Shanghai Academy unveiled its international strategic research center in mid-April. Photo: SHANGHAI ACADEMY

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Shanghai Academy, co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, unveiled its international strategic research center in mid-April.
Li Peilin, CASS Member and president of Shanghai Academy, expounded on the significance of establishing the center in light of the current complex and volatile international situation and also China’s national planning.

Li pointed out that from a short-term perspective, global economic growth is weak, trade protectionism is on the rise, and China-US trade frictions have cast a shadow over the global economy. From a long-term perspective, the world today is faced with profound shifts unseen in the past century. Against such a backdrop, international strategic research has unprecedented significance for the development of China.

Shanghai, as the forerunner of China’s reform, innovation and expanded opening up, needs to actively respond to unprecedented changes in the world, focusing on major national strategies concerning the development of the Yangtze River Delta, the new areas in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the construction of the Shanghai Technology Innovation Center and the China International Import Expo, creating a new development pattern for itself as an international metropolis, Li suggested.

The international strategic research center under Shanghai Academy is conducive to the integrated use of globally advantageous academic resources, Li continued. It could provide suggestions for Shanghai’s opening up, international academic exchanges and cooperation, and Shanghai’s global competitiveness, and it could give full play to the innovative role of new-type think tanks under the cooperation between the academy and the municipal government.

The world economy continues to recover, but its momentum has weakened and risks have increased, said Zhou Hanmin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and vice chairman of the CPPCC Shanghai Municipal Committee.

The International Monetary Fund lowered its global economic growth forecast for 2019 from 3.5 percent in its January World Economic Outlook to 3.3 percent in April, but raised China’s growth forecast from 6.2 percent to 6.3 percent, which indicates that China’s current policy for tax and fee cuts is very timely, Zhou observed; it is a right and potentially effective choice.

 
The concept of international governance has undergone major changes, and the change in governance philosophy is chiefly a fight over dominance of the rules, Zhou continued. To this end, we need to strengthen research, especially that on China’s formula for the structural reform of the World Trade Organization, the high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and the construction of new areas in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, so as to actively respond to changes in the world situation.

Zhang Yunling, CASS Member and director of the newly-established center, said that the research center shoulders three important missions. First, in light of profound shifts unseen in the past century, China should be a theoretical leader. Second, the center needs to conduct pragmatic research and pool efforts to address some major international issues. The third is to introduce new ideas through various forms.

 

edited by JIANG HONG