The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the USA (AFPC-USA), in partnership with the Hinrich Foundation, invites international correspondents to a timely educational program examining how asset control and “seizure-like” state actions are becoming normalized tools of economic statecraft—and what this shift means for coverage of trade, investment, sanctions, and geopolitics. Drawing on the Hinrich Foundation white paper The new age of geopolitical asset seizures, the discussion will explore how governments across jurisdictions are increasingly moving from regulation toward control when strategic assets are involved—often through emergency laws, courts, licensing, sanctions, and financial enforcement mechanisms. This educational session is presented in partnership with the Hinrich Foundation, and AFPC-USA is solely responsible for the development of the program content.

Learning objectives

By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

Recognize the new policy toolkit governments use to restrict or control strategic assets (beyond traditional expropriation).
Identify the trade-and-investment reporting angles behind state action: national security, sanctions, export controls, supply-chain resilience, and “economic security” narratives.
Ask sharper questions in interviews and briefings with officials, companies, and legal experts about ownership vs. control, compensation, and the rule-of-law implications.
Anticipate cross-border consequences for investors and companies operating amid great-power competition and shifting investment rules.

Date: Monday, March 23

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET

Format: Online

RSVP: HERE

Speakers

Speaker: Shannon Brandao is a Portugal-based legal and geopolitical analyst and internationally regarded China expert. Her work examines the intersection of trade policy, national security, and strategic asset governance, with a focus on how governments are reshaping global investment rules in an era of great-power competition. Trained in international commercial law, Brandao has worked across public, private, and nonprofit sectors on cross-border regulatory and geopolitical risk issues. She advises global clients on geopolitical market dynamics, including export controls, sanctions regimes, and supply-chain resilience. She is the founder of the China Boss newsfeed on LinkedIn and the China Boss newsletter on Substack, where she provides analysis on China-related business and geopolitical developments. Her commentary has appeared in Foreign Policy, Arabian Business News, Lexology, Banking Risk & Regulation (a Financial Times service), and the award-winning China Law Blog. Brandao graduated from UCLA, where she studied Chinese politics and language, earned her JD from the University of Miami School of Law, and received an LLM in European and International Business Law from KU Leuven.

Moderator: Jennifer Freedman is a France-based journalist and editorial consultant. She has worked at newspapers and international media organizations in the United States, the Middle East and Europe. She was with Bloomberg News for almost 15 years, first in Brussels and then as trade correspondent in Geneva. She worked as a senior correspondent (covering trade) and editor at MLex, and as managing editor and trade writer at Borderlex. She now works as an editorial consultant for international institutions and think tanks, editing and occasionally writing reports on trade, gender, climate and environment, and commodities. Freedman graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied history. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia and a master’s certificate in Middle East and Islamic studies from the American University in Cairo. She also holds a master’s degree in Middle East history from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she completed doctoral work in Middle East history.

Educational Program: Navigating the New Age of Geopolitical Asset Seizures