In Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem, survival depends on navigating a system where three forces pull at once. In today’s geopolitics, those forces are the United States, China, and the European Union. If Europe cannot match Washington or Beijing in hard power, Paris has become something else: neutral ground, a stage where rivals test ideas without the glare of capital politics.
This summer’s Asia Society Summer Summit in Paris made that logic visible. As Duncan Clark, founding trustee and co-chair of Asia Society France, told me, “We designed Paris as a place to transcend binaries — beyond ‘hawk’ or ‘dove,’ beyond capital-to-capital talking points. China’s decisions now shape supply chains, tech standards, and climate outcomes worldwide. You need a room where that complexity can be explored with rigor — and without theatrics.”
Paris is accessible, culturally disarming, and symbolically neutral: not Washington or Beijing. With political frictions still high between the U.S. and China, Paris offered a practical place for leading global professionals to come together.
Duncan Clark, founding trustee and co-chair of Asia Society France (right) and Valérie Terranova, executive director of Asia Society France.
“Paris works because it widens the circle,” Clark added. “You can seat American and Chinese experts together and also bring in distinctive European voices without forcing alignment.”
A Pan-European Stage
Lionel de Saint-Exupéry WG93, executive chairman of Saintex Capital Management and co-chairman and trustee of Asia Society France, expanded on that vision of diversity behind the event in a private interview with me.
“We brought together 35 speakers — academics, investors, policymakers, and cultural figures — and over 250 attendees from Europe, China, and the U.S. for a day of high-level dialogue,” he said. “The format enabled a rare triangulation of perspectives on China’s trajectory amid U.S. protectionism, Europe’s growth imperative, and China’s internal reforms and international ambitions.”
Sessions ranged from China’s transition to a consumer economy and its tech-superpower ambitions to E.U.-China relations, cultural trends, and innovation. The agenda revealed how Europe increasingly seeks to act as a moderating force.
“Europe is neither a passive observer nor a mere ally,” de Saint-Exupéry noted. “We are working to avoid forced choices, maintain economic ties with China, and preserve the transatlantic alliance.”
Paris as Salon — and Signal
Paris’s power lies less in decree than in choreography. In a three-body world, who shows up, how they sit, and what they stress are signals. American participants pressed on industrial policy and overcapacity; Chinese experts emphasized Europe’s needs in EVs and batteries; Europeans spoke of de-risking without decoupling. No one shifted position, but everyone left with a sharper read on tone and priorities.
For investors, that calibration is alpha. It informs portfolio hedges, supply-chain rewiring, market-entry timing, and compliance bets across overlapping regimes of AI governance, carbon border adjustments, and export controls.
Looking ahead to the next summit, de Saint-Exupéry predicted the event could spark new ideas among the Wharton community. “For Wharton students, alumni, and faculty, [the summit] is a strategic compass — an invitation to rethink engagement with China not just as a market, but as a shaping force in technology, industrialization, governance, and global rules,” de Saint-Exupéry added. “We’d be delighted to welcome Whartonites in Paris next July.”
Paris cannot dictate outcomes, but its capacity to host, mediate, and amplify nuance has become a strategic asset. In a world of unstable orbits, a stable stage matters.
If Washington is the courtroom and Beijing the fortress, Paris is the salon — a place to surface nuance, test ideas, and preview what can be decided. For executives and investors navigating the U.S.-China rivalry, the lesson is clear: Watch Paris. You won’t see the final act there, but you will see the next scene being blocked.
Andy Mok WG02 is based in Beijing at the intersection of technology, finance, and geopolitics. A former Hong Kong-based venture capital and private equity investor, he briefs global financial institutions on China’s innovation strategy, appears regularly on international TV, and writes on the strategic implications of China’s tech policies. He holds a Wharton MBA and an MA in China studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS and is a past president of the Wharton Club of Beijing.
