Innovation next stage of China's development: Cambridge Vice-Chancellor

“Mr. Trump has very weak popularity ratings and I think he has to energize the people who voted for him in the first place to try to get them out to vote in the mid-term elections. So I'm hopeful that overtime that saner heads will prevail and in fact we will not be heading towards what some people are calling a trade war.”

--Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University

China's economy is at the core of discussions at the ongoing China Development Forum in Beijing.

The annual event brings together globally renowned scholars as well as executives of Fortune Global 500 firms to discuss the next stage of China's development.

Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University Stephen Toope speaks at the Economic Summit of the China Development Forum in Beijing on Mar 24, 2018. [Photo: CDF]

During his speech at the opening of the forum, China's Vice Premier Han Zheng described the country's shift toward high-quality development, and the emphasis China is placing on the further opening of its economy.

For more on China's economy and the international situation it's within, CRI's Yang Guang has spoken with Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, who is a guest of the China Development Forum.

Q: The first question is about the morning session. The Vice Premier emphasized multiple times of China's high quality development and opening up. What's your perception of this high quality development? 

A: I think that the Vice Premier obviously articulating the decisions of the party congress is really on the right track here. I think the first 40 years of China's opening and development have largely been focused around the evolution of manufacturing and the ability to produce goods that the world wanted. And the next stage is actually through research and development in innovation for China to be contributing to the big ideas and new products and new services that the world will be needing over the course of the next 40 years. So I think that does require a different focus in development, it requires huge investments in education at all levels, I think it also implies that there has to be real investment in research capacity within China both in the public university system and through investments of private corporations as it's happening in new research facilities. 

Q: Opening up is stressed multiple times at this forum. But there's a world trend of protectionism. What's your take on that? 

A: I suppose I'm an optimist by nature and I'm hopeful that some of what we're hearing right now is largely rhetorical flourishes that are designed to attract certain audiences at a particular moment in time. That moment in time in the United States is the upcoming mid-term elections. Mr. Trump has very weak popularity ratings and I think he has to energize the people who voted for him in the first place to try to get them out to vote in the mid-term elections. So I'm hopeful that overtime that saner heads will prevail and in fact we will not be heading towards what some people are calling a trade war. We're certainly not there yet. While being realistic, I think that there is an impetus in parts of the world for closing down instead of opening up, but I would say there're other parts of the world that just have to keep resisting this and finding the connectivity, finding the partnerships, and if it means that for temporary reasons, we may see a lessening of engagement with some places, then we have to see more engagement with other places. 

Q: What's your top concern at this forum? 

A: I would say my top concern is to ensure, as was spoken about his morning in the Vice Premier's address, that we don't forget why some of these tendencies that people are worried about, such as challenges to free trade, ideas of nationalism that in some countries that have been heightened, why is that happening? I do believe that a large part of that relates to a sense that many people have that they have not benefitted from globalization over the course of the last 25 years. And there's actually truth to their concern if you look at the United Kingdom with Brexit and the election of Mr. Trump in the United States. I think one of the key factors in both cases was the reality that there has been no income growth in either of those countries for the last decade. In other words, many people feel that they're not better off than they were, and even more importantly, they're worried that their children will not be better off than they were. So I hope that, although we still see now growth in the world economy, we see tremendous progress in China, that we don't forget those people who feel left behind because I think if we do, then we're going to confront even more resistance to what actually is beneficial for the largest number of people but could be prevented from happening by those smaller groups that really feel disenfranchised and disempowered.