Week three of the Delaware Great Decisions series will focus on the United States and China, specifically on how the U.S. will respond to China’s growing global presence. Presenters are two faculty from the Chinese and East Asian Studies program at Ohio State University, and an entrepreneur who completed studies at OSU and in China.
A press release on the program states, “For the past 10 years, the United States and China have been locked in a competition for who has the greatest global influence. One major point of contention is the status of Taiwanese sovereignty, which has become even more relevant recently with the possibility that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may prompt China to take similar action regarding Taiwan. How will the United States engage a China which is increasingly seeking to expand its sphere of influence? To go beyond the global headlines, Great Decisions has invited a panel of China-U.S. relations experts to offer an insider perspective on ‘working with China in 2023.’”
Dr. Galal Walker, professor of Chinese at The Ohio State University, will introduce two guest discussants, Jared Psigoda and Dr. Minru Li. The program will take place at noon on Friday, Feb. 24, via Zoom.
Psigoda is is an American entrepreneur and investor focused on the high-tech/entertainment space who has been living and working in China for over 15 years. He was the first American member of Forbes China’s 30 under 30 and Jack Ma’s Hupan School of Entrepreneurship. Psigoda graduated with a master’s degree in Chinese from The Ohio State University and an eMBA from the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. He travels back and forth between his home in Shenzhen, China, and Columbus, Ohio.
Li, assistant director of National East Asian Languages Resource Center at OSU, has over 30 years teaching and administrative experiences in the field of Chinese language and culture education. He has taught at Wuhan University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Auckland where he was awarded tenure. Li has been a visiting scholar at Yale University and Harvard University, and he is currently a guest professor at Wuhan University. As a volunteer, he is the founding president of Wuhan University Ohio Alumni Association, vice president of Ohio-Hubei Friendship Association, and secretary of National Chinese Language and Culture Coalition (NCLCC).
Walker, a professor of Chinese at OSU, has trained hundreds of young Americans to conduct their careers in China and with Chinese, and he has advised over 20 Ph.D. students in their preparation to serve as professors of Chinese at colleges and universities in the U.S. and China. He is past president of the China US-Heartland Association and has served on the Board of Visitors for the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. In 2003, he was awarded the Friend of China Medal by the Ministry of Education of China — the only person in the English-speaking world awarded that award.
To participate in the Zoom program, individuals are asked to register in advance if they haven’t done so already for a previous event. The registration link is available at https://bit.ly/3xLa1aI or it can be found on the Delaware Great Decisions Facebook page at www.facebook.com/greatdecisionsdeloh.
