A China Reporter's Notebook - Watching a Great Power Open and Rise, then Turn Inwards

In September 2024, David Rennie completed a six-year posting to China as Beijing bureau chief of The Economist. He reported from every province and region except Tibet and remained in the country throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This was his second China tour, after a first posting in Beijing from 1998 to 2002, and his talk will trace social, political and economic trends that shaped this fascinating and opaque country in his years on the ground

David Rennie is the geopolitics editor of The Economist, and author of its weekly column on geopolitics ‘The Telegram’. He joined The Economist in 2007. He has served successively as European Union correspondent and Charlemagne columnist, based in Brussels; as British political editor and author of the Bagehot column, based in London; as Lexington columnist and Washington bureau chief; and as Beijing bureau chief, Chaguan columnist and co-host of the Drum Tower podcast.