Son of former premier Zhu Rongji talks up technology after denouncing property
Despite holding no official title for two years, Levin Zhu still pulls crowds at leading forums and conferences
Levin Zhu Yunlai, the son of former premier Zhu Rongji, praised the state of new technology in China in a keynote speech to a high-profile conference in Beijing on Friday, a week after he poured cold water over the country’s property market.
Zhu was speaking as a “financial expert” at the Global Innovator Conference, a gathering of start-up executives, because the former chief executive of China International Capital Corporation (CICC) has not assumed a new title in the last two years.
But Zhu was unmistakably the guest of honour at the event whose audience – including Eric Jing Xiandong, chief executive of Ant Financial Services Group; Ge Huayong, chairman of China UnionPay; and Liu Zhen, former vice-president of Uber China – applauded his broad-ranging speech on the role of technology in human progress.
“What shall we call the age we are living in?” he asked rhetorically, more from the perspective of a scientist than an investment banker. “There are so many fast emerging technologies: big data, cloud computing, autonomous driving, virtual reality, and fintech … these are the areas we need to explore.”
The conference is being held by the China Business Council of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), an association sponsored by China’s big banks and CICC.