The height of the crisis has now passed, but sustainable development remains elusive.
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G20 leaders met for the first time in November 2008 in Washington in the throes of the worst global financial crisis in decades, and the following series of summits played an indispensable role in pooling worldwide efforts to tide the world over.
It also occurs with a backdrop of rising protectionism.
And since the crisis hit, China’s role as an global economic powerhouse has skyrocketed.
The International Monetary Fund has estimated that a sustained increase in economic growth of 1 percentage point could bring debt ratios in advanced economies to their pre-crisis levels within a decade.
FILE – A closed brick factory building on the outskirts of Beijing, China, Jan. 18, 2016. While many other countries are looking increasingly inward, Canada is moving in the other direction, embracing a more innovative, open and inclusive economy, with new ambition on climate.
In addition, the two leaders exchanged views on a number of the most pressing issues of regional and global agenda.
An Interconnected World Economy: The Hangzhou G20 Summit aims to build a community where members could all share interests and strive for a better future.
“Asian countries want America to be engaged”, he said.
Beijing’s aggressive stance in the South China Sea, where it has created artificial islands in disputed territory, has also created alarm and joins a list of awkward issues authorities are keen to leave off the agenda in the summit city of Hangzhou. Through this event, China hopes to put on display its rise as a global power by successfully seeing through the worldwide gathering without a hitch.
Obama came to the London summit with a clear message.
Top disarmament officials from Indiaand Chinawere also expected to meet to discuss issues of China ” blocking” the United Nations move to ban Masood Azhar, chief of the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Beijing’s opposition to New Delhi’s bid to joining the 48-member NSG.
“From where China sits, it looks like the Americans are trying to encircle them”, said a senior Western envoy. But his meeting with Xi is taking place in the backdrop of July verdict of the South China Sea and Washington’s stand that the judgement, though rejected by China, is legal and to be implemented.
In a recent survey, Atkinson’s foundation argued that China’s policies regarding forced technology transfers from foreign firms, manipulation of technology standards and rampant intellectual property theft explicitly harm global innovation. After all, it is time for Beijing to make real contributions to the world after being helped by others for so long. More pragmatically, China wants to avoid the protests that often occur at big worldwide summits, and which are often associated with Western students.
The tensions between Japan and China over disputed islands in the East China’s Sea and Beijing’s ire over Tokyo wading into the SCS besides their strategic competition around the world remained a source of friction reflecting in Xi, Abe meetings.
It is not just in the field of innovation where concerns are hindering China’s effort to spearhead the much needed initiatives to boost global growth.
“The President has been distracted by other issues at home and overseas”.
FILE – Workers walk past a billboard display showing a scene of Central Business District, as capital city skylines are shrouded with pollutant haze in Beijing, China, Nov. 9, 2015.
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The South China Sea has become a particularly sensitive issue since an worldwide arbitration panel in the Hague, Netherlands, in June ruled against China’s claims to nearly the entire crucial water body, in a case brought by fellow claimant the Philippines.
