Hello and welcome to World Today.
I'm Dinghe in Beijing.
Coming up, China's factory activity growth hit one -year high.
China, Japan and South Korea agreed to strengthen free trade.
Pentagon chiefs praised the Japanese troops during a particular key World War 2 battle sparking criticism.
And China has issued first -ever operation certificate for autonomous passenger drones.
To listen to this episode again or to catch up on our previous episodes, download our podcast. By searching World Today China's manufacturing activity has expanded at the fastest pace in one year.
The official purchasing managers index or PMI came in at 50 .5 in March. The subed index for production edged higher to 52 .6 and that of new orders climbed to 51 .8, pointing to improvements in terms of manufacturing supply and demand.
In February, the official PMI figures ran to an expansionary territory from a contraction back in January.
Also, on Sunday, four state -owned banks in China announced the plans to raise a combined 520 billion yuan or more than 70 billion U .S. dollars to increase their ability to bolster the real economy.
So joining us now on the line is Dr. Yao Shujie, Chevron professor of economics with Chongqing University.
Thank you for joining us today professor Yao Shujie.
what do you think has made Chinese manufacturing activity expands at its fastest pace in one year over the past month?
Is this sustainable expansion?
Yes, I think there are two principal factors explaining the fast growth of the industrial sector in the Chinese economy in January.
The first factor is the full recovery after the COVID pandemic, the Chinese industry services consumption and manufacturing confidence have been gradually covered to the point this year, it's now reaching the mature level.
The second factor is basically the slew of policies put forward by the central and the local governments to boost the economy at different level and different industries.
For example, more neglecting financial constraints, and also the policy to boost the housing market despite it's still on the way of recovering, and also the boost for export, to diversify export to different countries and also reducing the export and cross -border trade costs.
So, all these countries' policies are very conducive for the current economy recovery in China.
Given the fact that U .S. President Donald Trump's 20 percent additional tariffs on Chinese goods has been in place actually for most of the time in March, do you think it fair to say that the existing US tariffs on China are having a limited impact on China's manufacturing industry including China's exports.
Yeah, the US China trade conflict had been lasting for over eight years during the first term of the Donald Trump administration and also continued by Biden administration.
Now this year also Donald Trump is in the second term.
The policy we already expect the America is going to impose more tariff on the Chinese export to the American markets.
So the Chinese industry have taken quite a few years to just take the explorer mix not only for the United States but also diluted to other, you know, economic blocks, such as Asia, Europe, Japan, South Korea, all these major trading partners, their share taking away some of the share to the United States.
I think an additional 20 % imposed on the Chinese export to the U .S. will certainly have a medium coming longer term on China's export to the United States.
But there are two reasons that Chinese exports have showed the resilience.
The first reason is that Chinese manufacturing is probably the most comprehensive and competitive in the world.
So even after the 20 % increase of the tariff, the U .S. consumers and the U .S. domestic market still require a lot of Chinese good, relatively good quality, with lower price.
The second reason is that the Chinese export is not totally dependent on the U .S. market.
After all, the U .S. market only accounts for over just 10 % of the Chinese total export.
The other over 80 % or close to 90 % of China's export is actually directed to other economic block I just mentioned.
So there are significant scope for the Chinese export to be you know to be highly resilient to the extra shock Make by the second term of the Donald Trump.
So China number one is well -prepared Number two, I think the real effect by the by the US could be very illustrative.
Okay, still some analysts say that China's economy is on course for a slower growth in the first quarter of this year compared to last year's final quarter, citing weakness in terms of the services industry, for example.
What is your take on this?
Well, you cannot compare the first quarter and the last quarter, because different quarters have different seasonal adjusted factors.
Each year in the last quarter in the Chinese economy is always the relatively higher growth compared to the other quarters.
Even the first quarter this year is not highly comparable with the last quarter in the fourth quarter of last year.
It doesn't really matter.
What would matter is to compare the first quarter with the first quarter in 2024 like with like we take away the seasonal majestic factors and in my opinion I think the first quarter this year seems to be far more positive than last year the first quarter this is because there are a number of factor we already discussed you know the industry have been the coupling fairly well and government have lots of policy to propel economic development and expansion in different corners of the Chinese economy.
So, by the way Professor Yao, why do you think since the start of this year China's macroeconomic data have shown stronger industrial output and stronger fixed asset investment but weaker consumer inflation, for example, how can China achieve a more balanced growth?
Consumption behavior is not totally dependent on government policy.
Government policy has some effect on stimulating domestic consumption, for example, like those of, you know, procurement subsidies, buying subsidies for some consumer items. for example, like vehicles, electronic products, and other things, but day to day consumption, for example, like daily necessity for all and other things, the government doesn't actually need to step into the market because the full prices in China have been fairly stable.
And why the consumer is a relatively more like Latin compared manufacturing sector to expand, you know, production and consumption It's because consumer, after a few years of COVID -19 pandemic, they are still relatively conservative in terms of spending their money.
So they are very cautious about the saving, because the house prices still continue to be weak.
So the people who used to be largely positive in terms of future consumption, they have to consider whether their wealth, you know, dominated by the housing market, is going to recover for the future.
And for the lower, relatively lower income and the non -houseowning people they are probably about to save more money to go to the housing market to pick up the cheap.
So it is a very complicated issue.
So, we cannot single out which factor is throwing the consumption relatively low in the capital.
This is a long -term process, I think if the macro economy is doing well, employment, you know, income generating activity of the general public, then consumers are confident with is gradually decoupled and it's going to become the main propellers for China's domestic growth.
OK! With regard to the fundraising plans by these four major state -owned Chinese banks, this is how China is trying to capitalize its big banks to help them boost the lending to revive growth.
Last year, some of those state -owned commercial banks were under some kind of pressure in terms of their profit margin due to various factors such as the underperforming, real estate sector, etc. What do you think their newly announced fund -raising plans might mean to their profit margins or to their earnings?
I think there are two purposes for the central government to support the big state bang.
Firstly, I think the economy, we know, has been weakening over the last few years, again due to the COVID pandemic, and also the slowdown in the housing market.
We see there's a significant adjustment process in the ex -state industries.
And lots of lending activity, lots of profit -making activity, are closely neglected with the lending to the housing market.
And if the housing market is slowing down, inevitably reduce the profit -making ability of the big industrial bank.
And another issue is because in order to boost the domestic economy, the central government and also the People's Bank of China, which is the central bank, they adjusted the interest rate downward. And by adjusting the interest rate downward, the interest spread between the lending and the borrowing had been also reduced.
use, and if the interest spread is less used, then the profitability of the big state won't bank would be also undermined.
By undermining the profitability, that would also make this bank a little bit more vulnerable.
So the purpose is to prevent the vulnerability of the big bang when the market is getting more complicated.
And the second purpose is to allow this big ban to be able to lend more money to the real economic sector.
By lending more money to the real sector, you can actually kill two birds in one storm.
The first bird to be killed is that the ban will become more resilient and the second bird to be killed is to make the real economy more robust to achieve the economic growth mostly said by the people's congress.
Thank you very much for putting this into perspective.
Dr. Yao Shujian, Chandkung professor of economics with Chongqing university.
Coming up, China, Japan, and South Korea agreed to strengthen free trade.
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China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to boost trade cooperation.
The three Asian countries on Sunday held their first economic dialogue in five years in Seoul.
They agreed to closely cooperate for a comprehensive and high -level talks regarding a trilateral free trade deal to promote regional and global trade.
They also agreed to strengthen the implementation of RCEP and create a predictable environment for trade and investment.
The three countries began their negotiations regarding a trilateral FTA in 2012.
Joining us now on the line is Dr. Zhou Mi, Senior research fellow with Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Thank you very much for joining us.
What do you think has really prompted these three Asian countries to resume their ministerial level economic dialogue.
Is it because of some self -driven dynamics between the three countries or simply because of some external factors, for example, U .S. President Donald Trump?
Well, if you're trying to put that in that way, I would say that for the first reason it is the most important reason that both of the three countries have the intention to cooperate.
We know that these two countries have a lot of similarities.
We have a shared, some similar culture and also the supply chains are well connected.
So the fridge agreement is a kind of important thing.
And, before that, I think that all the enterprises are really are thinking about how can we improve the resilience of the cooperation.
If you are looking at the, you know, the institutions, the research institutions, and also the banks of Japan and South Korea.
They would like to come to China to observe what is happening here in China and trying to give the advice to the enterprises here in China.
So I think that data is the first reason, but you mentioned Donald Trump.
It is also true that when he came to the White House, it is a little bit different.
So I would say that is also an important factor that all of the three countries resume the talk about, you know, how to improve the economic cooperation.
I guess no one really needs a reminder about the broader tensions, including economic and trade issue tensions between the US and China.
But what do you think the United States under President Donald Trump might mean to both Japan and South Korea in economic and trade stance?
Well, if we record the 8 years ago when Donald Trump came into the White House for the first term, and he pushed South Korea to renegotiate the free trade agreements between United States and South Korea, which has just concluded in the administration of Obama.
So he said, Donald Trump, he said that it is a very bad negotiation and he forced South Korea to make more commitments to open its market wider and trying to accept more quota about the import from the United States on the automobiles.
So I will say that Donald Trump also put a lot of pressure in Japan and they have to try to do more concessions in different ways like for the face for our protectivism in the military basis and also have committed for better market access.
So this term, I think that he requires more.
If we are looking at some of the facts that he may, before he has offered, he has tried to raise some kind of concerns.
Japanese government and also South Korea, they have given some offers to him.
So I think that he will, Trump will be more ambitious in the economic demand from these two countries.
So like I suggested earlier, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo began their negotiations regarding a trilateral free trade agreement.
Actually, more than a decade ago.
So, over the years, what do you make of the key factors that have, over the years, prevented these three parties from reaching a particular deal?
Well, I think that there are maybe two reasons.
The first one that we know that there are some kind of historic problems between Japan and South Korea, especially when I'm talking about the World War II.
and they have some kind of not so good atmosphere between these two countries.
And the second, I would say, that is also because the world has changed.
We are seeing so many uncertainties in the past decade.
And there are also some alternative free trade agreements like the RSAP and also the TPP, and then it came to be the CPTPP, led by the United States.
So many of these countries are trying to think about what we can do to meet the best of the, you know, the benefits of the people.
So, they are trying to, to make some different decisions, but to China I think that we are always want to continue with this talk.
I think that many of the Japanese and South Korea enterprises they wanted also because their free trade agreements between or among our three countries are quite different from, you know, the existing ones, like what we have signed, just the China and South Korea and also us involved in the RCEP.
In the case of China and South Korea, I remember it was back in the year 2015.
And actually the existing South Korean trade minister at the time, he was serving as a professor in a Korean University, he joined our show to talk about that very topic at the time.
But that's another story.
So by the way, Dr. Joo, how do you think the three sides can gain sustainable momentum in their trilateral FTA negotiations?
In my understanding, the developing levels of China, Japan and South Korea is a little bit higher.
So, from all of these three countries, we have our own advantages.
I mean, that is not only about to reduce the tariffs on imports and exports for the goods.
Like we have benefits allowed by the supply chain, vertical cooperation in the monitoring sectors, the automobiles and some of the TV or refrigerators in the past. It is even more important for the trading services.
So I mean that many of these measurements will be taken care into the measurements for the market access for the foreign service providers and suppliers.
And it is also true that investment is another important issues.
So we are saying that the world is trying to look at some new issues like for the e -commerce, cross -border data flow, the environment issues, something to do with carbon trade or other things to do with green development and digital economies.
So I hope that all of these three countries can try to not look at the traditional aspects, but also trying to give more certainty for the companies who are involved in those new and leading or aging sectors.
So it is really no secret that China, South Korea and Japan all of them are participating in the RCEP.
So what do you make of the potential role that the RCEP can possibly play in terms of enhancing trade cooperation between the three countries?
Well, RCEP, for the size, is number one in the world.
We are seeing that it is growing very quickly in the past several years after it has taken into effect.
The supply chains are strengthened and also enhanced by not only for these 14 countries, but also attracting more members, more interest like for the Hong Kong, and also for other countries and the regions, they want to join RCEP.
So, for the three countries of China, Japan, and South Korea, we are the leading partners for the development, for the scale of the economy and also for the trade intentions.
So, I'm also giving some of the lectures to South Korea if they invited me to give them some advice on how can they make the benefits of RSEP to invest in the ASEAN countries.
So, I hope that it is also important for us to try to continue with the unfinished parts of RCEP that we have promised by all the RCEP members that we will continue to move on from the nowadays status of RCEP, including more open and more transparent ways of dealing with investment, and also giving more support for the different stage of the countries, like some of the least developed countries.
So I believe that all the three countries have the intention to improve the Connectiveness and also to improve the standards of RCEP.
So the final question before we let you go Briefly, what do you think is the ultimate meaning for pursuing closer trade and economic ties between China Japan and South Korea?
Are we talking about Safeguarding say the spirit of free trade or multilateralism?
Are we talking about, say, trying to make our regional or even global supply chain system more resilient, or something else?
Yes, in my understanding that all of them are the reasons that we want to improve.
We want to give some good examples to the world in the multilateral system, and we are also trying to show the world by the cooperation that all these three countries can benefit by better complementary development and more sustainable development.
Thank you very much, Dr. Zhou Ming, Senior Research Fellow with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
More to come, Pentagon chief praised Japanese troops in a World War 2 battle, sparking criticism.
China issues first -ever operational certificates for autonomous passenger drones.
You are listening to World Today.
To listen to this episode again or to catch upon a previous episode, download our podcast By searching World Today, I'm Dinh Heng in Beijing.
We'll be back after a short break.
You are back with World Today, I'm Dinh Heng in Beijing.
US Secretary of Defense Peter Huxley has sparked controversy after he praised the Japanese who fought on Iwo Jima.
The 1945 battle of Iwo Jima, between the United States and Japan, was one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War.
He says on Saturday attended a memorial service on Iwo Jima during a trip to Japan.
He said, The bravery of those who fought on the battle, Americans and the Japanese alike, endures in history.
Japan was the second leg of the American defense chief's first ever Asia tour, which has also taken him to the Philippines.
So joining us now on the line is Dr. Rong Yin, chair professor with the school of international studies, Sichuan university.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
So Professor Rong, to put it bluntly, the US official, the US defense chief, was openly praising the Japanese fascism -related troops and behavior in history.
In your understanding and observation, what could be behind this arguably problematic behavior?
Well, I think it only tells loud and clear of the ignorance of hexes, but I think more notably his erroneous outlook of history, which I think demonstrated the United States, I mean, this administration's naked pursuit of selfish geopolitical interest without regard or anything about the right and wrong of history.
I was really shocked and outraged by his remarks.
And I think the veterans present, American veterans present at the ceremony and that the dissidents of these brave American soldiers would ask us a question, what kind of a message Eva would like to send out and what's wrong that he or his admission what I mean has been going.
And so there are, I think his remarks and the way that he praised the fascism I mean Japanese militarist typism they would, he hold an explanation, hold an answer to these people and also the future generations of the United States.
I take a point. So China was a focal point for the first ever Asia tour of Hexxus, that's for sure.
For example, when he was in Tokyo, he said to his Japanese counterpart on Sunday that the US and Japan share a quote -unquote warrior ethos in terms of tackling the so -called Chinese aggression.
how dangerous is his comment here if we associate this with what he said about a battle for Iwo Jima?
That's exactly I think the danger where I think lies because when we talk about I think the history when we talk about the right and wrong of the war of resistance against Japanese aggression in the case of Chinese and also I think the word sort of anti -fascist war.
We are talking about, not only I think kind of memorizing the history, but more importantly, I think we need to treasure the peace to prevent the recurrence of that.
So if the goats like the, what he says, that is what I think cause more problem.
but more problem to the sort of, to the fact that the root causes of what happened more than 80 years ago was because the Japanese imperialism, they for the sake, I mean because of their belief in force and because they want to seek expansion, And disregard of humanity, disregard of morality, disregard of the human rights of all the countries, I mean the region, including I think the POWs of the United States that have been kept.
And if we go along this line, then we totally have a wrong sort of outlook.
More important, of course, China always said that we are the forceful peace and China always uphold, pursues a peaceful road for development, and of course, China has also made a very clear.
Eight years ago, I mean more than eight years ago, China fought bravely to defend its sovereignty territory integrity.
Eight years now China has even more capabilities, so don't have any sort of doubt that China will revolutionally defend its own independence and the legitimate right, But that's totally different with the so -called warrior assos, hazardous that has been advocating.
So I think we need to have a really, really clear understanding of the historical lessons and the root causes of what happened.
That is a respect, huge respect of our martyrs, of I mean, it's a sacrifice that I mean, our martyrs, that they have made in in in terms of life and everything so professor gronging we still have about like 90 seconds before we need to let you go so briefly i mean over the past weekend we actually saw china japan and south korea holding a ministerial level meeting in in the city of seoul to discuss how to resume their negotiations on a trilateral free trade deal but exactly Really at the same time, the U .S. Defense Chief was in Tokyo talking to the Japanese about a possible war with China?
What do you think this tells us?
It tells us that in the United States, is the force of disability, is the force that does not want to see the countries of the region through their efforts for reconciliation, for I mean dialogue, for communication, to promote peace, to address their differences.
So I think that is the clear message that this visit of United States Secretary has sent out.
But more importantly, I think the countries in the region are clearly wary of that, and I think they are determined to take whatever efforts we needed to guard against any efforts that has been trying to divide or manipulate the differences and the efforts for unity and for peace in the region.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Dr. Rongying shared professor with the School of International Studies with Sichuan University.
Coming up, China's issue is first -ever operation certificates for autonomous passenger drones.
This is World Today, we'll be back.
Two Chinese companies have received the first -ever operation certificates for autonomous passenger drones.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China issued documents marking the start of commercial operations in China's low altitude aviation sector.
It is also a milestone in terms of China's development for its low altitude economy and urban air mobility.
The operator's certificates confirm that the autonomous passenger drone meets the country safety standards.
Companies with certificates can carry out commercial operations in approved areas or airspace to provide paid passenger services.
For more, my colleague Zhao Yang spoke with Yan Liang, professor of economics with Willamette University.
So Yan, two companies received the first -ever operation certificate for autonomous passenger drones from the Chinese regulator, so what kind of flying business can they carry out and what does this mean for the low altitude aviation sector in China?
Well I think there are many possible areas of businesses that these companies can carry out so I think one of the important functions of these companies is to improve the urban air mobility.
So in other words they can offer intercity commercial passenger services, you know carrying passengers from one city to the other.
Especially I think this is important for the Great Bay Area for example the 11 cities are trying to improve their mobilities between the cities within you know an hour of transport time.
So this is going to be a big area for these companies to to operate within.
There are also other possible areas like for example, low altitude tours for urban sightseeing, for logistics and for some other transportation functions.
So I think there are many possible operations and this is really a taking off moment, I think with these two companies getting the operations certificate to start experimenting these different business operations.
The low altitude economy has been emphasized and encouraged by the Chinese government.
China's top economic regulator established a department for the low altitude economy.
What's the background?
Why does China listed it as one of the country's strategic emerging industries?
I think this is really the broad trend of trying to promote the more technological intensive emerging industries.
Strees so just like the EV as a new breakthrough in transportation means and this is another area I think that has great potential to explore and I think China really puts this as one of the strategic sectors for three major reasons.
One is that I think, again, this is just like the EV vehicles people are looking for not just transportation on the ground but all these transportation possibilities in the air, that is also going to streamline, you know, transpositions and commute to new cities, and so that will provide a new innovative ways of commuting, of transporting, so I think this is a great potential.
And second is that building on China's already, you know, the cutting edge technologies in the EV space, I think it's really not a big leapfrog to bring the so -called flying car.
As we know the XPeng has already been building these flying cars.
They have also some so -called land carrier craft where the cars could store flying drones in the trunk.
So this has already taken advantage of the already very strong capacity in building this land -rolling vehicles.
And so this is going to be an extension of the current industries in the EV and other industries.
And last but not least, I think this is also a general -purpose technologies.
So we know this is not going to be just, you know, one sort of manufactured new product, but it's really are able to applied to different industries, right?
Like the service industries, you could use it for tourism.
You can use it for transportation.
You can use it for ride sharing and so on and so forth.
So, this is going to help with a really strong spill over effects to the many different industries and help to boost productivity and efficiency when it comes to tourism or transportation.
All of these, I think, would be very helpful when it comes to productivity gain.
And so how can the low altitude economy change the urban air mobility?
What are the commercial applications of it in various sectors such as industry, agriculture and services?
Yeah, I think this is a great question.
So as I mentioned earlier, you know, the trend going forward is to be able to use these so -called vertical electrical, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft or e -vertile to facilitate the intercity urban air mobility, for logistics, for sightseeing, and so on and so forth.
So now, you know, China has already, many of these companies have already conducted various trial flights.
So for example, one of the companies that received the operational certificate is Yi Hang.
They have completed more than 60 ,000 saved flights.
And so this is really going to pave the way for the mass application of these kinds of flying vehicles or the e -Vetal to the various industries.
So it could be in agriculture.
Right. You could imagine using these bottles to spray fertilizers to deliver seeds and so on and so forth.
It could be used for services like we just mentioned, just like the e -taxi.
This is would be a flying taxi scenario and also for industries in the sense that it could help to bring different, you know, compartments or parts from one location to another.
So there are many possible applications when it comes to, you know, commercial applications for these evotals, and they would really help to streamline when it comes to transportation, when it comes to urban mobility, really shorten the time of travel and also relieve some of on the ground congestion when it comes to you know traffic jams and so on so forth.
So I think this is great in terms of the potential.
And the market size of China's low altitude economy is projected to reach 1 .5 trillion yuan this year and could expand to 3 .5 trillion yuan by the year 2035.
So what are the business opportunities in this sector?
Well, like you just mentioned, this is a very large market.
There are many companies that could, I would say, work on the different parts of the supply chain with the big, you know, sort of the ecosystem of the low -altitude economy.
You could have companies like Yihang and also this other one that received the certificate is from Hefei Hei Company.
So, companies could manufacture these eVTOLs, but there are also companies who could, for example, run these eVTOLs and operate in rental operation.
There are definitely other businesses that could purchase all these eVTOLs for urban sightseeing, for tourism, for logistics, and just for commute services.
So, I think it depends on different companies' own market niche, there are many different possibilities along the supply chain that companies can operate on.
So this is why, I think, as I mentioned earlier, this is a general applied technology, general purpose technologies that companies could work on the manufacturing side or on the service side or on the customer, sort of the booking and some other logistics areas as well, and rental.
So I think there are just different segments, along that supply chain that we could find business opportunities for companies.
And as you mentioned the low altitude economy is booming in China so what is the global landscape of it and how has it been developed in other countries like US and Europe?
I think China has really developed it in a very systematic way, like you said from the central government that really provides the blueprint in terms of setting this industry as a incentives for local governments to build infrastructure, to provide standards and regulations, and also incentives for companies to operate.
So, I think it's a very systematic approach, just like the way that China builds the EV ecosystem is not just the manufacturer side, but it's from the very beginning, developing the batteries and also develop a lot of infrastructure including high speed highways and also rail to connect these city to city, to allow people to use the EVs for not too long distance driving.
So there's a lot of different, I would say areas, to be able to build that ecosystem and the same thing with that low altitude economy.
So I think, right now, the Chinese government is really spearheading mobilizing these different companies to develop the technologies, to manufacture, to utilize the Chinese large manufacturing basis because to make this cost effective, as one of the questions that you asked earlier, you need to mask production and you need a large economy of scale.
You also need really good materials and battery storage technology, and so on and so forth.
And so I think China is really leading in many of these technologies and productive when it comes to capacity.
When it comes to the United States, there are companies, they're very good in developing technologies, but I'm not seeing a very systematic approach when it comes to governments setting up the standards, building the infrastructure, and provide regulations to really put in full force to develop the industry.
So I think China is really leading in this industry right now.
Professor Yan Liang, a professor of economics, with William M.
T. University talking to Zhao Yang.
This is World Today, stay tuned.
You are listening to World Today, I am Ding Heng in Beijing.
Technology incubation institutions and global investors are exploring cooperation opportunities in cutting edge fields like artificial intelligence at the Zhongguantun Forum annual conference.
It is a key Chinese Forum showcasing science -tech progress.
During the, quote -unquote, invest in Beijing event, the Chinese capital city has announced a 215 projects with a total investment exceeding 13 billion US dollars.
That's nearly 6 % higher than the number recorded last year.
The theme of this year's event is, quote, new quality productive forces and a global science and technology cooperation, unquote.
For more, my colleague Ge An -na spoke with Andy Mark, technology analyst and a senior fellow with the Center for China and Globalization.
Andy, during the forum Beijing has unveiled a total of 215 investment cooperation projects and the total investment's signing amount has surpassed US $13 billion.
What do you make of this figure?
What does it signify in your opinion?
Well I think this is another important milestone in China's journey to being a global technology leader and I think what this shows is that there's tremendous global interest in working with China in the technology field and you know it's well known that China offers an enormous market but increasingly China can also bring technology leadership to the table in an increasing number of fields.
So of course it started with batteries, electric vehicles, but more and more we're seeing things in, for instance, so -called embedded AI, bio -manufacturing, quantum computing, 6G, et cetera.
And I think this is the simplest explanation for why we're seeing these kinds of numbers and this kind of momentum at this year's W Quang Sun forum.
We've seen a lot of exciting, high -tech breakthroughs announced at this year's forum.
Which ones do you think will have the biggest impact on our daily lives and key industries in the near future?
Well I think in the short term, meaning the next maybe two, three, five years, I think one of the biggest changes in the impacts we'll see in our daily lives are the rise of humanoid robots and this is something that China has decided is a priority and I wouldn't be surprised at all if within five years we see similar technology breakthroughs as well as adoption that we've seen with the new energy vehicle industry particularly EVs in China so I think this is something that is very exciting and we'll see in the next few years, a little bit longer term.
I think quantum computing is something that has enormous disruptive potential and it's still early days.
You know there's still enormous technological challenges, but China again has declared an intention to be a leader here that I think is making meaningful progress, but this is probably a little further off than humanoid robots or some would call it embodied artificial intelligence.
The beauty on that, looking at the bigger picture, how do these innovations contribute to China's high -tech sector upgrade and what unique value in your opinion do they bring?
Well, the way I think about the Zhongguancun Forum and other events like it, is that they are like an estuary.
So, an estuary is a place where fresh water rivers meet with the ocean and of course the sea is salt water and this mingling actually produces enormously vital forms of life and I think this is what we're seeing here as well and I think this is some of the implications and obviously there are technological challenges that need to be overcome.
There are geopolitical challenges largely caused by the US' fear of China's technological development, but I also think that these kinds of challenges are double -edged swords in that at the same time, I think they only strengthen China's resolve, the government's resolve, as well as the resolve of individual entrepreneurs in China to make breakthroughs even more quickly than they might otherwise.
Speaking of challenges, there has been a lot of discussion at the Forum about turning technological advancements into real -world applications, what steps has China taken so far to move high -tech innovations from the lab to the market?
How effective had this process been and what challenges still need to be attacked in this room?
No, that's right. But I think that this is something that China has shown a strong capacity, I would say perhaps even a unique capability to bridge the gap between research development and then ultimately successful commercialization.
So we've seen this before with solar panels.
We've seen it more recently with electric vehicles.
And again, you know, if history is any guide, we may see this with humanoid robots because this requires further advances and breakthroughs at the theoretical level as well as the implementation level for the AI algorithms that allow robots to function like humans in the real world.
And it also requires advanced manufacturing breakthroughs as well.
the actuators, the joints that are the equivalent of human joints in a robot also require more research development and other types of commercialization.
So I think you know we can see that the low altitude economy I think is probably another that maybe is less technology driven.
But again, how do you get something to market and to save widespread adoption.
Earlier you You mentioned another challenge from the United States as President Trump escalating restrictions on China's high -tech development.
But even with the current complex China -U .S. relations, China's technological advancements continue to draw global attention.
This year, the Forum has attracted numerous international organizations, research institutions, and enterprises seeking collaborations with China.
What do you think is driving their decision to choose China as their partner in the high -tech sector?
Well, I think, you know, certainly a part of it is China's organic growth as a market and as a science and technology center for global advances.
But at the same time, as I mentioned, I think the U .S. initiative, not just under Trump but Biden as well, to slow down technology, China's technological rise, has in fact had the exact opposite effect, as I mentioned, causing China to accelerate its own technological development.
But I think also putting a lot of pressure on other companies and countries around the world who may not necessarily want to go along with this.
I'll point out the Netherlands and ASML as an example.
So, they rely a lot on China as a market, and I think many companies around the world are really developing a much deeper ambivalence about whether they want to be part of what many are starting to see as a failing effort by the United States to slow down China's technological rise.
I think this is what I see going on.
That was Andy Mak, senior fellow with the Center for China and Globalization, talking to my colleague Ge Anab.
That's all the time for this edition of World Today, a quick recap of today's headline news.
China's factory activity growth hit a one -year high.
China, South Korea, and Japan agreed to strengthen free trade.
Pentagon chief praised the Japanese troops in a particular WW2 battle sparking criticism.
To listen to this episode again or to catch a point on previous episodes, you can download our podcast by searching the world today.
I am Dakan in Beijing, thank you so much for listening.
Bye for now.
