Thesis Day

To wrap up this Semester Webinars, we at European Guanxi have organised a special event: Thesis Day. 

Thesis Day was born with the idea of an event by EG members for EG members, created as a way for our selected speakers to showcase their projects and receive valuable feedback. We have received widespread participation and support, and we are glad to finally share with you the names and the topics that won this incredible initiative.

Our speakers will be:

Anabela Santiago: Chinese Health Governance

Anabela is in the process of writing her PhD, and her dissertation currently focuses on the Chinese stance towards global health governance. Her research is exploring this very contemporary topic from the geopolitics of the Health Silk Road. Her dissertation focuses on two aspects: the Chinese health reforms since 2003, the policies of the Healthy China 2030 plan. During our event, she will present the state of her current research, and she will try to shed a light on this latter plan and the general concept of the already mentioned Health Silk Road.

Gustavo Álvarez: Sociopolitical Mutual Understanding between Western liberal democracies and the People's Republic of China

Gustavo's thesis focuses on the ideological interaction between Western liberal democracies and the People’s Republic of China. His analysis starts from the identification of the two different entities starting from their theories. His thesis follows with what theories are necessary for a sociopolitical mutual understanding concept framework, to ultimately provide an overall perspective on the elements that unites and separates them through a political, social and cultural deconstruction process. This framework has allowed him to conclude that Western liberal democracies and the People’s Republic of China are separated by a cultural gap, socially proximate because of the role of individual towards the state and politically aligned in a long term democracy-oriented process.

Sakura de Vries: An Examination of Administrative Distance in Relation to Chinese Bilateral Trade:

Does the Quality of Institutions Matter?

Sakura's thesis uses the Gravity Model to see how can administrative distance influence the amount of Chinese bilateral trade and how does that can change over the years. Using trade data by the IMF and the World Governance Indicators by Kaufmann, Kraay, & Mastruzzi Sakura has constructed an index using Euclidean Distance techniques. This whole process has allowed her to demonstrate that a greater administrative distance between China and its trading partners is positively contributing to trade amongst them. 

Our moderator will be Chiara Ciampi.

Chiara has a double MA in China and Global Studies from the University of Turin and in China Studies from the Zhejiang University. She also has a BA in Languages, Markets, and Cultures of Asia from the University of Bologna. Additionally to her experience as a cultural mediator, she is currently an Intern at DeZhuang International and senior event coordinator at the Webinars Team of European Guanxi.