Reshaping RCEP: China advisers urge trade overhaul to shield bloc from global shocks

As trade wars and deadly conflicts expose Asia’s vulnerability to geopolitical shocks, Chinese policymakers and advisers are warning of an “urgent need” for the world’s biggest trading bloc to reshape regional energy and manufacturing supply chains.

Members of the Beijing-backed Asia-Pacific framework must reduce their reliance on vulnerable shipping routes and use the certainty of collaboration to offset growing geopolitical uncertainty, the experts urged at a forum in China’s southern island province of Hainan.

The calls came as tariff tensions between Washington and Beijing remain unresolved ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China from Wednesday to Friday – his first trip to the country since November 2017. Meanwhile, the US-Israel war on Iran continues to keep oil prices elevated and cloud the global economic outlook.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – grouping Asia-Pacific economies China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, plus 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – is in its fourth year of operation. It accounts for around 30 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product and more than a quarter of global exports.

At the RCEP Media and Think Tank Forum held in Hainan from Friday to Saturday, Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development (CIRD), called for closer industrial and energy cooperation among member economies, including more localised production and a shift away from vulnerable external shipping routes.

“With political conflicts becoming more frequent and unpredictable, there is an urgent need to strengthen RCEP economic cooperation and use the certainty of regional collaboration to offset growing geopolitical uncertainty,” Chi said.