This event was recorded on November 29, 2022.
The Future of US-China Tech Relations: Blockchain, Crypto, and Central Bank Digital Currency
Co-sponsor: Guarini Global Law & Tech
About the event
How is China regulating data, blockchain, and the emerging Web3? China’s regulatory approach is based on “cyber sovereignty.” The government actively promotes blockchain technology and has advanced plans for a sovereign digital currency, while also strictly prohibiting crypto mining and trading. With respect to the latest Web3 and metaverse developments, China’s tech companies are working on a “token-less” metaverse ecosystem with unique Chinese characteristics.
Using blockchain and CBDC as examples, we will explore China’s latest innovation policy and the post-20th Party Congress US-China tech race, from AI and semiconductor chips to quantum computing and electric cars. Winston Ma, the author of Blockchain and Web3: Building the Cryptocurrency, Privacy, and Security Foundations of the Metaverse, will discuss these questions with Maria Adele Carrai, co-editor of The China Questions 2 – Critical Insights into US-China Relations.
About the speaker
Winston Wenyan Ma is an adjunct professor of law at NYU Law School as well as an investor, attorney, and author in the global digital economy. He is a co-founder and managing partner of CloudTree Ventures, a seed to early growth stage venture capital firm empowering interactive entertainment companies. He is the board chairman of Nasdaq-listed MCAA, a European tech SPAC. Previously, he was managing director and head of the North America office of China’s sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation. Prior to that, Mr. Ma was the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, a vice president at J.P. Morgan investment banking, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. He is the author of eight books, including The Digital War: How China's Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace (2021) and The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy (2020). His latest book Blockchain and Web3: Building the Cryptocurrency, Privacy, and Security Foundations of the Metaverse was released by Wiley in September 2022.
About the discussant
Maria Adele Carrai is an assistant professor of global China studies at NYU Shanghai and an associate at NYU Law School. Her research explores the history of international law in East Asia and investigates how China’s rise as a global power shapes norms and redefines the international distribution of power. She co-leads the research initiative “Mapping Global China,” and is the author of Sovereignty in China. A Geneology of a Concept since 1840 (CUP 2019). She is co-editor of The China Questions 2 - Critical Insights into US-China Relations (HUP 2022). Before joining NYU Shanghai, she was a recipient of a three-year Marie-Curie fellowship at KU Leuven. She was also a fellow at the Italian Academy of Columbia University, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, Max Weber Program of the European University Institute of Florence, and New York University Law School.