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UPDATED: November 14, 2011 NO. 46 NOVEMBER 17, 2011
Troubled Times
Leaders of the world's top 20 industrialized and emerging economies attempt to ease fears about the global economy
By DING YING
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Europe's self-salvation

 

BRICS POWER: Chinese President Hu Jintao attends a conference of BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—on November 3 in Cannes on the sidelines of the G20 Summit (XINHUA) 

The Cannes communiqué welcomed the EU's measures and ideas to deal with sovereign debt issues. These include restoring debt sustainability in Greece, strengthening European banks and building firewalls to avoid contagion. Most countries believed European debt problems can be solved by Europe's own efforts.

"What has happened since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008 shows that we are facing not just an economic and financial crisis. It is a crisis that has exposed certain deficiencies in the existing institutions and mechanisms, policies and approaches, and ways of development," said Chinese President Hu Jintao in his speech.

U.S., European and Japanese economies now are all trapped in structural problems, and their mode of development is being challenged, said Qu Xing, President of the China Institute of International Studies.

Since the international economic situation is facing new challenges, all countries should make more efforts to improve their models of economic and social development, he said.

The world cannot expect China to play a substantial leadership role in the G20 or be the silver bullet to shoot the ongoing European crisis, said Wang Yong, Director of the Center for International Political Economy at Peking University, in an article published on the East Asia Forum website.

"In the eyes of Chinese leaders and the public, China is not ready to take on such a role," he said. "The country is limited in its strength and knowledge, and by its status as a developing nation."

China's economy is experiencing high-speed growth, but it still faces internal social problems and difficulties with efficiency and fair distribution.

China believes the global economy is fundamentally unbalanced, as evidenced by the "disproportionate and unchecked" role of the U.S. dollar as the main reserve currency and the deterioration of the European sovereign debt crisis, Wang said. It also views reforms aimed at strengthening the international monetary system and the internal reform efforts of the EU as imperative to establishing conditions for stable, strong and balanced growth.

And as for China itself, it must work hard to change from an export-driven economic development model to one based on domestic demand, Wang said.

Zhang Liqing, Dean of the School of Finance at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, pointed out that since China and Europe have established a close economic relationship, Europe's economic turbulence also poses a threat to China's economy. He suggested China should offer European nations support within the reach of its capability.

"After all, China is still a developing country," he said. "During the past decades of economic development, we have piled up huge foreign exchange reserves. But this doesn't mean we have too much extra money just because we are not able to fully use our foreign exchange reserves given defects in China's current economic development model."

Zhang Liqing said China could help Europe by injecting rescue capital to the IMF or participating in a joint rescue plan with other economies.

Ma Zhengang, former Chinese Ambassador to Britain, said Europe should be confident about overcoming current difficulties. But developed nations should put their egos aside, and sincerely feel that they are in the same boat with developing economies instead of trying to transfer their crisis to them, he added.

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