Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on people from all walks of life in both China and the United States to have more contacts and exchanges, continue to build a consensus, enhance trust, steer clear of disruptions and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation. President Xi made the remarks during his meeting with representatives from American business, strategic and academic communities in Beijing.
What massages does the meeting sends? And in light of China's increasing openness, what’s the future of the US-China economic and trade relations will be like? Joining us today is U.S. Senior Economist David Blair.
U.S. Senior Economist David Blair
I was very glad to see the meeting. That's the sign that China is doing its best to maintain a peaceful world and trying to maintain good relations with the US. I think it's a very good sign, it's good to have these business leaders to know more about China, although probably my guess is a lot of them have some experience in China.
I saw the video of meeting, I didn't recognize everybody, I noticed Graham Allison was there. And I think opposing the idea that there's a Thucydides’s Trap between the U.S. and China, is a very good thing. And also I know that Chinese government is offering easy visas and also some scholarships for young Americans to come to China. I think that sort of people to people relationship is very important. Because the American press has become very propagandistic.I mean basically the mainstream media is just repeating whatever the government is telling them to say. So, real people having real experience and seeing what life is like in China, is a very good thing.
I think there's gonna continue to be economic struggles in the future for a number of reasons. But I'm hoping we have a new administration next year and they'll be more economically oriented. If you're economically oriented, you can find a deal. It may be hard negotiations, but there is a deal there, where both people can be better off. I'm hoping that happens.
I think that the we're entering a new era in trade where I think we're going to move away from the rules based systems to a more sort of negotiated trade. The problem with the rules based systems is that they are so intrusive on domestic politics and domestic economics. I think it's better just to reach a agreement on what the trade is, and move forward, rather than try to rely entirely on sort of rules based systems, which are almost impossible to enforce and impossible to even measure. I think we're moving to a new kind of trade and I think it'll be a easier, less conflicted and more beneficial kind of trade.
The opening plenary of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024 took place in south China's Hainan Province on March 28th, where several regional and world leaders also commending China's approach of openness, peace and development.
The Boao Forum is of great significance. It not only connects Asia, but also the world, and China provides an important platform for the world to jointly solve challenges. Let us listen to what esteemed guests at the Boao Forum have to share.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Fomer French Prime Minister
This 60th anniversary is very important, and we have this very important year with a lot of initiative. We hope to welcome the Chinese president in France, maybe in spring, and we hope that the French president can come to China in the Autumn.
We have a lot of initiatives, in culture, and in tourism. And tourism is very important, because we have to know better the civilian of the other. Our civilization, our language, our culture are different, but we need to improve our understanding of each other.
I hope that this year will be a beautiful year of improving our relationship.
I think that innovation is necessary because we have a lot of challenges. Ecological challenges, climate change, big data, and we have a lot of change to prepare. And we must be confident (in) use of innovation and so on.
Andrei Kartun, First Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Belarus
There are many factors influencing the global economy. For example, high level of instability is the main factor influencing GDP and economic growth. Unfortunately,
this factor will be the same in the future, because we have some problems, such as transportation, sanction, the conflict in the middle Europe and the Middle East. Something like this, is a main factor that will influence the growth of economy.
About the prospect, we should more actively solve some problems, about the global inflation for example. Because we have a higher level of inflation now globally. Maybe in last year, it was the highest level of inflation in three decades. It's probably near 6% or 7%.
And about international corporation, maybe international corporation is a way for economic growth, because we're setting new project, we're setting new perspective for our joint cooperation, for example, with China, something like this. For us, for our country, it's really an opportunity to rise faster.
China is our second partner, and we have a good result last year, our joint trade volume was almost $8 billion. For us it's a really good result. And we have received big investment from China in our country. And now we're preparing a document program with China in 2030. In this document, there will be some guideline answer, the strategic guideline answer, for example, for medicine industry, something like this. And it has concrete plans, ways and steps, about what we should do, and what kind of results will be with our cooperation.
My opinion is that AI is the main factor significantly influencing the rise of global economy. But now we have problems about what to do to these employees. Because some sinking 60% of higher education jobs will now connect to AI, and when AI starts working, what we should do to these guys? We don't know. It requires us to open new skills, maybe new qualification of these people, and they need to employ them in the society, something like this.
