EABER Delegation Visits SIIS and Holds Roundtable

2023/05/22

On May 21, 2023, Professor Peter Drysdale, Head of the East Asia Bureau of Economic Research (EABER) at the Australian National University, led a delegation and visited the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. SIIS and EABER successfully held a roundtable and workshop.

SIIS President Chen Dongxiao delivered opening remarks. He elaborated on the recent positive development of major power relations as well as the great uncertainties ahead, called for all sides not to be afraid of thinking about shared values of human community, such as on how to deal with the disrupting technologies, climate change among others and to act collectively on common interests. President Chen concluded by saying that multipolarization in the hyperconnected and interdependent world is the defining feature of the 21st century and think tanks should play a more proactive role in shaping the process.

Professor Peter Drysdale and Professor Xu Mingqi, Vice-chairman of the Shanghai Center for International Economic Exchanges gave keynote presentations. Professor Peter Drysdale in his keynote speech reflected on how the two pilllars that have anchored China-West relations after the World War II, i.e., the Bretton Woods Institutions-centered economic order and the alliance-based political order, have been shaked and the urgency of protecting them. He also stressed on the importance of maintaining China-Australia relations for the regional order both economically and politically and echoed the wishes to further collaborations between his institution and SIIS in the future.

Around 15 experts from SIIS, EABER, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics and Shanghai University had an in-depth discussion on China’s Application to Join CPTPP, Climate Change and Energy Transition, RCEP, IPEF and Initiatives in Regional Cooperation. Dr. Wang Zhongmei, Dr. Ye Yu, Dr. Wang Guoxing, Dr. Wang Yuzhu, Dr. Xue Lei and Dr. Jiang Lixiao of the Institute for World Economy Studies at SIIS joined the discussion.

EABER is a leading think tank on economic research in Australia and has maintained long-term academic exchanges and cooperation with SIIS. This roundtable is the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that SIIS hosted an Australian think tank for face-to-face exchange. Professor Peter Drysdale, who is an Emeritus Professor of Economics and the Head of the EABER and East Asia Forum at the Crawford School of Public Policy of ANU, is also widely acknowledged as the intellectual architect of APEC. During the roundtable, SIIS and EABER also exchanged views on strengthening joint research and dialogue in the future.