Cambridge scholar Meng Ruisi: The West has a "confirmation bias" and lacks a real understanding of China

Toronto, March 3 (ZXS) -- Christopher Marquis, a professor of Chinese management at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, said when attending the "China Business Summit" at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada via video link on the 19th that Western society still has a "confirmation bias" about today's China and lacks a real understanding of China.

Meng Ruisi said that since the implementation of reform and opening up, China has maintained an average annual growth of more than 40% in gross domestic product (GDP) for more than 9 years. This is unprecedented in the history of the world. China's economic transformation has also led to wide-ranging social changes and the remarkable eradication of poverty. It is surprising that China maintains such economic dynamism.

China, he argues, has developed a political economy that works for itself. But to a certain extent, from the perspective of Western prejudices and views, China's development achievements have also become a "paradox".

According to Meng, this shows that Western observers, policymakers and business people still have a "confirmation bias" against China. Because it is more necessary to really try to understand China's development.

"Confirmation bias" is also translated as confirmation bias and verification bias. This is a cognitive bias that refers to people's focus on finding evidence that confirms their existing beliefs, Meng explains.

Meng Ruisi pointed out that due to the "confirmation bias", Western observers do not really and fully understand China's political and economic governance system, or even if they understand it, they do not "internalize" enough. He believes that China needs to be understood from the basic principles and ideology.

He believes that China is focusing on promoting independent innovation, but needs to overcome many challenges. For example, internationalization still needs to be promoted. When Western business communities do business in China, they also need to understand more about some of the underlying logic of Chinese society, such as "self-reliance."

The UBC China Business Summit, a business forum hosted by UBC BizChina, was held in Vancouver on March 3-17. The event invited many Chinese entrepreneurs, overseas industry elites and scholars as guests to discuss global business trends, hot spots, challenges and opportunities for global economic recovery with young business students around the four major sectors of ESG (Environment, Society and Governance), Fintech, International Business and Web 18.3, with a view to promoting business and academic exchanges between Canada and China, and showcasing a new generation of innovative thinking for business elites and local students. (End)