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Ambassador Yang Youming Visits iGCU, Delivers Speech on China-U.S. Trade Disputes

May 20 , 2019 11:38 AM by iGCU
Visits

Amb. Yang Youming delivered a speech

On the evening of May 20, 2019, Yang Youming, former Minister-Counsellor to the United States and Ambassador to Zambia, visited the School of International Studies and delivered a speech at C108 of SIS Building on the topic "Trade Disputes and U.S.-China Relations". This lecture is one of special events of the Kim Koo Forum, hosted by the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding (iGCU) of Peking University, and chaired by Professor Wang Dong, Executive Director of the Institute. Assistant Professor Xu Liang of the School of International Studies and more than 20 master's degree students listened to the lecture and participated in the discussion.

In his speech, Ambassador Yang Youming first reviewed the development of the China-U.S. trade disputes and sorted out the policy actions of both sides in the escalation of the dispute. On this basis, he analyzed the root causes of China-U.S. trade frictions and the direct causes of this round of induced disputes. Ambassador Yang pointed out that the tariff weapon is a "boomerang", and the "extreme pressure" of the United States to raise tariffs on China will eventually damage itself. Moreover, the increasingly strengthened technology and personnel control of the United States over China will not only fail to achieve the goal of curbing China’s development, on the contrary, but also stimulate China to increase its efforts in independent innovation. Generally speaking, for China-U.S. relations, cooperation is beneficial to both sides and struggle harmful. China and the United States should work together to return to the benign track of dialogue and cooperation, strengthen communication, reduce misunderstandings, repair mutual trust, and achieve cooperation with win-win results.

During the question and answer session, Ambassador Yang had a comprehensive discussion with teachers and students on the long-term trend of China-U.S. relations and the detailed interpretation of trade disputes. The lecture ended in a friendly and warm atmosphere.

Yang Youming is a former senior diplomat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, and served as Deputy Director, Director and Counsellor of the Department of Policy Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Counsellor and Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy in the United States of America and Deputy Observer in the Organisation of American States, Deputy Director of the Department of Policy Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Chief and Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy in Canada, and Chinese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Chinese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Zambia.

Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding (iGCU) of Peking University is a new-type think tank with Chinese characteristics approved by the Ministry of Education (MOE) of China and operated by Peking University. Integrating teaching, scientific research, policy consultation and talent training as a whole, iGCU is the only comprehensive think tank for people-to-people exchanges in Peking University established by the MOE at present, serving the “Ten Mechanisms” of people-to-people exchanges, leading domestic researches on people-to-people exchanges, coordinating and promoting the cause of China’s people-to-people exchanges with other nations in the world. In January 2020, upon approval of the MOE, the “Institute for China-U.S. People-to-People Exchange” was renamed as the “Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding”. In December 2020, the iGCU was enlisted into the 2020 Chinese Think Tank Index (CTTI), and in January 2021, it ranked 76th among Top Think Tanks in China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea 2020, also the 17th Chinese think tank on the list.