All right. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this E-Syp Online conversation about China. It's economic

openness and the climate of doing business in China. My name is Frederick Erickson and I'm very pleased to welcome

today Frank Levine, author of a brand new book about doing business in China, the smart business

guide to China e-commerce, published just a few months ago by Penguin. Frank has had a long and

distinguished career in US politics, the foreign service and the private sector. He is a former political director at the White House, and his last post in a US administration

was about 15 years ago when he was the US Undersecretary of Commerce for International

Trade, dealing among other things with China. He has also been a US ambassador to Singapore,

and between his political appointments,

Frank has had senior positions in banking, marketing, and consulting, and most of the time in Asia.

Frank, welcome to Isop, and congratulations to your new book.

President, thanks so much. It's great to be back with you. I just wish COVID is sort of created

a bit of turbulence in the world today, as we all know, but I'm just sorry I can't be visiting

you in Brussels as we've done in the past and have these in-person meetings are just a little bit

warm, a little more fruitful. But Zoom isn't bad. Zoom isn't bad, and I'm delighted to be able to

spend some time with you and with the audience here today.

Thank you.

No, it's our pleasure.

And look forward to hosting you in Brussels next time.

So we're going to talk about your book in a minute.

But I wanted us to start this conversation in China and current trends of economic policy

in China.

There is an increasing number of friction,

...