How will US-China trade tensions and “decoupling” pressures play out over the medium-term? What are the implications for MNC business and foreign investors in China? David Hoffman, is Senior Vice President Asia and Managing Director of the China Center for Economics & Business for The Conference Board.
Within an analytical framework of “system frictions”, the webcast will examine the structural features shaping the US-China relationship, and Sino-Foreign relations more broadly including Asia. On one hand, there are certain intrinsic incompatibilities between China’s authoritarian, state capitalist economic system and the Western democratic, free market capitalist system that are causing increasing trade and geopolitical tensions. These tensions can no longer be denied or ignored and will evolve toward increasing market separation and deglobalization if unresolved. On the other, there are significant dependencies and important synergies between China and the global community and vise-versa, not least as evidenced by the urgent need for strong global coordination in response to the escalating public health and economic threat and damage of COVID-19 across the world. Looking beyond current COVID recriminations and the US election gyrations, how will the macro forces for separation versus integration evolve over the next 2 to 3 years, and what does this mean for MNCs and foreign investors active in China.
Key questions to be addressed in the program include: