China’s Crisis of Confidence
Li Yuan 袁莉 writes the New New World column for The New York Times, which focuses on the intersection of technology, business and politics in China and across Asia. Ms. Yuan joined The Times in May 2018. Before that, she worked for The Wall Street Journal in New York, Beijing, and Hong Kong as a reporter and an editor for 14 years, covering the early days of the mobile internet, the launch of the iPhone and China's rise as a technology power.

In May 2022, Ms. Yuan co-founded a Chinese-language podcast "Conversations with Yuan Li” 不明白播客. She is the producer, the host, and the face of the podcast which grew to rank No. 8 in Spotify’s most popular news podcasts in the United States by Nov. 2022, ahead of The Rachel Maddow Show, The Journal by The Wall Street Journal and the BBC. The podcast is Ms. Yuan’s personal project that was approved by The New York Times. She aims to provide uncensored interviews with experts and ordinary Chinese about current affairs in China. Ms. Yuan is a graduate of Columbia University and George Washington University. She grew up in China's northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. She worked for the Xinhua News Agency in Beijing, Bangkok and Kabul, Afghanistan, as an editor and a foreign correspondent.

After three decades of breakneck growth, China is facing record youth unemployment, a deep housing slump, stagnant spending and deflation. A crisis of confidence is brewing inside China, where a growing number of people are trying to flee the country, "lying flat" and not having children. They worry that it’s the beginning of something they don’t dare to imagine and fear that the government doesn’t have solutions. In her talk, Ms. Yuan will address these developments and provide insights on consequences for China’s present and future.