China and the World: Recalibration and Realignment

The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and China’s Caixin Media hosted a major conference on “China and the World: Recalibration and Realignment” on April 20, 2018. Three substantive panel discussions were held on international collaboration on financial regulations, China’s future reforms and the fate of the global economic system, and China as a global investor.

The first panel analyzed how the internationalization of China’s currency, the renminbi, and the Federal Reserve’s normalization of interest rates will impact global finance. Speakers included Stanley Fischer, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve; Sheila Bair, former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and Jonathan Pruzan, Morgan Stanley’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.

The second panel provided insights on how US-China trade tensions could be alleviated by structural adjustments in both countries and in global governance arrangements. Speakers included Cai Jinyong, former CEO of the International Finance Corporation; Jason Furman, nonresident senior fellow at PIIE and professor of the practice of economic policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Nicholas R. Lardy, Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow at PIIE; and Yin Yong, vice mayor of Beijing, member of the Party Leadership Group of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and former deputy governor at the People’s Bank of China.

The concluding panel focused on the global economic implications of China’s expanding overseas investment, for example, through the Belt and Road Initiative. Zhang Tao, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Jason Cummins, head of research and chief US economist at Brevan Howard; Gao Zhanjun, former managing director at CITIC Securities and a visiting scholar at Harvard; and Zhou Yuan, former chief strategist at the China Investment Corporation.