“The development of new energy vehicles in China is by no means positioned as a solution to ‘domestic overcapacity’,” he said, arguing that the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) industry represented the future direction of the global vehicle sector and was an important contributor to global environment goals and human well-being.

“China’s manufacturing is moving towards high-end, intelligent, and green development, and is upgrading the industry chain, supply chain and value chain. This will have a profound impact on the upgrading of global trade structures and the transformation of the global trade landscape,” Jiang told ambassadors and economists from around the world gathered at the forum to discuss the decline of globalisation.

The European Union says that generous subsidies to China’s hi-tech and green industries have created an oversupply of goods that are then exported at a lower cost, threatening the EU’s domestic market, and compromising fair trade and competition.

Earlier this month, Washington announced it would raise tariffs substantially on a wide range of Chinese goods, including EVs, solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, also claiming unfair trade practices and state subsidies.

18:59

Why the EU, US are concerned about China’s overcapacity

Why the EU, US are concerned about China’s overcapacity

Academics and officials at the Beijing forum warned of several factors dialling back globalisation, as they called for increased cooperation across nations.

Jiang said improving the global trade landscape would require countries to coordinate on policies, optimise trade structures, promote digitalisation and green development of trade, formulate multilateral trade rules, cultivate talent and strengthen cultural exchanges.

According to Wang Liyong, director of the government-affiliated China Centre for Contemporary World Studies, counter-globalisation has become the main development trend and is likely to remain so for a long time.

“First, there is a growing polarisation in policies on globalisation, with some people advocating for protectionism and isolationism. And more harmful is the emergence of a mentality that views international relations as a zero-sum game, where one country’s gain is another’s loss,” Wang told the forum.

“This mentality can lead to the demonisation of other countries, perceiving them as threats or enemies. The current consequences of international relations are likely to be the creation of nationalistic sentiments, propaganda conflicts, and even wars.”

Wang’s views were echoed by Declan Kelleher, chair of the governing board at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels think tank, and a former Irish ambassador to China and the EU.

The administration of former US president Donald Trump “seriously obstructed” the World Trade Organization “from doing its business”, he said.

“I think that’s something that has to be looked at, we have to look at really empowering the WTO. The WTO has many defects, but it’s still the basis of international trade law.”

Regarding the Ukraine war, there is unease in Europe about China’s stance, particularly its failure to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of the former Soviet state despite pressure from the West and the United Nations.

Ferdinando Nelli Feroci, Italy’s former permanent representative to the EU, said the bloc was facing a lot of challenges in maintaining globalisation, including the war in Ukraine and its impact on international relations.

“We were also forced to adopt a number of measures that went into exactly the opposite direction of globalisation,” he said.

“We were forced to impose sanctions on Russia, we were forced to reduce drastically to the purchase of fossil fuels from Russia, we were forced to diversify our sources of supply for fossil energy sources and we would have expected a better solidarity from the rest of the world in dealing with that conflict.”

03:07

Xi welcomes ‘old friend’ Putin to Beijing, affirms strength of China-Russia bond

Xi welcomes ‘old friend’ Putin to Beijing, affirms strength of China-Russia bond

Nelli Feroci also emphasised the need for a more credible and effective system of international relations to address the challenges, including war, climate change, and food and global health security.

David Blair, former economics department chair at the Eisenhower School under Washington’s National Defence University, said the world was at an inflection point, where a new type of great power relation was being established and the old system, characterised by US-led globalisation, was no longer viable.

Blair, who is vice-president and senior economist at the CCG, also emphasised the importance of people-to-people relationships.

“The best way I see forward is let’s have as much contact as we can between people. So at least there’s that level of understanding. And maybe we can build on that to try to create a more peaceful, sustainable, globalised world,” he said.

Danny Quah, dean of the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, suggested that “third nations” – or the Global South – could play a crucial role in easing great power cooperation while avoiding Orientalist approaches that reinforce power imbalances.

Nations must cooperate multilaterally to address these issues, avoiding zero-sum confrontations, he argued, because “the world has now as a consequence of these dynamics moved away from a productive globalisation to a world where there is securitisation and weaponisation of economics”.