US-China rivalry exposes differences that threaten to hinder global solutions to climate change, experts say
- China needs to bring companies to the table when making policy, says Taiya Smith at a Bloomberg forum
- But Chinese speakers say state-owned and private companies are ‘developing together’
The rivalry between the US and China – on full display in their trade war – has spotlighted their fundamental difference in thinking on the role the state should play in economic development. The split is undermining efforts to tackle pressing global issues like climate change, some experts say.
“In China, the role of corporations is different. The policymaking process will often include a meeting with corporations, but they’re not at the table,” Taiya Smith, director of China for the Climate Leadership Council, said at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Beijing last week.
“You want buy in. You need to bring people, organisations into the process of understanding what it means to fundamentally transform your entire energy system,” Smith said. “China’s planned economy certainly leads to some challenges here.”
The conference brought together business and political leaders to look at how the private sector could help deal with global problems like climate change.
The central government’s role in directing the economy – with a continued reliance on state owned behemoths as well as innovative private companies – has been in the spotlight since US Donald Trump started a trade war with China more than a year ago. He contends that China does not play by fairly, giving subsidies to companies, manipulating its currency, ignoring intellectual property rights, and creating barriers for US and other foreign companies.