Data collection, analysis, disposal, and cross-border flow are essential components of digital trade and investment projects. A tension exists between promoting private commercial businesses under investment and trade treaties concluded between China and countries in the Indo Pacific and protecting the national interest in data security and privacy sought by these countries against the perceived threat of China.

This multidisciplinary roundtable will bring expert opinions on critical and controversial issues such as:

• The legal regulations imposed by the Chinese government on its state-owned enterprises and privately-owned companies in digital trade and the political linkage between them
• The rise of digital protectionism, the confluence of industrial policy, mutual suspicion and national security
• China’s digital trade in Southeast Asia, particularly investments in media companies and how this impacts national security and internet governance
• The U.S.-China forced technology transfer dispute and national security implications.

Speakers:

Ms. Tianqi Gu, PhD researcher at the University of Sydney Law School. She holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Dalian Maritime University, a Master of Law degree in International Commercial Law from the University College London, and a second Master of Law degree (general) from the University of Sydney. Her research topic focuses on the implications of the latest round of Chinese State-owned enterprises (SOEs) reform on the Chinese SOEs’ outbound foreign investment behavioural patterns in developed countries, and how developed host countries should cope with the potential risks that come with the Chinese SOEs’ investment influx.

Dr. Simon Lacey, is currently Senior Lecturer in International Trade at the University of Adelaide’s School of Economics and Public Policy. Prior to that, Simon served as Vice-President Trade Facilitation and Market Access at Huawei Technologies in Shenzhen, where he was responsible for monitoring, managing and mitigating the biggest trade and investment risks facing the company across a dozen of its most important markets internationally. Simon has worked in government advisory and policy advocacy roles in more than 30 countries supporting both sovereigns and corporates. It was in this capacity that Simon spent four years in Jakarta advising the Indonesian government on a broad range of issues in connection with the country’s membership of ASEAN, the WTO, and various preferential trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties. Simon obtained his bachelor’s in laws from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), and an LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC. He is currently completing a PhD in international economic law at UNSW Law.

Dr. Aim Sinpeng, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. She is a Discovery Early Career Research Fellow (DECRA) for her project on cyber activism in Thailand and is the author of Opposing Democracy in the Digital Age: The Yellow Shirts in Thailand (University of Michigan Press, 2021). Her research expertise is on the interaction between digital media and politics in Southeast Asia, particularly on the topics of disinformation, hate speech and online political participation.

Professor Peter Yu, Regents Professor of Law and Communication and Director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University. Born and raised in Hong Kong, he is Vice-President and Co-Director of Studies of the American Branch of the International Law Association. He has served as the general editor of The WIPO Journal published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. He previously held the Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law at Drake University Law School and was Wenlan Scholar Chair Professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, China.

Moderator:

Associate Professor Jie (Jeanne) Huang, Co-Director of the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law, Sydney Law School. Jeanne is also the co-chair of the American Society of International Law Private International Law Interest Groups. Her research focuses on conflict-of-law issues in digital trade and dispute resolution involving Chinese parties.

Webinar via Zoom, Thursday 28 April, 1-2pm AEST

Once registered, you will be provided with Zoom details closer to the date of the webinar.

This event is jointly organized by Centre for Asian and Pacific Law, China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, and the International Law Association (Australian Branch).

Image source: Canva