On October 23, 2023, the 8th China Global Think Tank Innovation Annual Conference, co-hosted by the Center for Globalization (CCG) and the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), was held in Beijing. Heiwai Tang, Associate Dean of the University of Hong Kong Business SchoolExpressed the following views on the forum:
First, it was said in the morning that there was talk of respect for dialogue, and it is important to have more mutual respect and trust between the two countries. I'm from Hong Kong, I've been teaching in the U.S. for 15 years, and I've realized that it's becoming more and more difficult for the U.S. academic community to come to China for some ordinary academic activities, and I've tried to invite some U.S. colleagues to come to Hong Kong, but a lot of people don't want to, not because they think it's a dangerous place, but because they need to go through a lot of vetting at school, and if they bring a computer, they need special approval. So, it's a downward spiral, a very bad trend.
A colleague at Hopkins University mentioned in Bloomberg magazine that during the Cold War, many students studied German Xi Russia or the Soviet Union. In 2023, most schools have closed their departments of Chinese studies, Chinese history, Chinese literature, and Chinese, which is also very bad. I'm in Hong Kong myself, so I don't have too many restrictions on going to the U.S., but not for others.
Second, the problem of pluralism, decentralization, we look at de-dollarization, decoupling, deglobalization and so on, we will think of it as a geopolitical issue, but technology is also leading to this trend, so that companies and countries do not need to have a physical presence in a country. We need to think about why the world has become more fragmented, geopolitics is one thing, and technologies such as blockchain are the same thing.
Third, due to the conflict between China and the United States, emerging markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America have come and gone, and in five to ten years, we will see many emerging markets and a multipolar world. Professor Joseph Nye said that we focus too much on the conflict between China and the United States and ignore the rest of the world and our strategic partners. No country wants to take sides, and if I go to the Philippines, the Philippines will say don't force me to take sides. I also see that many regional emerging agreements, RECP, and BRICS have 6 new members, and I hope that China and the United States can do something to solve long-term geopolitical problems, and these are the three points I want to make.
This article is based on the shorthand of the guests' speeches at the 8th China Global Think Tank Innovation Annual Conference co-sponsored by the Center for Globalization (CCG) and the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC).