BU-TÜSİAD Seminar on “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and China’s Vision for the Future”

June 2, 2014, Prof. Heng QUAN, Deputy Director of Institute of Economy of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Prof. Ren Xiao, Director of Center of China’s Foreign Policy of Fudan University were invited to present in the seminar, entitled “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and China’s Vision for the Future”. This event was jointly held by TÜSİAD -Boğazici University Foreign Policy Forum and Confucius Institute at Boğazici University. Prof. Hakan Yilmaz, Director of TÜSİAD -Boğazici University Foreign Policy Forum moderated the event. Dr. Liu Yi, Chinese Director of CIBU, Dr. Altay Atlı from the Asian Studies Center of Boğazici University, and all staffs of CIBU attended the event.

Prof. Heng Quan made a keynote speech on “The New Reform and Development of China’s Economy and Its New Significance to the Global Economy Order”. In the beginning, Prof. QUAN pointed out the patterns and features of China’s high speed growth. The most important motivation for China’s high speed growth lied in the manufacturing sector and labor force market. Then he highlighted a number of issues and challenges faced by China’s economy. To conquer these challenges, he proposed to carry out new transition, new reform and new development strategy, which include changing the economy growth pattern, constructing new market-economy model, upgrading new urbanization strategy, establishing new income distribution system and increasing the new openness strategy. At last, on the issue of “China’s new growth and its role in the global order”, Prof. QUAN believes that China will continue to be the engine for the economic development of Asia and the world because the center of world’s economic growth will continue to be eastward; China will continue to provide opportunities for the upgrading of World’s trade liberalization and global economic equality; China’s huge domestic demand potential will provide a large market room for her neighbors and the world; The “New Silk Road Economic Belt” will bring more opportunities for Asian’s growth and Chinese-Turkey trade.

Prof. Xiao REN made a speech focusing on “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and China’s Vision for the Future”. At first, Prof. REN introduced China’s complex geostrategic situation. That is why China has to build a peaceful and stable environment and this point is vital to understand China’s foreign policy. Then, he gave a detailed elaboration of SCO’s origin, institutionalization, and its goals. He pointed out that SCO mechanism has changed from leaders’ summit to functional areas, which was reflected in the following three aspects. First, besides mutual confidence construction, economic and military cooperation, SCO has established dialogue mechanism on other areas such as anti-terrorism, tourism and cultural communication. Second, SCO has established an anti-terrorism center in Tashkent, aiming to carry out joint actions to destroy “the Three Evils” commonly faced by all the members. Third, on the membership expansion issue, SCO adopted a very cautious attitude. In order to increase the efficiency of the organization, SCO will limit the number of members and increase the cooperation between the members. At the end of the speech, Prof. REN also gave a detailed introduction about the CICA Summit (Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia),which just closed in Shanghai.

During the discussion part, two professors responded the related issues with patience and meticulousness. On the issue of “China’s Vision for the Future”, Prof. QUAN and Prof. REN responded respectively from the economic and foreign policy perspectives. From the economic perspective, Prof. QUAN believed that if China can successfully implement new reform plan and significantly improve the quality and efficiency of China’s economic growth, China will achieve sustainable development and China’s economy will occupy a large portion in the world economy. From the foreign policy perspective, Prof. REN estimated that if China becomes a middle developed country in the middle of 21st century, then the global power will be redistributed and the international order will become much more balanced due to China’s greater contribution to the world. During their stay, Prof. Heng QUAN and Prof. Xiao REN also visited Confucius Institute at Boğazici University, and had a talk with Prof. Zia Önis of Koç University.