UK Election 2024: A New Chapter in UK-China Relations?
Agenda:
16:30-16:45 Offline event registration
16:45-16:50 Welcome remarks, Tom Simpson, Managing Director, China, CBBC
16:50-17:00 Richard Burn, Senior Advisor, APCO
17:00-17:10 Chris Torrens, Managing Director, Greater China, APCO
17:10-17:50 Panel discussion
Moderator:
-
Tom Simpson, Managing Director, China, CBBC
Panelists:
-
Richard Burn, Senior Advisor, APCO
-
Chris Torrens, Managing Director, Greater China, APCO
-
Kong Yuan, Researcher, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
-
Zhang Biao, Associate Professor in International Politics and Head of the Department, China University of Political Science and Law
17:50-18:00 Q&A
Member Registration here
Non-Member Registration here
About the Speakers
Richard Burn, Senior Advisor, APCO
Richard Burn has spent his career moving between the public and private sectors but always at the intersection of government and business. He has a lifelong interest in China, most recently spending three years as a British diplomat in Beijing. He also has expertise in sustainable technologies, critical minerals and the energy transition. He currently serves as a senior counselor based in APCO’s London office.
Prior to joining APCO, Richard was the UK’s Trade Commissioner for Europe, covering 33 countries in the EU, EFTA, the Western Balkans and Israel. Appointed to the role in May 2020, he led his Europe-based team at the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) through the Brexit transition and first three months outside the EU. Before that, he was appointed as the first British Trade Commissioner to China and Hong Kong, following the creation of DIT by Prime Minister Theresa May after the EU Referendum result in 2016. Based in the British Embassy in Beijing, Richard led the DIT team in China across the Embassy and four Consulates-General, with responsibility for supporting UK exports, encouraging inward investment from China and tackling market access issues on behalf of UK business.
Richard has also worked as group government affairs director for Johnson Matthey plc, the global sustainable technologies company, whose innovative products and processes help the world to achieve net zero. From 2014-2016, he was global public policy director for the leading beverage alcohol company, Diageo plc, after nine years as corporate affairs director for Diageo Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. In that role, he built a regional corporate affairs network, launched a female empowerment program and negotiated the acquisition of a Chinese white spirits business in China. Before that, he was the managing director of APCO’s Asia region, having co-founded the China investment and public affairs consultancy, Batey Burn, which was acquired by APCO in 1999. During his tenure, he tripled the size of the business, leaving in 2005 to join Diageo. He started his career as a civil servant in the then-British Hong Kong Government and became private secretary to former UK Prime Minister Edward Heath, travelling widely with him to China, the United States and Europe.
Richard holds a first-class bachelor’s degree in classics (Literae Humaniores) from Oxford University.
Chris Torrens, Managing Director, Greater China, APCO
Chris Torrens, APCO’s managing director of the Greater China region, is a veteran risk and compliance expert with more than three decades of experience providing strategic advice for multinational clients across various sectors.
Before joining APCO, Chris worked at Control Risks for more than 20 years. He served as partner in the Greater China and North Asia region where he led the East China geomarket out of Shanghai before moving to Beijing to lead the North China geomarket. During this time, he oversaw the growth and diversification of the company’s Chinese client base. Before this role, Chris was based in London as the partner responsible for the Global Risk Analysis practice for Europe, Middle East and Africa, managing all political, security and operational risk analysis for the region.
Chris also served as a Shanghai-based associate director in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ advisory practice and as the Hong Kong-based head of research at Batey Burn, a UK government relations and public affairs consultancy, which was acquired by APCO in 1999.
Chris has lived in Greater China for nearly 25 years. He holds an MBA from the China-Europe International Business School, a BA Honours degree in Modern Chinese Studies from Leeds University and speaks Mandarin. His book, “Doing Business in China,” was published by The Economist in 2010.
Chris currently serves as vice-chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China.
Kong Yuan, Researcher, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
KONG Yuan, Researcher of the Institute of European Studies (IES), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He works on UK foreign policy and UK China bilateral relations and is leading the UK studies research unit of IES.
Zhang Biao, Associate Professor in International Politics and Head of the Department, China University of Political Science and Law
Zhang Biao is associate professor in International Politics (Qian Duansheng Distinguished Young Scholar) and head of the department, at China University of Political Science and Law. He is interested in British foreign policy and China-UK relations. He has published in Asia Europe Journal, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Chinese Political Science Review, Comparative European Politics, Journal of Chinese Political Science, and Third World Quarterly. He writes book reviews for International Affairs. He is an associate editor of Asia Europe Journal, a flagship journal for studying Europe’s relationship with Asia. He also appears frequently as a commentator on CGTN.