Is globalisation doomed? Business, political leaders contemplate viability at New Economy Forum as US-China rivalry intensifies

As an elite group of business and political leaders gathered in Beijing last week to discuss global solutions to issues ranging from climate change to income inequality, one question lingered in the background: is globalisation, which has helped fuel unprecedented growth in China over the past two decades, still viable in its current form?

The New Economy Forum was started last year by Michael Bloomberg, the media mogul and former mayor of New York City, to bring leaders from China and other emerging economies together with leaders from the developed world to craft solutions to problems dogging the planet in an event that would rival the annual World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

With the event now in its second year, crafting a consensus on how to address broader global solutions has become a much more challenging task as a rivalry between the United States and China has intensified in the past year.

Charlene Barshefsky, former US Trade Representative and a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, said Beijing’s relationship with the West has reached an “inflection point” as China has become a “more able competitor” on the world stage.

“The West’s response is feeble. The US retreats from global leadership, global long-term vision, imposes protectionist tariffs and fails to invest in domestic infrastructure, or its people, and then blames China,” Barshefsky said during a panel discussion at the forum on Thursday. “Technical shifts may de-escalate tension in the short term but will not resolve fundamental differences, which can no longer be papered over. Today’s complexity will require a more credible and much more realistic, effective framework, for East-West relations.”