Dr. Sebastian Bersick has joined the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations as a Senior Research Fellow. Dr. Bersick is Professor of International Political Economy of East Asia and Vice-Dean, Faculty of East Asian Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany). He also is the Executive Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for European Union (EU)-Asia Connectivity. For more information, please visit https://mnccenter.org/research-fellows.
Wong MNC Center News
August 26th, 2023
August 26th, 2023
On August 13, 2023, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Founding Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, was interviewed by Asian Sentinel regarding the arrest in Hong Kong of the chairman of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings and the arrest’s potential implications for its joint venture partners, which include BMW and Renault. According to Asian Sentinel, Brilliance manufactures and sells certain types of cars, mini-buses, and other vehicles in China for these German and French automobile firms. Dr. Blanchard suggested to Asian Sentinel that events like this can be potentially disruptive to operations because they produce uncertainty as employees await further information and guidance, create emotional distress, and induce extreme cautiousness. Blanchard further observed that episodes like this also fuel reputational risks that may impose costs on joint venture partners as they try to minimize them.
July 16th, 2023
On July 12, 2023, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center), led a panel entitled “Diving into Chinese Overseas Ports in Europe” which was arranged for the 17th annual gathering of the “China Goes Global” conference (Bologna, Italy). The purpose of this panel was to disseminate the findings of the Wong MNC Center orchestrated book Chinese Overseas Ports in Europe and the Americas (Routledge, 2023). Professor David Styan, Ms. Kirsten Kaare Jensen, Professor Sebastian Bersick, and Professor Francesca Spigarelli and Dr. Dominique Lepore gave presentations on, respectively, Chinese involved ports in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greenland, and the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. Dr. Blanchard summarized the book’s conclusions, highlighted various unknowns, and offered recommendations for future study.
June 20th, 2023
Dr. THAM Siew Yean has joined the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations as a Senior Research Fellow. She is Emeritus Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia) as well as Visiting Senior Fellow at Regional Economic Studies (RES), ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. For more information, please visit https://mnccenter.org/research-fellows.
June 8th, 2023
In late May, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Founding Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (“Wong MNC Center”), met with Dr. NGEOW Chow Bing, the Director of Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. Dr. Blanchard spoke to Dr. Ngeow about various aspects of Chinese investment in Malaysia, updated him on the research and other activities of the Wong MNC Center, and presented him with copies of the Wong MNC Center orchestrated three-book series on China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative. These books will become part of the Institute of China Studies research library.
June 8th, 2023
In early April, C. Lawrence Greenwood, a long-time member of the Advisory Board for the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (“Wong MNC Center”), became a member of the Board of Directors. Larry is Senior Adviser at BowerGroupAsia and also Japan Society of Northern California (JSNC) Board Chairman. From 2016-2019, he was JSNC President. Previously, he was Senior Managing Director for Government Relations in Asia for MetLife. From 2006 to 2011, he served as Vice President at the Asian Development Bank. He served as US Ambassador to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group from 2000-2003 and retired in 2006 as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Economic Bureau of the State Department.
April 1st, 2023
Mr. Ker Gibbs has joined the Advisory Board of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations. He is Executive in Residence, University of San Francisco (California, USA). He was most recently the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AmCham Shanghai). Before his appointment as AmCham Shanghai President, he served on its Board of Governors for four years. Currently, he also is an Economic and Technology Consultant to the Wuxi Municipal Government (China), a member of the Advisory Board of the Jiaotong University business school, and a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations. He holds a BA in economics from UCLA and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Further information can be found at: https://mnccenter.org/advisory-board-alphabetical-order.
March 26th, 2023
In mid-March, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Founding Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center), gave two speeches at the 2023 International Studies Association Annual Meeting, one of the largest global gatherings of international relations specialists, in Montreal, Canada. These speeches related to research being undertaken pursuant to ongoing Wong MNC Center initiatives on the effects of Chinese outward foreign direct investment in various regions of the world such as Southeast Asia and Latin America and China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR). Dr.
December 29th, 2022
In mid-December 2022 in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center) hosted a 1-1/2 day workshop entitled Chinese Overseas Ports in Southeast and South Asia: Profiling Problems and Progress. This gathering, also orchestrated and funded by the Wong MNC Center, involved senior and junior academics, researchers, and policymakers from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Myanmar, and the United States who presented their analyses of China’s naval buildup, Chinese overseas port activities in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the response of countries like India and Japan to China’s involvement in overseas ports. As far as Chinese overseas ports are concerned, workshop participants showed that there is notable variation in progress and effects.
November 29th, 2022
On November 21, 2022, FinanceAsia published a story entitled “US-listed Chinese Firms Wracked by Infighting amid Delisting Threat” that examined the delisting threat facing more than 160 companies listed on United States (US) stock exchanges pursuant to the 2020 Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act and the unexpected responses of some companies to the threat. Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Founding Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, shared his thoughts about the various business (e.g., the opportunity to be relisted on Chinese exchanges at much higher prices) and corporate political reasons why certain NASDAQ listed companies such as Sinovac Biotech, a pharmaceutical company, and Hollysys Automation Technologies, an IT firm, have refused buyout offers at substantial premiums, even though this would have made the threat of delisting irrelevant and/or removed the necessity of complying with U.S.
