The Beijing Daily (June 13) published an article by Justin Yifu Lin, Peking University's
Honorary Dean of the National School of Development, Dean of the Institute of New Structural
Economics, and Dean of the South-South Institute on China's economy and the new challenges
it faces at both home and abroad. Captioned 'Maintaining a certain growth rate is a bottom line
that economic work should have—challenges and responses to current economic development',
it said U.S. President Biden will not change Trump’s China policy and 'continue demarcation
of political systems, values, ideologies, etc., in an attempt to isolate China politically, and then
decouple these countries from China economically. The latest action includes the United States,
Japan, India, and Australia forming an alliance to create an Asian version of NATO. The USled NATO has invited Japan, South Korea, and other Western Pacific countries to attend their
summits. Biden also held a special summit of ASEAN countries in Washington, pushing the
United States to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership with ASEAN countries and trying
to persuade these countries to move their supply chains away from China. In addition to the
containment and isolation actions launched by the United States against China, the RussianUkrainian war broke out at the end of February this year, and the short-term impact is obvious',
causing the global oil and natural gas prices and food prices to rise sharply. Asserting that
China is not only a major importer of oil, but also relies on imports to a considerable extent for
food, he said the prices of some imported mineral resources are also rising. Therefore, the
Russian-Ukrainian war will increase China's import costs and affect economic growth. He
acknowledged that from a domestic perspective, since the third quarter of 2021, China's
economy has experienced a relatively large decline. The very high infection rate of the
Omikron virus has accelerated the decline of the economy and it 'will be more difficult to
achieve this year's growth target of 5.5%'. He said 'As for the challenges from abroad, the
United States hopes that other countries will decouple from China and allow China to return to
a closed economy. If it succeeds, China's economic growth rate will slow down, and our second
centenary goal will be difficult to achieve as scheduled, and will generate more new challenges,
which is exactly the wishful thinking of the United States. However, in the face of this kind of
conspiracy of the United States, we must also see our own favourable conditions. China is the
world's largest trading country and has the world's largest market. Trade is a win-win, and small
economies benefit from it more than large economies. In order to maintain its hegemonic position, the United States may prefer to sacrifice economic interests for political interests, but
if the EU, ASEAN, and other economies follow the United States and China to decouple, they
need to sacrifice their own economic interests'. Regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war, he said
China must continue to advocate the use of diplomacy to resolve disputes and resolutely uphold
the UN Charter and respect the territorial integrity of each country. He added 'Of course, we
must also respect the security needs of individual countries'. He recommended a more
'scientific' approach to containing the epidemic and said farmers must be allowed to 'go to the
fields and cultivate grain' and taxes on those affected by the epidemic should be reduced.
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