The Stockholm China Forum is a major initiative by the German Marshall Fund, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. On a biannual basis, the Forum brings together policymakers, intellectuals, journalists, and businesspeople from Europe, the United States, and Asia for an ongoing and systematic dialogue to assess the impact of China’s rise and its implications for European and U.S. foreign, economic, and security policy.

Previous Stockholm China Forums have included participants from across the U.S. policy community such as James Steinberg, Aaron Friedberg, Kenneth Lieberthal, Robert Kagan, Derek Mitchell and Christopher Hill; EU policy officials such as Robert Cooper and Simon Fraser; European thinkers such as Mark Leonard and Charles Grant; and renowned experts on China such as Francois Godement and Minxin Pei. Since the fourth Stockholm China Forum, discussion has benefitted from the attendance of senior Chinese policy figures such as Cui Liru, Yan Xuetong and Qin Yaqing and Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying. Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, is a regular and active participant at the Forum. The Forums have been notable for attracting consistent and loyal participation and for their lively policy-focused discussions – one senior European participant described the Forum as the “the most policy-relevant seminars that I take part in”.

In the course of the discussions, a large variety of topics have been covered: China’s economy; China’s domestic political development; China’s security policy; the successes and failures of EU and U.S. China policy; China’s global economic impact; trade policy toward China; China and Myanmar/Burma; NATO and Asia; China’s approach to foreign policy crises; China, Tibet, and the Olympics; the Six Party Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program; China’s energy policy; climate change; U.S. China policy after the presidential elections; the global economic crisis; and U.S., EU, and Chinese relations with Russia after the conflict in Georgia.

Stockholm China Forum Papers

Past Stockholm China Forums