Veronica Walker: Breaking Down Walls

A family holiday at the age of 12 hooked Veronica Walker on all things China. Now almost two decades later, the Asian studies and arts graduate is still peering interestedly into the backyard of the country with the Great Wall.

She’s just returned from the 2013 Australia China Youth Dialogue – an annual conference that promotes engagement between young adults from China and Australia who are interested in strengthening the two countries’ relationship.

As one of two alumni prize recipients selected to attend the conference on behalf of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Veronica had the opportunity to engage with other young professionals on the big issues affecting the Australia-China relationship.

“The Australia China Youth Dialogue really highlighted the fact that there is a strong group of Australian and Chinese individuals with immense goodwill and passion seeking to build greater understanding and deeper relationships between these two countries,” she says.

“The Dialogue covered a range of key issues in the bilateral relationship, from climate change to business engagement. But central to all of these discussions remains the importance of building strong people-to-people links and understanding.”

Veronica’s used to looking at the big picture. It’s something she had to do as part of her previous role as an advisor to the Australia in the Asian Century Implementation Taskforce.

“The Taskforce was a cross-agency team established to support implementation of the former Government's Australia in the Asian Century White Paper,” says Veronica.

“The highlight of this role was having the opportunity to combine my professional role with my interest in China and Australian engagement with Asia. I also enjoyed the opportunity to work in a fast-paced environment with a dynamic team of people from a range of different agencies.”

But for Veronica, it isn’t just policies that will ensure Australia will succeed in the Asian century. It comes down to people, culture and experience.  Such a perspective is unsurprising considering Veronica’s experiences in childhood and as a student.

“My father is an academic and growing up we often had international postgraduate students living with our family. Qian, from Yangzhou, stayed with our family for the longest, around 18 months.

“And as an Asian studies student who majored in Mandarin at ANU, I had the opportunity to complete the Year in Asia Program in 2004 – nearly 10 years ago now!

“I studied at the Beijing Language and Culture University and this gave me my first in-depth experience of China and allowed me to put in to practise some of the skills I'd learnt while studying in Canberra.”

For the immediate future Veronica’s gaze has turned to Australia’s own backyard. She has just started a new job with the Australian Government looking at Indigenous economic development.

But with some 20 years of hands-on experience with one of the world’s most dynamic countries, we bet it won’t be long before she is back in China, helping to break down walls.

Veronica Walker completed a combined Bachelor of Asian Studies/ Bachelor of Arts at ANU in 2006.

Featured image by Songquan Deng from flickr.

Source: Australian National University Website, http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/news-events/all-stories/breaking-down-walls#.UluxNGTN9kh

Henry Makeham's article published in Chinese Journal of International Politics: 'Chinese Perspectives on the Feasibility of an Asia Pacific Community'

ACYD Founder Henry Makeham has had an article published in the Chinese Journal of International Politics entitled 'Chinese Perspectives on the Feasibility of an Asia Pacific Community'. The full text of the article can be found on Oxford Journals here. The PDF version can be found here.  

The Chinese Journal of International Politics is a rising platform for peer-reviewed academic papers and articles related to China or have implication for Chinese foreign policy. It focus on the advancement of systematic and rigorous study of international relations and publishes modern methodology, research products of historical studies and policy-oriented research.

The full citation for this article is: Chinese Perspectives on the Feasibility of an Asia Pacific Community, Henry F. Makeham, The Chinese Journal of International Politics 2013; doi: 10.1093/cjip/pot012

Melbourne-based and Beijing-based ACYD Alumni – Save the Date 12th of October 2013 & 14th of October 2013

Melbourne based ACYD Alumni are invited to join alumni from 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 for dinner in Melbourne on Saturday the 12th of October at 6pm. More details to follow. Save the Date

Moreover, Beijing based ACYD Alumni from all years are invited to attend a BBQ to welcome home the 2013 ACYD Delegates to Beijing. Details to follow.

Special Address for the 2013 ACYD by HE Ms Frances Adamson Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China

This is a special video address for the 2013 Australia-China Youth Dialogue by HE Frances AdamsonAustralian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China

The ACYD welcomes Huawei as an Associate Partner for this year's dialogue!

Huawei stated upon coming on board as an Associate Partner for this year's dialogue that: "Huawei is delighted to sponsor the Australia China Youth Dialogue. The ACYD participants hold the future of the Australia-China relationship in their hands and Huawei support this important program.  Founded in 1987, Huawei is an entirely employee-owned private company and a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider with a vision to enrich life through communication. Through the company’s 150,000 employees and dedication to customer-centric innovation and strong partnerships, Huawei has established telecommunications solutions and services, which have been deployed in over 140 countries, serving more than one-third of the world’s population." For more information about Huawei, please click here.

ACYD Congratulates this year's Victorian Government Fellows: LI Yijia 李一佳 & Anne Kuleshova 孔睿涵

The ACYD congratulates this year’s Victorian Government Fellows:

Anne KULESHOVA / 孔睿涵

Anne Kuleshova (BCom (Honours), AIAA, A Fin) is an experienced financial professional, having worked in Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) advisory in a top tier investment bank (Macquarie Capital) and in M&A and Valuations in Deloitte Corporate Finance. She holds an honours degree in commerce majoring in actuarial studies from The University of Melbourne.

As an Associate Director 副总监 of China House Consultancy Co., Limited 中皓顾问公司, Anne’s work involves facilitating investment by Chinese State Owned Enterprises, private enterprises and ultra High Net Worths into energy and resources, renewables and agriculture projects in Australia.

As part of her role, Anne works with investment banks, company executives, government representatives as well as other professionals to identify investment opportunities for clients. Anne has developed her corporate finance and strategic professional skills through six years’ experience across a broad range of sectors including minerals, resources, renewable energy, infrastructure and funds management. She combines a deep knowledge of financial valuation and analysis with strong experience in mergers & acquisitions and deal execution.

Her strong commercial and analytical experience is underpinned by a solid actuarial foundation in mathematics, statistics, risk assessment and economics. These skills are further supported by her highly developed communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills.

Anne is very active in charitable, industry leadership and mentoring initiatives and is a member of Finsia’s Young Finance Professionals committee. She speaks fluent Russian and conversational Mandarin.

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LI Yijia / 李一佳

Yijia LI holds a double Bachelor degree in Biology from Tsinghua University and in Economics from Peking University. He has done internships in Mercer consulting, Roland Berger Consultant and Tsinghua Science Park. He is now a third year Ph.D. student in Neuroscience at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne. Besides study, he and other three Chinese overseas students founded a Not-For-Profit Organization called Melbourne Pioneer (MP). MP is strongly supported by the Group of Eight and local community’s network resources, MP is determined to dedicate itself to promoting and providing innovative entrepreneurship services for the young and ambitious generation in Australia.

At MP, we uphold the belief of “growth, and help others grow; achievements, and help others achieve!” It is embraced and reinforced by the enterprise culture “Vision, Passion, Action”. As we are always passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship, this leads to us building better services for businesses and the greater social welfare so that everyone benefits.  MP has demonstrated a rising trajectory in attracting and training more and more talented youth. As Melbourne’s first and proudly the only Chinese innovation and entrepreneurship platform, we have been constantly working to help more Chinese overseas students to realize their personal values and achieve the best in Australia.

In 2013, MP is promoting Chinese students to do volunteering work in local communities to help them be involved in Australian culture.

Henry Makeham and Gregory Ainsworth's article published in the Business Spectator: 'Aussie jingoism jangles in the Chinese century'

ACYD Founder Henry Makeham and ACYD Partnership Manager Gregory Ainsworth have had an article published in the Business Spectator entitled 'Aussie jingoism jangles in the Chinese century'. The article can be found on the Business Spectator here and the ACYD website here. The ACYD is proud to have the Business Spectator as its 2013 Media Partner.

Aussie jingoism jangles in the Chinese century by Henry Makeham and Gregory Ainsworth

Anxieties about investment in Australia by Chinese state-owned enterprises continue to surface, often conflated with worries about an overarching (if nebulous) geostrategic strategy led from Beijing. “It’s the Communist People’s Republic of China, 100 per cent Communist-owned, buying up sections of the country and minerals in the ground which they will then sell to the Communist People’s Republic of China” claimed Senator Barnaby Joyce.

Even Kevin Rudd pandered to economic protectionism against Chinese SOE inbound investment in the lead-up to the election. “I'm not quite as free market as Tony on this stuff,” the prime minister said.

When thinking about Chinese SOE investment, the default position has often been to retreat from the unknown, and followed up with economic jingoism. The Australian foreign investment debate has demonstrated woefully unsophisticated discourse about the pros and cons of Chinese SOE investment.

In actual fact, the motivations of Chinese SOE managers are far from simple. Chinese SOE-outbound investment to Australia, and OECD economies more generally, faces an inherent tension: the execution of state industrial and political objectives versus self-interested profit maximisation.

What has been overlooked is that when this tension meets Australia’s ambivalence towards Chinese SOE investment, a favourable risk management environment is created. That is, the heightened political and media scrutiny Chinese SOEs face in Australia mitigates the danger that an SOE would brazenly sacrifice commercial self-interest in favour of industrial and/or political interests.

As part of the Chinese government’s concerted effort to improve its comprehensive national power – whereby an SOE is viewed as either a de facto or de jure extension of the state – national prestige and image throughout OECD economies increasingly matters to Beijing. As a result, the consequences of an SOE being perceived as acting for motives other than commercial interest are becoming increasingly dire, and not worth the risk.

So it is important for Australia to deal effectively with the challenge of economic jingoism. The alternative is to risk losing investment capital and enhanced access to Chinese markets.

Tempering the hysteria that occasionally surrounds inbound Chinese SOE investment will reduce the chances of Chinese geopolitical and economic backlash. Granted, investment and national security safeguards must never be ignored when dealing with inbound Chinese SOE investment. However, economic nationalism and protectionism must not trump balanced analysis.

The Brookings Institute’s Erica Downs has carried out extensive research on the behaviour of Chinese SOE outbound investment in pursuit of China’s energy security objectives. She concludes that the extent to which China’s cross-border energy acquisitions are the product of coordination between Chinese firms and the Chinese government is limited.

Outside observers have explicitly or implicitly assumed that China Development Bank’s deals, including a range of energy backed loans, are the work of China, Inc: China’s government, state-owned banks and SOEs operating as an aligned enterprise in a global pursuit of energy. The main finding of Downs’ study was that the China Development Bank's energy backed loans are the result of coordination between government and business, but the motive frequently attributed to these transactions – to secure oil and natural gas supplies for Chinese consumers – is just one of the multiple commercial and national interests that underpinned the transactions.

Downs’ research found no support for the notion that Chinese SOEs were “mere puppets of the state executing directives of their political masters”. Further, Downs’ findings suggest that where private and state interests have conflicted, private interests have trumped state industrial and political goals. This conclusion is reinforced by the Asia Society’s research that stated that “China’s [SOEs]… typically put self-interest and profitability above all else”.

The inflow of select Chinese capital into OECD markets like Australia presents a profusion of opportunities. But if Chinese SOEs perceive that Australia is thumbing its nose at their investment, Chinese capital will simply re-direct its investment flow to other resource-rich competitor nations. Perception matters. Australian economic jingoism must not trump reasoned analysis this Asian (read: Chinese) century.

Henry F Makeham is founder and director of the Australia-China Youth Dialogue (ACYD). Gregory Ainsworth is manager of Partnership Development for the ACYD and runs an early-stage healthcare technology company in Boston.

This article first appeared in the Business Spectator on the 12th of September 2013. You can find the original article here: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/9/12/economy/aussie-jingoism-jangles-chinese-century

Antony Dapiran, ACYD alumnus speaker, article in ANU Centre on China in the World's 'Australia-China Agenda 2013'

Antony Dapiran, ACYD alumnus speaker, and Partner at international law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell in Hong Kong, has published a comprehensive article on the challenges and trends, going forward, for doing deals in Greater China with the Australian Center on China in the World at the ANU. For Antony Dapiran's article and other articles published in the ANU Centre on China in the World's 'Australia-China Agenda 2013', please click here.

The ANU Centre on China in the World is a Major Partner of the Australia-China Youth Dialogue.