On January 16, 2026, the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU) and Carnegie China co-hosted a seminar titled "U.S.-China Competition and Regional Influence: Perspectives from Latin America, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific" at the North Pavilion in a hybrid format.

The Chinese experts in attendance included: Prof. Wang Jisi, Founding President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU) and Professor at the School of International Studies (SIS), PKU; Prof. Yu Tiejun, President of IISS, PKU and Professor at SIS, PKU; Yang Mingjie, former President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR); Prof. Dong Jingsheng, Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, PKU and Professor at the Department of History, PKU; Associate Professor Wu Bingbing, Senior Research Fellow at IISS, PKU and Associate Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, PKU; Associate Prof. Jie Dalei, Senior Research Fellow at IISS, PKU and Associate Professor at SIS, PKU; Associate Professor Qi Haotian, Senior Research Fellow at IISS, PKU and Associate Professor at SIS, PKU; Associate Professor Guo Jie at SIS, PKU; and Zhao Jianwei, Postdoctoral Researcher at SIS, PKU.

The foreign participants included Evan Feigenbaum, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Damien Ma, Director of Carnegie China; Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI); Daniel Lansberg Rodríguez, Managing Partner of Aurora Macro Strategies; and Mohammed Alsudairi, Lecturer at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University.

The all-day conference was divided into four sessions. The first morning session focused on the overarching framework of U.S.-China competition, examining the implications of the Trump administration's National Security Strategy for U.S.-China rivalry. The second morning session turned to Latin America, analyzing whether U.S.-China competition in the region is trending toward a zero-sum dynamic. The third session, held in the afternoon, focused on competition and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. The fourth and final afternoon session examined the Middle East, exploring whether the region has become a new frontier for technological competition. In the closing segment, experts from both sides discussed how to sustain healthy U.S.-China competition while avoiding a mutually destructive confrontation.

Editor: Li Fangqi    Photographer: Zheng Huaizhou