Book James Kynge - Conference Speaker

James Kynge

Emerging Markets Editor, Financial Times

Synopsis

With two decades’ experience in the region, James has witnessed China’s transition first hand and seen its influence on exports, brands and treasury bonds. The author of China Shakes The World uncovers the stories as they unfold – from overcapacity to capital outflows and a falling renminbi. He believes it’s part of the transformation into a consumer-led economy. He also examines the country’s expansion along a ‘New Silk Road’ and the slow but steady integration between Chinese and global financial markets.

Biography

James Kynge is Emerging Markets Editor and Associate Editor at the Financial Times. The winner of the prestigious Harold Wincott award for journalism for his coverage of China and its complex relationship with rest of the world he has spent two decades as a journalist in Asia.

After nine years at Reuters becoming Taiwan and Central Asia Bureau Chief, James spent over a decade covering China and the region for the Financial Times. As well as leading their emerging markets coverage, he also chairs FT Confidential Research, the research service providing data on China and south east Asia and Latin America, which he founded.

James has spent almost half of the last 30 years working in China, including seven as the FT’s bureau chief in Beijing. His award-winning investigative articles have focused on China’s overseas investment push, its grand design to create a ‘New Silk Road’ between Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, and the slow but steady integration between Chinese and global financial markets. As well as journalism he also headed up the business operations of the Pearson Group of companies in China.

During his time as a journalist, James covered many of the significant events that shaped the region - including the Japanese economic bubble and its deflation, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the independence of Mongolia, the rise to nationhood of the five former Soviet central Asian republics in the early 1990s, the China-Taiwan missile crisis of 1996 followed by Taiwan's first presidential election, the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and China's emergence as a great economic power.

In his editorial and research roles, James looks at the forecasts for the Chinese economy and markets as well as the country’s role on the global stage and the often unreported detail of what’s happening on the ground. He’s also studied the Chinese consumer economy, the growth of the middle class, and the revolution that 415million Chinese millennials might start.

James is also the author of the bestselling award-winning book, China Shakes The World which describes the development of China as a superpower and has been translated into nineteen languages. A fluent Mandarin speaker, James is a regular commentator on Chinese and Asian issues for media outlets including NPR, CNN and the BBC.