On December 9, the “History, Current Situation and Future” International Relations Forum, co-hosted by the Center for International Finance and Economic Research and the Center for Monetary Policy and Financial Stability at Tsinghua University National Institute of Financial Research (NIFR), was successfully held. It is also the last panel of the three-day International Conference on International Trade Relations and Reforms in Global Economic Governance. 

Zhou Hao, Unigroup Professor of Finance and Associate Dean at Tsinghua PBCSF, delivered the opening speech for the forum. He hoped the heated discussions on international relations could provide possible solutions to some key issues in Sino-US relations at this critical juncture of history.

Ezra F. Vogel, Professor at Harvard University and former Director of the Fairbank Center for China Studies, delivered a keynote speech entitled "History, Status and Future of Sino-US Relations". He reviewed the history of China’s economic reform and opening up as well as Sino-US relations, and expounded the important role of Deng Xiaoping. Later, he explained the reason why Trump won a considerable number of support and pointed out how some people in U.S. view China on domestic employment and intellectual property protection. With regard to the current situation between China and the US, he proposed that businessmen and scholars could play a key role in easing the tensions.

During the discussion session, Ju Jiandong, Unigroup Professor of Finance at Tsinghua PBCSF and Director of CIFER, hosted discussions on the past, present and future of Sino-US relations with Zhou Hao, Zhang Zhiwei, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank China, Wang Wei, Managing Director of BOC International, and TONG Hui, Senior Researcher at the International Monetary Fund.

Zhou Hao pointed out that China's economic reform and opening up should be the key to Sino-US relations and also many other problems such as international economic and trade relations, not limited to the economical benefits or Trump's policy. The reform and opening up should be carried out a further step towards openness, rather than aiming at the interests of economic and trade relations.

From the perspective of intellectual property rights, Zhang Zhiwei believed that in regard to the current situation of Sino-US trade friction, China's efforts to promote the protection of intellectual property rights would benefit both parties.

When talking about the Sino-US relations, Wang Wei analyzed the continuous evolution of roles of China and the US by referring to some examples during the development of BOC International.

Tong Hui expounded the close relationship between China and the US in economy, trade and finance. He compared the current trade relations with the trade wars 100 years ago, and analyzed the importance of current structural factors. In his view, the current trade relations should be dealt with caution, but not too pessimistically, and requires multilateral consultation.

Ju Jiandong gave a brief summary of the speeches and shared his understanding of current Sino-US relations by sharing his experirnces from last 20 years in the US.

Based in the PBC School of Finance, International Finance and Economic Research Center (CIFER) at Tsinghua University National Institute of Financial Research was established in November 2017 as an academic, policy and enterprise research center focusing on international finance, international trade and global governance. With the mission of “gathering talents, rooting in China, and serving the world”, the Center is committed to becoming a research and communication platform for outstanding international economists to promote the development and application of international economic theories.