Roundtable assesses China’s changing relationship with the world

As flows of trade, technology and capital have shifted, China’s exposure to other countries has declined, while the world’s exposure to China has increased. That’s the assessment of a new report by McKinsey & Company, ‘China and the world: inside a changing economic relationship’, which was the subject of a roundtable discussion at Asia House this week.

Leading figures from industry and academia discussed China’s transforming economy and position in the global trade order, with insights from Sue Anne Tay, Director of China and RMB Internationalisation, HSBC; Jonathan Woetzel, Director of the McKinsey Global Institute and Senior Partner, Shanghai; Zhihong Yu, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham; and Simone Niven, Corporate Relations Group executive, Rio Tinto.

The expansive discussion, chaired by Asia House Chief Executive Michael Lawrence, explored key issues including respective reactions to the US-China trade war, the differences in how China’s economy is perceived – from inward to outward-looking – and the RMB’s status as an international currency.

More than 60 delegates from business and government attended the roundtable, held in partnership with McKinsey & Company.