On November 25, 2024, the Shanghai Institute for European Studies (SIES), the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), and the Shanghai Representative Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) co-organized an International Conference on “China-Europe and Cross-Strait Relations” at the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies (SIIS). Chen Dongxiao, President of SIIS, Benjamin Reichenbach, Chief Representative of FES Shanghai Representative Office, and Yang Lihua, Deputy Director General of Shanghai Municipal People's Government Taiwan Affairs Office delivered opening speeches, while Zhang Yinghong, Vice-President of the Shanghai Institute for European Studies (SIES) and Director of the Center for European Studies of SIIS, presided over the opening ceremony. Chinese participants came from Tsinghua University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, Xiamen University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, East China Normal University, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, Shanghai Institute for Europe and other universities and research institutions. The European participants came from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the Institut Montaigne in Paris, Corvinus University of Budapest, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael), the Hong Kong Baptist University, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), and other research institutes. German MP Nils Schmid also attended the conference. Participating scholars discussed topics such as cross-strait relations and the mainland's policy toward Taiwan, the political and economic situation and foreign policy of the Taiwan region after Lai Ching-teh's assumption of power, a review of China-EU relations in 2023-2024, the impact of the U.S. election on the international order and the relations across the Taiwan Straits, and policy recommendations on the relations across the Taiwan Straits.
