Dr. Mikko Huotari
Executive Director,
MERICS GmbH
Mikko Huotari is the Executive Director of MERICS. His research focuses on China’s political and economic development, foreign policy, China-Europe relations, as well as global (economic) governance and competition. He has published on China’s rise as a financial power, trade and investment relations with Europe as well as on geopolitical shifts related to China's emergence as a global security actor. Mikko studied in Freiburg, Nanjing and Shanghai. He holds a PhD from Freiburg University and was a guest scholar at the University of California in San Diego in 2017/2018. In 2019, Mikko was appointed as one of 15 German representatives to the German-Chinese Dialogue Forum.
Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS)
The Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) was founded in 2013 by Stiftung Mercator to strengthen knowledge and debate about China in Germany and Europe. With about 20 full-time international researchers, from Europe, the United States and Australia, MERICS is currently the largest European research institute focusing solely on the analysis of contemporary China and its relations with Europe and the wider world. Our specialists have a wide range of expertise on China, scientific qualifications and methodological skills. With its main premises in Berlin, MERICS also operates an office in Brussels.