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Who do the world’s most powerful CEOs turn to when they need advice? Dominique Turpin would be high on the list.

From 2010 until 2016, Turpin served as president of Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development (IMD), whose MBA program regularly ranks among the world’s best. The French-born—“OK, nobody’s perfect,” he shrugs—consultant and management educator has worked with many of the world’s top companies, including Coca-Cola, Danone, Jardine Matheson, Nestlé, Novo Nordisk, Philips and Uponor.

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In September 2022, Turpin accepted a new post as president of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), based in Shanghai. For Turpin, it’s a welcome return to a continent that has long fascinated him; he earned a doctorate in economics from Sophia University in Tokyo in 1986 and has written several books on Japanese business culture.

CEIBS was established in 1994 as a joint venture between the Chinese government and E.U. to foster business ties and understanding between Asia and Europe. Yet in recent years geopolitics and the pandemic have rendered that laudable mission statement even more challenging. TIME sat down with Turpin in Singapore to talk about his goals for the school, frictions between the East and West, the health of China’s economy, and the future of marketing.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You’ve just returned from the U.S. where you met with the deans of Harvard, Wharton, and MIT among several other top schools. What were your aims and takeaways from that trip?

We used to have good connections with U.S. schools [before the pandemic]. Our students would have one module in Africa, one in Europe, and one in the U.S. So we want to rebuild that. But what was interesting [was] when I talked to some of these deans in the United States, one of them said, ‘you know, we’re under pressure from the American government to reduce activities in China. But we’re not going to do that. On the contrary, when you have this tension, it’s our role to bring more mutual understanding.’ So I think this is a role that business has to play.

You taught at IMD for 30 years. How does its mission statement differ from your role at CEIBS?

IMD was started by industry to serve industry. At CEIBS, what I think we can offer to the world is a different perspective. What is interesting is that when I was in the United States last week, compared with when I visited a private bank a few days ago in Geneva, or here [in Singapore], you get a different perspective on China. And I was amazed by the very negative feeling toward China in the United States. But when you’re in China, and you hear different arguments, such as: how many military bases do the Americans have around the world? So we must try to have a better balance.

I imagine that CEIBS is not just about teaching Chinese executives Western business strategy. Presumably there’s lots that American executives can also learn from their Chinese peers?

There are a lot of interesting things happening in China, even though there is a rebalancing to the public sector from the private sector. I’ve met a lot of super interesting companies with great global growth potential. For example, I was in Shenzhen last month and visited a company called Hofan. To me, this is the ultimate marketing company. Because the purpose of marketing is to create, communicate, and deliver value to customers. And you do this by solving problems. Now, this company goes on social media and reads all the comments by consumers. They take this feedback to some Chinese company and say, ‘hey, you need to solve this problem.’ They even have a venture capital firm to help the company fund the development and then they market these products. To me, this is your ultimate marketing machine. So when it comes to understanding customer needs, yes, as a marketing professor there’s some interesting things to look at [in China].

Is it fair to say that Chinese companies are more paternalistic, more top down, and don’t take advice as much from outside? For instance, they’re more reluctant to bring in consultants like PWC or Deloitte compared with American firms.

This part of the world is driven by Confucian values. I went to Japan for the very first time in 1978 and the economic development of China is not very different from what we have seen in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. There is a certain pattern moving from low value, adding products and services to [higher-value]. The difference with China is scale.

China is facing some economic turbulence right now. How concerned are you?

The big issue right now is unemployment and also the real estate issue. And what is interesting is that the Chinese middle class sacrifice a lot to do two things: to buy an apartment, because it’s a kind of safety net, and to educate their children. This phenomenon is quite worrying because … as long as the economy goes well people are less inclined to speak politics. But if it doesn’t, this could be very worrying for China. At the same time, 2022 was the best year ever for Chinese exports. So you have to put everything into perspective.

CEIBS is a joint venture between the E.U. and the Chinese government. But in 2019 the E.U. declared China a “systemic rival.” That must make your job harder?

For me, ‘Europe’ does not exist. Germany has bet heavily on both China and Russia. If you look at a company like BMW, or Volkswagen, I think [33% in fiscal year 2022] of BMW’s global sales were in China. If you look at the French, they are less dependent on China. And this is why Europe is somewhat divided—because the German Chancellor is saying, ‘let’s not be too hard on the Chinese,’ because they have their own interests. The French sell wines and cosmetics and Louis Vuitton bags, but they are less dependent on the Chinese market than the Germans.

The other thing, of course, is that China represents 40% of global trade. So imagine, a slowdown on the Chinese economy today will have repercussions on Africa, for example, because they are buying raw materials. You know, 5% of the growth of Africa today is coming from trade with China. So, China is important to the world.

When you first came to CEIBS you talked about opening a U.S. campus. Is that still the plan?

Well, it’s sensitive. Because it’s a [joint-venture] I cannot take a decision alone. And the Chinese tend to be very prudent, want a low profile. It’s political. If you follow what happened in Hungary, where [Fudan] University wanted to open a campus, it went into the newspapers, and then the citizens [protested]. Losing face could be another factor.

Your specialty is marketing. But how do businesses stay ahead when digital marketing—like the recent advances by AI and TikTok—evolve so quickly? At the same time, you’ve got marketing professors teaching the same lectures year after year. It seems like the value of the business school is almost diminished?

You have a point. When I was at IMD, Coca-Cola got in touch about creating a chair and some research on digital marketing. In Lausanne, Switzerland, I’m 500 miles away from Philip Morris International quarters and 10 km away from Nestle. So I went to see the global CMO of Nestle and the CEO of Philip Morris. They laughed at me and said, “you guys are too slow! By the time you do your research and you polish your papers” [because things have moved on]. So the ones who are eating our lunch are the consultants when you look at digital transformation.

On the other hand, the mission of marketing has not changed: create value for customers. Marketing professors really don’t talk so much about the needs and wants of customers, because in modern economies people don’t know what they want. Nobody wrote an email to Steve Jobs [saying]: “I want an iPhone or an iPad.” The word I personally use is: what are your customers’ headaches? The world is not short of headaches, but what has changed dramatically are the [marketing] tools.

What are some business challenges that might not get sufficient attention?

I was talking to a top guy at Nestle about diversity, which is another big buzzword these days. And he said there is one element of diversity that is critical to us but nobody talks about: the age pyramid. Today, 20-year-olds when they join Nestle go straight into the job. I mean, 20 years ago you would send them to sell ice cream in Brazil for six months. Today, you have a 20-year-old who is highly specialized in all these digital tools. And you won’t find the global chief marketing officer in a big corporation who is under 45—and we want to push for later retirements! So how do you bring all these generations of people in the company together? That’s another challenge.

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Domestic flights were cancelled and almost 4,000 people were evacuated as Typhoon Haikui barrelled into southeastern Taiwan on Sunday bringing torrential rain and strong winds.

Haikui made landfall in the mountainous and sparsely populated far southeast of Taiwan mid-Sunday afternoon, the first typhoon to directly hit Taiwan in four years. Counties and cities in the region cancelled classes and declared a day off for workers.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told a meeting of disaster management officials that people should avoid going out and not go up mountains, to the coast, fishing or engage in water sports, according to a statement from her office.

The fire department said two people were slightly injured when a tree fell on a truck in the eastern county of Hualien. There were few other reports of damage. In the capital Taipei there were only sporadic rain showers.

Haikui is a much weaker storm than Typhoon Saola which hit Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on Saturday.

Taiwan’s government said that 3,729 people had been evacuated, mainly in the south and east.

Taiwanese airlines cancelled all domestic flights on Sunday, while ferry services to surrounding islands were also suspended.

There was less disruption to international flights, with only 41 cancelled for Sunday, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said.

The military has mobilised soldiers and equipment to help with flood relief and evacuation efforts.

After passing across southern Taiwan, Haikui is forecast to enter the Taiwan Strait and head towards China.

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India switched off its moon rover, the first craft to reach the lunar south poll, after it completed its two-week assignment conducting experiments, the country’s space agency said.

The Pragyan rover from the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was “set into Sleep mode” but with batteries charged and receiver on, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, late on Saturday.

“Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!” ISRO said. “Else, it will forever stay there as India’s lunar ambassador.”

By landing on the moon, India joined the United States, China and the former Soviet Union. It went beyond them in reaching the rugged south pole, shortly after Russia’s Luna-25 crashed on a similar attempt.

Chandrayaan-3’s soft, textbook touchdown after a failed attempt in 2019 sparked widespread jubilation in the world’s most populous country. The media hailed the landing as India’s greatest scientific feat.

Pragyan travelled over 100 m (330 feet), confirming the presence of sulphur, iron, oxygen and other elements on the moon, ISRO said.

Now India is hoping for the success of a probe launched on Saturday to study the sun, observing solar winds that can cause disturbance on earth commonly seen as auroras.

“The satellite is healthy” and in earth orbit, ISRO said on Sunday, as it prepares for its 1.5 million-km (930,000-mile) journey.

Border Patrol agents ordered the young Senegalese men to wait in the scant shade of desert scrub brush while they loaded a more vulnerable group of migrants — a family with three young children from India — into a white van for the short trip in triple-degree heat to a canopied field intake center.

The migrants were among hundreds who have been trudging this summer in the scorching sun and through open storm gates in the border wall to U.S. soil, following a remote corridor in the sprawling Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument that’s among the most desolate and dangerous areas in the Arizona borderlands. Temperatures hit 47.7 degrees Celsius just as smugglers abruptly began steering migrants from Africa and Asia here to request asylum.

Suddenly, the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which oversees the area, in July became the busiest sector along the U.S-Mexico border for the first time since 2008. It’s seen migrants from faraway countries like Pakistan, China and Mauritania, where social media is drawing young people to the new route to the border that begins in Nicaragua. There are large numbers from Ecuador, Bangladesh and Egypt, as well as more traditional border crossers from Mexico and Central America.

“Right now we are encountering people from all over the world,” said Border Patrol Deputy Chief Justin De La Torre, of the Tucson Sector. “It has been a real emergency here, a real trying situation.”

The patrol is calling on other agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration, for help in getting migrants “out of the elements and into our processing centers as quickly as possible,” De La Torre said.

During a recent visit, Associated Press journalists saw close to 100 migrants arrive in just four hours at the border wall near Lukeville, Arizona, inside Organ Pipe, as temperatures hit 43.3 degrees Celsius. The next morning, several hundred more migrants lined up along the wall to turn themselves in.

“Welcome to America, that’s good person,” a young Senegalese man said in his limited English, beaming as he crunched across the desert floor after Tom Wingo, a humanitarian aid volunteer, gave him some water and snacks. “I am very, very happy for you.”

The storm gates in the towering steel wall have been open since mid-June because of rains during the monsoon season. Rushing water from heavy downpours can damage closed gates, the wall, a rocky border road, and flora and fauna. But migrants get in even when the gates are closed, sometimes by breaking locks or slipping through gaps in the wall.

Agents from the Border Patrol’s small Ajo Station a half hour’s drive north of the border encountered several large groups the first weekend of August, including one of 533 people from 17 countries in the area that includes the national monument, an expanse of rugged desert scattered with cactus, creosote and whip-like ocotillo. The Tucson Sector registered 39,215 arrests in July, up 60% from June. Officials attribute the sudden influx to false advertising by smugglers who tell migrants it’s easier to cross here and get released into the United States.

Migrants are taken first to the intake center, where agents collect people’s names, countries of origin and other information before they are moved to the Ajo Station some 48 kilometers up a two-lane state highway. 

Arrests for illegally crossing anywhere along the nearly 3,200-kilometer U.S.-Mexico border soared 33% from June to July, according to U.S. government figures, reversing a plunge after new asylum restrictions were introduced in May. President Joe Biden’s administration notes illegal crossings were still down 27% that month from July 2022 and credits the carrot-and-stick approach that expands legal pathways while punishing migrants who enter illegally.

De La Torre said most migrants in the area request asylum, something far from guaranteed with the recent restrictions.

The Ajo Station’s area of responsibility is currently the busiest inside the Tucson Sector, De La Torre said. It includes the border areas of Organ Pipe and the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge, isolated areas with rough roads and scarce water and shade. They include the Devil’s Highway region, where 14 border crossers in a group of 26 died in 2001 after smugglers abandoned them.

CBP rescues by air and land along the border are soaring this year, with 28,537 counted during the 10-month period ending July 31. That compares with 22,075 for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2022, the agency said. There were 2,776 migrant rescues in July.

The rescues continued in August, including one especially busy day when a Black Hawk helicopter hoisted a 15-year-old Guatemalan boy from a remote southern Arizona mountain to safety. A short time later, the chopper rescued a Guatemalan man who called 911 from the vast Tohono O’odham Nation just east of Organ Pipe.

Some activists recently protested outside the Ajo Station, saying migrants kept in an outdoor enclosure there didn’t have enough shade. Patrol officials say that only adult men waiting to be transported to bigger facilities for processing are kept outside for a few hours, and under a large canopy with fans. Women, children and vulnerable people stay inside. The average wait time the facility is 15 hours.

The influx has also presented challenges for humanitarian groups.

Wingo, a retired schoolteacher working with Samaritanos Sin Fronteras, or Samaritans Without Borders, travels to the border several times a week to fill bright blue plastic barrels at six water stations. He and other volunteers distribute hats, bandanas, snacks and ice-cold bottled water to migrants they encounter.

“A lot of these people go out into the desert not knowing the trouble they are getting themselves into,” said Wingo.

During a recent border visit, Wingo handed bottled water to people from India waiting for help by the wall after a woman they were traveling twisted her ankle. He gave water and granola bars to a Guatemalan couple with three young children who were traveling with a Peruvian man.

Wingo said he pays especially close attention to those who may be more susceptible to the torrid heat, such as pregnant and nursing women and the elderly. He recently encountered an 89-year-old diabetic woman from India about to go into shock. When he called Border Patrol agents on that especially busy day, he said, they asked him to bring the woman himself to their intake center for medical care. The woman is recovering in a Phoenix hospital.

Many others don’t survive.

The remains of 43 suspected border crossers were found in southern Arizona in July, about half of them recently dead, according to the non-profit organization Human Borders, which works with the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office to track and map the numbers.

They included two found in Organ Pipe: Hilda Veliz Maas de Mijangos, 36, from Guatemala City, dead about a day; and Ignacio Munoz Loza, 22, of the Mexican state of Jalisco, dead for about a week. Both succumbed to heat exposure.

Serhiy Kolyada on what’s causing all the loud bangs in Russian occupied Crimea.

A report released by the EU says a number of social media platforms “failed to implement” new rules designed to combat Kremlin disinformation.

Australia said on Sunday it would send additional police to the Solomon Islands to boost security for the Pacific Games in November, keeping them there until June to assist with a general election.

The extended Australian police presence comes after the Solomon Islands upgraded ties with China, signing a policing agreement in July. Australia, New Zealand and the United States are concerned Chinese police could dislodge a long-standing security arrangement Canberra has with the Pacific Islands nation.

The Solomon Islands said on Friday it had invited Australia to extend the police presence, originally due to end in December.

Australia was the Pacific Islands nation’s “primary security partner,” a spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement on Sunday. The Australian police will work alongside officers from Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

“At the request of the Solomon Islands Government, Australia has extended its contribution to the Solomons International Assistance Force until June 2024 to assist with security for the national general elections,” the statement said.

The Australian police contingent arrived in December 2021 to quell anti-government riots, while Chinese police trainers arrived this year to prepare for the games.

More than 5,000 athletes from two dozen nations are expected to attend the games, for which China has donated and constructed stadiums and other venues.

China stepped up its funding for infrastructure after Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019. The Solomon Islands last year signed a security pact with China, raising concern in Canberra and Washington about Beijing’s naval ambitions.