaohua Yu, PhD

In cooperation with: Faculty of Business and Economics & CeMEAS

Seminar host: DARE (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development)Funding: Eurasia Foundation (Japan)

Lecture: “What Kind of Innovation is e-CNY?” by Karman Lucero (Yale Law School), 21 April 2026, 16:30 (KWZ 0.608)
2026-04-21 16:30 - 18:30 | Lower Saxony
Lecture: “What Kind of Innovation is e-CNY?” by Karman Lucero (Yale Law School), 21 April 2026, 16:30 (KWZ 0.608)

E-CNY: China’s Digital Currency

Title: E-CNY: China’s Digital Currency
Date: 21. April 2026, 16:30 Uhr
Room: KWZ 0.608
Speaker: Karman Lucero (Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center)

Title: “What kind of innovation is e-CNY?”

About the speaker:
Karman Lucero is a Senior Fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. His research focuses on China’s governance of emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, AI governance in the U.S., global AI governance, and U.S.-China relations. He has organized multiple ongoing Track 1.5 and Track 2 dialogues that bring together academic and private sector experts as well as policy makers in the U.S. and China to address topics pertaining to domestic and transnational AI governance. He has published op-eds and public-facing scholarship in The Global Law Review, The Republic, The South China Morning Post, Project Syndicate, Lawfare, and elsewhere. Further, he has advised policy makers in the U.S., UK, EU, Japan, and other countries on how to understand and respond to China’s approach towards regulating AI, data flows, digital currencies, and other emerging technologies. He was a visiting scholar at Peking University and Renmin University and holds a J.D. and B.A. from Columbia University.

About the topic:
China has developed and promoted its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan (e-CNY), in order to stay ahead of the financial infrastructure of the future, strengthen state oversight and control over payments, and change the nature of its relationship with fintech giants. The state has also touted the longer-term goals of internationalizing the RMB and leading fintech advancements. In practice, the rollout of e-CNY has thus far fallen short of many of its stated goals. This discrepancy between policy goals and reality reveals important characteristics regarding the nature of digital currencies and their broader relationship to a national financial system. This lecture, divided in three parts, will present an overview of the current state of e-CNY in China, explore why there is a discrepancy between policy goals and the reality of implementation, and, finally, outline the lessons these dynamics have for policy makers across the world, considering CBDCs and the future of the global financial system.

More information on our website: https://uni-goettingen.de/de/423274.html

Lecture: The Monastic Rescue Crew in Chongqing during the Sino-Japanese War (1940–1945)
2026-04-23 16:00 - 18:00 | Lower Saxony
The Monastic Rescue Crew in Chongqing during the Sino-Japanese War (1940–1945)
抗戰下的重慶僧侶救護隊
Prof. KAN Cheng-Tsung (Fo Guang University)
Time: 23. April (Thursday), 2026, 16:00-18:00 CET
Venue: Raum KWZ 0.602
Language: Chinese
The lecture will take place in a hybrid format and here is the zoom link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom-x.de/j/62703037730

Abstract
During the War of Resistance against Japan, Chinese Buddhist monks actively participated in national salvation efforts, thereby transforming the negative image of corruption and passivity that had been associated with Buddhism since the late Qing period. After the August 13 Battle of Shanghai in 1937, the Shanghai Monastic Rescue Team was established under the leadership of Master Hongming. Comprising 120 members, the team carried out rescue operations amid intense gunfire and bombardment and suffered heavy casualties. Owing to a lack of funding and the unjust imprisonment of Master Hongming, the team was dissolved in 1938. In March 1940, Master Leguan, who had previously participated in the Shanghai rescue team, initiated the establishment of the Monastic Rescue Crew of Ciyun Monastery in the wartime capital Chongqing, which was later reorganized as the Chongqing Municipal Monastic Rescue Crew. The team consisted mainly of young monks who, after receiving medical and basic military training, undertook air-raid rescue operations in the Nan’an district of Chongqing. Carrying banners bearing the character “Buddha,” they rushed to rescue sites without waiting for the all-clear signal. Between 1940 and 1941 alone, they were mobilized more than 2,000 times and rescued over 3,000 wounded civilians. Their funding relied primarily on ritual services conducted by monasteries, and their living conditions were austere. The team continued its work for more than five years, until the victory of the War, becoming the longest-lasting and most effective monastic rescue organization of the period. Their efforts constitute a remarkable chapter in the history of Buddhist patriotism and humanitarian courage.
抗戰時期，中國佛教僧侶積極投身救國，扭轉了清末以來佛教腐敗無為的負面形象。1937年「八一三淞滬會戰」後，上海率先成立「上海僧侶救護隊」，由宏明法師領導，共120人，在槍林彈雨中搶救傷患，犧牲慘重。後因經費斷絕及宏明法師蒙冤入獄，該隊於1938年解散。1940年3月，曾參與上海救護隊的樂觀法師在重慶慈雲寺發起成立「陪都慈雲寺僧侶救護隊」，後改組為「重慶市僧侶救護隊」。全隊以青年僧侶為主，經醫護與軍事訓練後，承擔重慶南岸地區的空襲救護任務。他們手持「佛」字旗幟，不待警報解除即奔赴現場，僅1940至1941年間出勤兩千餘人次，搶救傷患逾三千人。經費主要靠寺院經懺維持，生活清苦。該隊持續運作五年餘，直至抗戰勝利，成為歷時最長、成績最顯著的僧侶救護組織，書寫了佛教界愛國護教、英勇救難的珍貴篇章。

Short Bio

Kan Cheng-Tsung (b. 1961, Chiayi, Taiwan) is Professor and Chair of the Department at Fo Guang University. He received his PhD in History from National Cheng Kung University and previously served as Executive Director of the Archives of the Buddhist Association of China (Taiwan), as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor at Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts and Hsuan Chuang University. His research focuses on the history of Taiwanese Buddhism, modern East Asian Buddhist interactions, and the relationship between Buddhism and popular religion. He is the author of numerous books, including One Hundred Years of Taiwanese Buddhism (1999), The Buddhist Association of China in Taiwan (2009), Buddhism under Japanese Rule in Taiwan (1895–1945) (2011), Guanyin Belief: Local and Transregional Dimensions (2018), and East Asian Buddhism in the Late Qing and Republican Period (2025).
闞正宗
出生：1961，台灣嘉義市
學歷：國立成功大學歷史學博士
經歷：中國佛教會檔案室副執行長、法鼓佛教學院兼任助理教授（2009-2014）、玄奘大學兼任助理教授（2011-2014）、佛光大學副教授兼系主任（2019-2021）、佛光大學教授（2021-），現任佛光大學教授兼系主任（2026-）
專長：臺灣佛教史、近代東亞佛教交涉史、佛教與民間宗教交涉研究
著作：《臺灣佛教一百年》（1999）、《重讀臺灣佛教─戰後臺灣佛教（正、續編）》（2004）、《臺灣佛寺的信仰與文化》（2004）、《臺灣佛教史論》（2008）、《中國佛教會在臺灣─漢傳佛教的延續與開展》（2009）、《臺灣日治時期佛教發展與皇民化運動──「皇國佛教」的歷史進程（1895-1945）》（2011）、《觀音信仰的本土與外來》（2018）、《南洋「人間佛教」先行者—慈航法師海外、臺灣弘法記（1910-1954）》（2020）、《晚清民國東亞佛教研究》（2025）等。

Student Short Film Screening & Discussion 学⽣短⽚展映及交流：影像中的⽂化相遇
2026-04-29 12:00 - 14:30 | KWZ 0.607

Lecture: The Promise and the Challenge of World Literature
2026-04-30 16:00 - 17:30 | Lower Saxony
The Promise and the Challenge of World Literature
Zhang Longxi (Hunan Normal University)
April 30, 2026
4 pm
KWZ 0.602

Abstract:
In this lecture, Prof. Zhang Longxi will address the current situation of “World Literature.” Although the notion of “World Literature” aims at global cosmopolitanism, the field remains heavily Eurocentric. While Goethe’s original vision was inspired by Chinese texts, modern circulation still prioritizes Western languages like English and French. Thus, academic frameworks, exemplified by Casanova’s Paris-centric model, continue to marginalize rich non-Western traditions, including Chinese classics. To achieve a truly global perspective, scholars must actively integrate diverse literary histories and expand the literary canon to reflect a genuine, rather than Western-dominated, global reality.

Short Bio:
Prof. Zhang Longxi (Ph. D. from Harvard) has taught at Peking, Harvard, the University of California, Riverside, and City University of Hong Kong, and is currently Xiaoxiang Chair Professor 潇湘特聘教授 at Hunan Normal University and Li De Chair Professor 砺德讲席教授 at the Yenching Academy of Peking University. He is an elected foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History, and the Antiquities and also of Academia Europaea. He has published more than 30 books and numerous articles in Chinese and English, including, most recently, A History of Chinese Literature (London: Routledge, 2023), and World Literature as Discovery: Expanding the World Literary Canon (London: Routledge, 2024).

Continuities and Changes in China’s Foreign Policy Since the 2010s
2026-05-06 16:00 - 17:30 | Lower Saxony
Continuities and Changes in China’s Foreign Policy Since the 2010s
Prof. Jisi Wang (Peking University)
Room: [VG 4.102]
6. May (Wednesday), 16:15–17:45

Abstract:
Since the 2010s, China’s reading of its strategic environment has shifted, even as the core aims of its foreign policy have remained constant. This lecture examines these continuities and changes through the deterioration of China–US relations. It argues that the central challenge for Chinese foreign policy today is how to protect national interests in an era of long-term strategic competition without allowing competition to become self-reinforcing confrontation. The question is therefore how China and the United States might still preserve room for coexistence, crisis management, and limited cooperation before the relationship hardens past recovery.

Speaker:
Professor Wang Jisi is Founding President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University. He also holds the Boya Chair Professorship (Emeritus) at the School of International Studies. His research interests include U.S. foreign policy, China’s foreign relations, and Asian security, and he is the author of widely cited works in these fields, including the influential essay “Marching Westwards: The Rebalancing of China’s Geopolitical Strategy.” Wang Jisi served as Director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences from 1991 to 2005, and as Dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University until 2013.

GCC #48 From Mao to Xi: How Did the CCP Rise—and How Does It Steer China’s Development?
2026-05-07 11:00 - 12:00 | Lower Saxony
Global China Conversations #48
From Mao to Xi: How Did the CCP Rise—and How Does It Steer China’s Development?
07 May 2026
11:00 – 12:00 CEST
Online with registration: Register online

China’s rise as a global economic and political power is closely linked to the evolving role of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in shaping development strategies and governance structures. As geopolitical tensions increase and China’s global footprint expands, understanding the institutional foundations of CCP rule is becoming increasingly relevant for policymakers and researchers alike. This Global China Conversation connects historical trajectories with present-day developments, and provides a framework for understanding how political authority and economic transformation are intertwined in China’s development path. How has the CCP historically built and maintained political control while transforming China’s economic system? How do institutional arrangements and political incentives shape policy implementation and economic outcomes? And to what extent do historical governance practices continue to influence China’s development model under Xi Jinping?
Program
The event consists of two impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
The Global China Conversation #48 will be held in English.

Literature
Chen, T. and Kung, J. K.-S. (2024), The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party, Available at SSRN
Wemheuer, F. (2023), Ein- und Überholen des Westens: Globale Zukunftspläne der KPCh von Mao bis Xi [Catching-Up with and Surpassing the West: The CCP’s Global Plans for the Future from Mao to Xi] in: Fuchs, D., Klotzbücher, S., Riemenschnitter, A., Springer, L., and Wemheuer, F. (eds.), Die Zukunft mit China denken [Thinking the Future with China], 114-138, Vienna: Mandelbaum.
– “Ziel der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas: Den Westen ein- und überholen (Prof. Felix Wemheuer)” (May 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJZB1gsxYns.
– „The Sino-Soviet Debate and Split (Part II): ‘Race’ and Afro-Asian Solidarity, Prof. Felix Wemheuer” (July 2025), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wJoSsw1s7w.
– “The Sino-Soviet Debate and Split (Part I): War, Peace and Revolution, Prof. Felix Wemheuer” (July 2025), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFbBfNnSqLE.

Speakers

Ting Chen
Ting Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Hong Kong Baptist University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Social Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015. Her research interests lie in the fields of Political Economy, Economic History, and Long-term Economic Development. She also serves as the associate director of the Centre for Business Analytics and the Digital Economy in the School of Business.

Felix Wemheuer
Felix Wemheuer is Chair Professor for Modern China Studies at the University of Cologne. His research focuses on Maoist China, socialist history, and global comparisons of communist systems. His major publications include Famine Politics in Maoist China and the Soviet Union (Yale University Press, 2014) and A Social History of Maoist China: Conflict and Change, 1949–1976 (Cambridge University Press, 2019). He also hosts the YouTube channel Studying Maoist China. Between 2008 and 2010, he was a visiting scholar at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.

Moderation

Manuel Liu
Manuel Liu has been writing for China.Table since October 2024. Born in Hamburg, he grew up in a German-Chinese household and lived in Shanghai for eight years. He studied philosophy and Chinese studies (B.A.) in Siegen, Cologne, and Beijing, and later completed an M.A. in International Political Economy of East Asia in Bochum. A proud father and Cologne resident by choice, he is interested in the relationships between the governments, businesses, and people of Germany and China

Registration
https://www.kielinstitut.de/events/global-china-conversations/registration-for-global-china-conversations-event-series/
Contact

Gunda Böhm

+49 (431) 8814-204
gunda.boehm@kielinstitut.de

Academic Partners

Media Partner

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GCC #49 Adapting under Fire: How China Responds to Overseas Conflict Risks in the US-Iran War?
2026-05-21 11:00 - 12:00 | Lower Saxony
Adapting under Fire: How China Responds to Overseas Conflict Risks in the US-Iran War?

The recent escalation of hostilities in the Persian Gulf has shone a spotlight on China’s exposure to conflict risks: both Iran and smaller states on the other side of the Gulf are home to significant Chinese investments and major suppliers of energy and other inputs for China’s economy. Such a clustering in high-risk areas is characteristic for Chinese foreign investments, especially those made under the Belt and Road Initiative. This presents China with the challenge of protecting its sprawling overseas interests, while its foreign policy still espouses the principles of noninterference and noninterventionism. This Global China Conversation will examine how China deals with this problem, and how its foreign policy is changing as a result. While China remains more hesitant than other great powers to directly intervene in conflicts, it is developing a distinct form of security agency centered on domestic security cooperation, diplomatic mediation and employing geoeconomic leverage. But how effective is this approach? How is China grappling with an increasingly turbulent world, and what can the Iran war tell us about the limits of its agency?
Program
The event consists of two impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
The Global China Conversation #49 will be held in English.

Speakers

Pascal Abb
Pascal Abb is a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, focusing on how a rising China engages with global conflict environments. He is currently conducting a DFG project on China’s adaptation to conflict risks, and guest edited a recent special issue on this topic in the Journal of Contemporary China.

Chuchu Zhang
Chuchu Zhang is an Associate Professor and the Deputy Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University. As an expert in international political economy, Zhang’s research primarily focuses on China-Middle Eastern relations, international development, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Her most recent book on this issue, „China’s Changing Role in the Middle East: Filling a Power Vacuum?“, was published by Routledge in 2025.

Moderation

Paulina Alibhai
Paulina Alibhai has been a member of the research center International Finance and Macroeconomics since September 2022. Her research focuses on geopolitics, development finance, international cooperation and sovereign debt with focus on China in Africa. She studied Development Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Sociology, Politics and Economics at Zeppelin University.

Registration
https://www.kielinstitut.de/events/global-china-conversations/registration-for-global-china-conversations-event-series/

Academic Partners

Media Partner

China.Table Professional Briefing is the new independent daily reporting from Berlin, Brussels and Beijing. The acclaimed editorial team offers an European point of view on political and technological developments in China – for leaders in government, business, academia, and civil society.
Subscribe now for a 30 day free trial!

Encounters and Creativity: The Terminology, Philosophy and Discourses in Chinese Buddhism and their modern Transformations
2026-06-15 08:00 - 2026-06-17 17:00 | Lower Saxony
Workshop:
Encounters and Creativity: The Terminology, Philosophy and Discourses in Chinese Buddhism and their modern Transformations
Time and location:
June 15–17, 2026 | Heyne Haus, University of Göttingen
Further information: https://www.cemeas.de/encounters-and-creativity-the-terminology-philosophy-and-discourses-in-chinese-buddhism-and-their-modern-transformations/
Overview:
This workshop explores the transformations of Buddhist concepts, ideas, and discourses in China within the broader context of long-term intercultural encounters and intellectual change since the seventeenth century. From the introduction of Christianity and new technologies to the rise of modern science and so-called “Western” intellectual trends, China’s religious and intellectual history has been shaped through continuous interactions across regional and national boundaries. Within these processes, Buddhism played a significant yet often underappreciated role as a medium of conceptual innovation, cultural exchange, and political engagement.
Rather than treating concepts and discourses as fixed categories, this workshop approaches them as entry points for examining how Buddhist thinkers, institutions, and communities rearticulated ideas, reshaped language, and responded strategically and creatively to changing political, social, and intellectual conditions. Participants are invited to engage with these issues from diverse methodological and disciplinary perspectives.
The workshop understands “modern transformation” not as a singular rupture, but as a complex and ongoing process involving continuities as well as changes across different temporal and spatial dimensions. It therefore encourages discussion beyond simple distinctions between “premodern” and “modern,” while also considering regional, transregional, and global contexts.

Participants:
Danica Cao (University of Chicago)
Huaiyu Chen (Arizona State University)
Marino Davide (University of Göttingen)
Richard Ellguth (Free University of Berlin)
Talia Kav (University of Hamburg)
Jan Kiely (Geneva Graduate Institute)
Carsten Krause (University of Hamburg)
Rongdao Lai (McGill University)
Jingjing Li (Leiden University)
Wushi Lin (Ghent University)
Chen kuo Lin (National Chengchi University)
Christian Meyer (Free University of Berlin)
Amandine Peronnet (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations)
Qinqin Peng (University of Göttingen)
Jens Reinke (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Justin Ritzinger (University of Miami)
Axel Schneider (University of Göttingen)
Miaoxiang Shi (Fo-Guang-Shan-Tempel, Berlin)
Yongchao Shi (Fo-Guang-Shan-Tempel, Berlin)
Shiyu Su (Leipzig University)
Francesca Tarocco (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Yuan Yan (Independent Scholar)
Jakub Zamorski (Jagiellonian University)
Ziyi Zhu (University of Göttingen)

Organizers and Sponsors：
Organized by Ziyi Zhu (M.A.) and Dr. Qinqin Peng (University of Göttingen)
Advised by Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider (University of Göttingen) and Prof. Dr. Eyal Aviv (The George Washington University)
Co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Studies and Confucius Academic Institute,
University of Göttingen.
