Fourth Annual Meeting of the International Consortium for China Studies

ZEW’s Research Department “Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics” and the National School of Development (NSD) of Peking University (PKU) jointly organised the fourth annual meeting of the International Consortium for China Studies (ICCS), entitled “Perspectives on China’s Development and the Openness of Global Markets: The Nexus of Political, Economic and Social Issues” on 20 and 21 June 2017. Over the course of the two-day annual meeting held at ZEW in Mannheim, 25 international researchers presented their latest findings concerning a number of topics, including China’s changing role in international trade, technological innovation, and global economic growth.

The first day’s programme focused on China and the world economy, international trade, technological innovation, as well as urbanization and rural development. In the first session, Kellee Tsai, Professor of Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, discussed the crucial role of diasporas for the development of China’s economy. She shows that India is lagging behind China, as emigrants from India are less engaged with foreign direct investments (FDI) in their home country, but mainly support their families via remittance. Lina Song, Professor of Economics Sociology and Chinese Studiesat Nottingham University Business School, presented experimental evidence on truth-telling and corruption in China und Uganda. They were followed by Miaojie Yu, Professor in the China Centre for Economic Research at PKU, who explored China’s changing role in international trade and evaluated the burden of significant import taxes of US against Chinese exports and exports from other countries. He demonstrated that the impact greatly depends on whether China and other countries would retaliate by introducing import taxes on US goods. China and some EU member states would suffer dramatically, but an import tax would also induce a significant drop in the US’ gross domestic product. Next, the link between outward FDI and productivity heterogeneity at the firm level was explored by Wei Tian from the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing. In China – as in other countries – highly productive firms in particular tend to engage in FDI. In the afternoon, Xiaobo Zhang,Professor of Economics at PKU, and ZEW researcher Dr. Philipp Boeing presented new research on China’s technological trajectory and innovation. Both presented papers confirming that China will soon become an innovative superpower. However, Boeing also emphasised that this trajectory is far less steep if the quality dimension is taken into account. In addition, Mengbo Zhang from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) showed that the attempt to increase competition in the banking sector through the foundation of new regional banks had only been partially successful, as the new banks tended to lend to state-owned enterprises and public utilities. The first day concluded with a presentation from Christine Wong, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne, and Warren Lu from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who discussed their research on air pollution in China and on institutional constraints on the development of “second-tier” cities in China. They  noted that China’s on-going crusade to improve air quality has already helped to curb pollution levels, but the conflicting aims of short-term growth, economic stability, and environmental protection are still hindering any potential success. Warren Lu also noted that creating successful urban development plans in China seems to be more difficult due to the various structural differences across regions.

International scientists present new research on China’s trade, productivity, and innovation

China’s labour force, social instability and economic growth as well as China’s Belt and Road Initiativewere the focus of the second day of the meeting. In the first session, John Knight, Professor of Economics at Oxford University, presented new insights into fair and unfair inequality in China, emphasising that inequality of power – as observed in China – results in inequality of income, which is perceived as unfair by the general population. Tony Fang, Chair in Cultural and Economic Transformation atMemorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, explored the job search procedures of migrant workers, suggesting that there should be more formal procedures like labour exchanges or rural recruitment initiatives in order to increase the access of rural people to urban employment. The impact of ICT on economic growth was investigated by Yuezhou Cai from the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) in Beijing, who argued that China still needs to improve its ICT infrastructure. Yawei Liu, director of the China Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta and Yuan Li, Acting Professor for Business and Economic Studies of East Asia at theUniversity of Duisburg-Essen, highlighted the opportunities and challenges presented by government investment in traffic infrastructures. Yawei Liu warned against overinvestment in infrastructure which could cause China’s growth path to deteriorate meaning that China might not be able to reap the full benefit from its investment. Yuan Li demonstrated how the one belt one road initiative could even have a positive impact for a country like Germany.

Over the course of the two days, the participants were able to enjoy 16 presentations from internationally leading scholars working on issues affecting China. The meeting provided the perfect opportunity for a vivid discussion on the current advances in the field of China studies, with a focus on social sciences including political, economic, and social issues.The ICCS is an international platform currently consisting of 24 selected scientific institutions carrying out research on China's economic development. ZEW was officially named as an ICCS member institution in November 2015 in recognition of the institute’s close network of contacts within the scientific community and the numerous research projects focused on the Chinese economy.The ICCS meeting takes place on an annual basis, alternating between China and other host countries, and promotes exchange and collaboration between its member institutes. Next year’s meeting will be hosted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, while the sixth ICCS in 2019 will be hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.