Innovation and Involution: A Conversation with CSIS’s Scott Kennedy 

On this special episode of China Field Notes, guest host Ilaria Mazzocco interviews the program’s usual host, CSIS Trustee Chair Scott Kennedy, about his latest trip to China. Scott shares insights on the split-screen picture of China’s booming tech sector, including his visit to BYD, and signs of a slowing economy. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the state of U.S.-China relations and shifting dynamics in Hong Kong. 

Scott Kennedy is the Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at CSIS. A leading authority on Chinese economic policy and U.S.-China commercial relations, Kennedy has been traveling to China for over 30 years. His ongoing areas of focus include China’s innovation drive, Chinese industrial policy, U.S.-China relations, and global economic governance. His articles have appeared in a wide array of policy, popular, and academic venues, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and China Quarterly. Kennedy hosts the China Field Notes podcast, which features voices from on the ground in China. From 2000 to 2014, Kennedy was a professor at Indiana University (IU), where he established the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business and was the founding academic director of IU’s China Office. Kennedy received a PhD in political science from George Washington University, an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA from the University of Virginia.