The 12th IPP International Conference –
Reshaping Modernization: China and the Global South
Location: Guangzhou, China
Time: 23-24 August 2025
Conference Convenor: Professor Yongnian Zheng, Chair of Academic Committee, Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology
Organizer: Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology
Concept Note
The Institute of Public Policy (IPP) at South China University of Technology, a China Top Think Tank (CTTT), is dedicated to advancing social science research on China’s political economy. The IPP has organized international conference annually since 2013 to facilitate global dialogues on issues of global and strategic concerns, including macro-economic trends, social policy, and foreign affairs. This event provides scholars with an international platform to strengthen their professional visibility and promotes meaningful exchanges among academics, industrial experts, and policymakers in China and beyond.
This year, in 2025, we will organize the 12th IPP International Conference in Guangzhou, with a thematic focus on the modernization of China and the Global South.
The choice is motivated by a few pivotal developments in international political economy. First, the stunning tariff plan that the Trump administration unleashed in April 2025 has kicked off the dismantling and restructuring of the global economic order. Second, China’s economy has come to a critical juncture, requiring structural adjustments to sustain long-term development. Third, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence are poised to revolutionize production relations within and between societies. Finally, the global economic growth centre is increasingly shifting to the Global South, with ASEAN countries and India leading at the forefront.
These ongoing structural transformations demand a renewed approach to modernization with an emphasis on the Global South’s experience. As the world’s developmental paradigm moves beyond the misleading dichotomy between the Washington and the Beijing Consensus, and towards a set of more diverse – and indeed, more divided – categories, it becomes more and more evident that the Global South will reshape our understanding of modernization in years if not decades to come. The key questions are: How will the Global South unite and reshape the world order? Can the Global South rise above the fray as globalization crumbles under the Trump shock? How can the Global South’s experiences in modernization in past decades reconceptualize, and offer solutions to, global development? Bringing the Global South to comparative light with China will give us valuable insights into these questions – an urgent task in a time of uncertainty.
