China's New Role in the International Community. Challenges and Expectations for the 21<SUP>st</SUP> Century

The objective of the roundtable held at the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Studies (SIAS) in June 2004 was to discuss from a multidisciplinary perspective the role China plays today in the international community. Under this headline experts from China, Germany and the U.S. gave their presentations in six panels: political science, religion/ethics, law studies, economics, history of science & technology, and literature. The discussion of the papers demonstrated very clearly the high importance of communication and interchange between different disciplines and scholars of different countries in order to open up new ways of thinking and to cross borders, also between sciences and humanities. This advanced academic meeting was kindly supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.