Europe-China Forum 2025

With over thirty years of experience in diplomacy, Ambassador Bruno Angelet is the current ambassador of Belgium to the People’s Republic of China and Mongolia. He has previously served as ambassador of Belgium and ambassador of the EU to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in addition to postings at the Belgian Embassy in Rwanda, Tanzania, Turkey, Germany, and at the Belgian Permanent Representation to the European Union. Interested in the EU’s security and defense policy and the history of European integration, Ambassador Angelet was the Security Policy Director of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and lectures on security.

Bernd Biervert is Head of Cabinet to Maroš Šefčovič, European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency. He has held several senior roles in the European Commission, including Head of the Clean Energy Transition and Ecological and Social Transitions units in DG Research & Innovation. He previously served as Deputy Head of Cabinet to Vice-President Šefčovič and as Member of Cabinet to Commissioners Ján Fige and Šefčovič. A qualified judge, he has extensive experience in European law and governance.

Professor Jos Delbeke holds the first EIB Chair on Climate Policy and International Carbon Markets and was previously Director-General of the European Commission’s DG for Climate Action (2010-2018). Delbeke was involved in setting the EU’s climate and energy targets for 2020 and 2030, and in developing EU legislation on the Emissions Trading System (ETS), cars and fuels, air quality, emissions from big industrial installations and chemicals (REACH). He developed Europe’s International Climate Change strategy and was the European Commission’s chief negotiator at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, playing a key role in the EU’s implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and in negotiations on the Paris Agreement.

Dr Cui Hongjian has long been engaged in research in international relations, European affairs and Chinese diplomacy. In his former role, Cui directed and oversaw all research projects of the Department of European Studies of the China Institute of International Studies. He has been associated with the CIIS for over two decades. Cui is also a Member of the China Economic and Social Council, Vice-President of the Council of the Chinese Association of European Studies and the Executive Director of the European Studies Center at the China Foundation for International Studies.

Pascal Lamy is a French politician and the Vice President of the Paris Peace Forum, a new innovative global governance initiative. He served as the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for two consecutive terms, prior to which he was the European commissioner for trade and head of cabinet for former Commission president, Jacques Delores. Currently an associate professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Lamy also frequently lectures at the Institut Jacques Delors and speaks on issues related to globalisation, global governance, international trade, international economics and regional integration. He has written several publications on the European Union and the ‘harmonising’ of globalisation and is a Trustee of Friends of Europe.

In her current position, Liang Linlin is responsible for communication, media relations and research on China-EU trade and business relations at the CCCEU. She has also coordinated and worked as an editor for the chamber’s annual flagship reports. Prior to joining the CCCEU, Liang covered China’s foreign affairs in Beijing and EU business and trade in Brussels for the Xinhua News Agency. Previously, she also worked as an advisor, providing consultancy services to various organisations, including the international business association ChinaEU.

Biwei Liu has served as the Vice President of the China Public Diplomacy Association since 2018. After joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in 1979, Liu has also served as the Ambassador Extraordinary to Denmark and Ireland, as well as a number of other roles in the United States, Laos and Ethiopia.

Signe Ratso is Deputy Director-General at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, where she is responsible for innovation, prosperity and international cooperation, and serves as Chief Negotiator for Horizon Europe association policy. She previously held senior management roles in DG Trade and served as Deputy Secretary-General at the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. Ratso has extensive experience in international economic relations, research and innovation policy, and European integration.

Cai Run is the current Chinese Ambassador to the European Union. Previously, he served as Ambassador of China to Portugal and then to Israel.

Dr. Sebastian Schwark is a Senior Advisor with the Global Solutions Initiative in Berlin. A political scientist by training, he graduated with a Ph.D. from Georg-August-Universität Göttigen with a thesis on German anti-Americanism. He was a Fellow at Columbia University’s European Institute in New York and The German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, DC, and Berlin. In addition to his position at GSI, he is CEO of SEC Newgate Deutschland, a strategic communications consultancy focused on Corporate Affairs, geopolitical advisory, and crisis and issues management.

Dr Jiemian Yang is a Senior Fellow and Chairman of SIIS Academic Consultative Council and Counsellor of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. He has also served as a board member of the China National Association for International Studies, the Chinese People Institute of Foreign Affairs, the National Association of China-U.S. Friendship, the National Association of American Studies, Shanghai and many other organizations.

Yiwei Wang is a Jean Monnet Chair Professor and the Director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China. He is also an expert adviser of CCPIT Advisory Committee and Turkish TRT World Forum, the Council Member of China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA). He was formerly diplomat of the Chinese Mission to the European Union (2008-2011) and a professor at numerous universities in China and the United States.

Dr. Zhao is the Director of International Political Studies at the National Institute for Global Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (NIGS-CASS). He is concurrently a senior fellow at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (IWEP-CASS). Prior to joining CASS in 2017, he was a research fellow at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University (NSI) after graduating from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in international history.