On December 7-8, the Valdai Discussion Club will host the 12th Asian Conference, titled “Russia and Asia in a Changing World Order”. The event will take place at the Club’s conference hall, at Tsvetnoy Boulevard 16/1, Moscow, Russia.

Subtitle:

Moderator: Now I would like to ask our colleague from China, would like to ask you a question, Mr. Wang Wen. o you think the world will be the same in the post-pandemic world? o you think we will still have the spirit of trust and cooperation between countries? And please answer these questions in the context of the China-US relations. Where do you think the relation will go? And do you think there is a room for more trust within these relations? And what kind of shape this trust would take?

Thank you, thank you for Valdai Club’s wonderful invitation，I really appreciate it.

Wang Wen: Actually, I miss the Valdai Club’s conference room in a very beautiful view. But it’s a pity for us that I can’t arrive at the conference in person. I think the moderator asking a very important question. In my opinion, I totally agree with Mr. Makarov you said.

After the pandemic, the world will enter the Asia century. I really agree with that in China and other countries in eastern Asia, the anti-pandemic battle we really achieve much better achievements than western countries. About the China-US relationship, I think the two big powers’ relationship now has entered the stage of protracted war. We all know that last month, China’s president Xi Jinping and US president Biden have a meeting virtually. They talk very well, but these days, the United Stated made some small moves to China. But I believe three things. The first thing is that there can be no new cold war between China and the United States. Because I trust the two countries’ leaders’ wisdom, and also, I trust China’s wisdom that we can handle and deal with the United States’ attack. And also, on the one hand, we can have enough reaction to the United States’ deterrence. And on the other hand, we still can keep the cooperation in some fields with the United States. For example, the climate change, we have good cooperation with the United States in climate change fields. So, the tension between the US and China will become new normal. So, the world has to adopt to this tension, that’s the first point.

The second point is that I also believe that China's rise will continue. So, there are no any external force to stop China’s rise. Unless China made mistakes by ourselves. So, I believe that the United States can not lead China. But I think everyone may very worry about Taiwan issue. A lot of people say that the mainland China will unify Taiwan. The two sides of the Taiwan strait must be reunified. The time is not so long. So, trust in China and our strength, that’s the second point.

The third point is that we all mentioned about Indo-Pacific strategy. To be honestly, in my opinion, Indo-Pacific strategy is just an imagination. It’s too huge, and cannot become reality. So, it cannot successfully deter China’s rise.

Another presentive I want to share with you is that the three “underestimate”. What does that mean? I mean that in the past two years, we have three “underestimate”. The first “underestimate” is the impact time length of COVID-19. Many people thought in early 2020 that maximum one year. But now two years past already, and the pandemic still continues. We have a lot of variants. So, what if there are more variants in 2022, 2023 or 2024? Maybe longer. So, human beings don't know about viruses. Keep in awe of the virus. Because of ignorance of the virus, at present, China's policy is to put life first. Although China has controlled the pandemic since last May, although there have been outbreaks in many cities in China, but only three people died for the pandemic in the past one and half year.

That’s a very successful anti-pandemic battle. But even that, in China, there are still relatively strict pandemic prevention and control policies, and most people still wear masks on the streets. That’s the first point.

The second “underestimate” is that we underestimate the economic impact. At first, people thought whether it would not be more serious than the international financial crisis in 2008. At the end of 2020, it is expected that there will be a strong recovery this year. But now it seems that the economic recovery is not real, Different economic fields have different condition. Some of them are very good, and some of them are still very poor. The K-shaped recovery of the world economy is not a good thing. It will create more gaps between the rich and the poor, and between regions. That’s why this year China announced the comprehensive elimination of poverty and put forward the policy of common prosperity. On the whole, China's economy has recovered well. China’s GDP grew by 2.3% in 2020 and 7% this year. China's experience may be shared. Unfortunately, under the attack of Western media, China's experience has not been taken seriously.

The final “underestimate” is that we underestimate the solidarity of mankind. We think that when the crisis comes, mankind were sure to be united. But it was found that China and the United States did not cooperate against pandemic, and many geopolitical crises, ethnic conflicts and financial market turmoil continued. So, in my opinion, the United Nations sdg2030 may be difficult to complete. In fact, what is terrible is not the crisis, but the lack of unity during the crisis. I think nowadays, we still very sad and regret to see that the United States’ strategy, I mean the incompetence. The US is unable to fight the pandemic, but regards China and Russia as scapegoats for the failure of domestic governance, and constantly exaggerates the threat of China and Russia. So, my conclusion is that we need real multilateralism, We need real action and implementation, we need unity and efficiency, and we need real solutions.

That's all, thank you.

Please Find us: Twitter: RDCYINST    YouTube: RealRDCY    LinkedIn: 人大重阳RDCY    Facebook: RDCYINST    Instagram: rdcyinst