(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) Records of "Epidemiology" of Economic Warfare: Fighting the Epidemic Situation and Supporting Economic Development in East Asia
China News Agency, Beijing, April 15 (Wang Enbo, Jin Yizi) A special meeting of leaders of ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea (10 + 3) to fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic was held on the 14th by video. Faced with the threat of the new crown virus, ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea are joining hands to declare to the world their determination to cooperate in fighting the epidemic and supporting the regional economy.
Although some countries in East Asia have curbed the spread of the virus or delayed the spread of the epidemic, the resulting economic shocks are still fermenting. The Asian Development Bank recently released a report predicting that the regional growth rate of Asian developing economies will decline sharply this year.
Regarding the timing of this meeting, Beijing experts bluntly stated that they were “very timely and critical” in an interview with a reporter from China News Service.
Su Hao, director of the Center for Strategic and Peace Studies at the School of Foreign Affairs, said that the epidemic poses huge challenges to the economic development and social construction of East Asia. In particular, countries need to close their national gates in response to the prevention and control of the epidemic, hindering the flow of people, and impacting trade and industry chains. All parties must join hands to take specific measures to respond to the outbreak by multilateral means.
"This meeting of the 10 + 3 mechanism can be regarded as a regional highlight of global development, and it is expected to make the region a leader in global revitalization," said Wang Yizhou, a distinguished professor at Peking University and a vice president of the Chinese Society of International Relations. The situation is still unclear. At present, the anti-epidemic in East Asia has entered the "two-wheel drive" stage: on the one hand, strengthen joint defense and joint control to prevent the rebound of the epidemic; on the other hand, accelerate economic recovery and promote regional revitalization.
As they said, as the representatives of major Asian economies, ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea have huge economic aggregates, deep integration of industrial chains and supply chains, and close trade exchanges. The total trade volume of 10 + 3 countries has exceeded 10 trillion US dollars, of which nearly half It belongs to intra-regional trade. All parties have high hopes for the mechanism, hoping it will bring the region's economy back to recovery.
However, Su Hao pointed out that restoring production in various countries alone is not enough to achieve the above goals. The East Asian economy is a whole. All parties should unify their understanding and reach consensus, and work together to ensure the smooth connection of industrial and supply chains in the region. "Sweeping the snow before the door", for the sake of one's own interests, harms the overall interests of other countries or regions.
To this end, China proposed at the meeting to work hard to restore economic development and promote regional economic integration. Specific measures include: further reduction of tariffs, removal of barriers, unimpeded trade, promotion of investment, and mutual opening of markets; maintenance of necessary flow of people and logistics, and stabilization of the supply chain of the industrial chain; striving to sign the “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement” (RCEP) as scheduled within the year A higher level of regional economic integration.
Facing the risks and challenges brought about by the epidemic, China also proposed to play the role of the mechanism of multilateralization of the Chiang Mai Initiative to support multilateral financial institutions to maintain sufficient market liquidity. Welcome the AIIB's proposal to establish a recovery fund with an initial scale of US $ 5 billion.
Zhang Yunling, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, mentioned that the epidemic has hit many industries. A large number of upstream and downstream enterprises have increased liabilities, lack of funds, and are facing bankruptcy. Therefore, while restarting the industrial chain, all parties should also take effective rescue measures. The 10 + 3 cooperation includes a currency cooperation mechanism, and the establishment of special funds will help the regional economy resume growth.
According to Wang Yuzhu, director of the Regional Cooperation Research Office of the Asia-Pacific and Global Strategy Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the economic impact of the epidemic has penetrated into the micro level, there are many uncertainties, and any policy is difficult to achieve immediately. A series of initiatives proposed by China will help all parties find a breakthrough for the regional economy to return to the right track and further strengthen cooperation in a targeted manner.
It is worth mentioning that the 10 + 3 cooperation was born due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. For more than 20 years, this cooperation mechanism has been continuously improved, and the process of regional economic integration has been steadily advancing. It is recognized as a successful model for multilateral cooperation. Observations believe that responding to the epidemic can also be regarded as dangerous for East Asian cooperation.
"Globalization has entered a new stage based on regional integration," Su Hao said. East Asian countries have further strengthened the foundation of cooperation by joining hands in the fight against epidemics, which will also help promote the development of globalization in a more three-dimensional direction Explore the leading role.
Wang Yuzhu said that the symbol of East Asian regional economic integration has always been the arrangement of free trade zones, but the epidemic has given people a deeper understanding of the importance of cooperation in regional production networks, value chains, and industrial chains. The response to the epidemic has brought forward opportunities for East Asian cooperation. All parties should also inject new thinking and make new efforts to the 10 + 3 mechanism to promote regional cooperation to a new level. (Finish)