On October 25, 2024, the Taishan Think Tank Forum was held in Yantai, Shandong, where experts and scholars came together to share their insights on reforms across various fields to contribute to socioeconomic development.
One of the keynote speakers at the forum was Gao Peiyong, an academician and former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He emphasized that the principal contradictions in China’s economic operations have increasingly shifted towards changes in confidence and expectations. In this context, the role of reforms has become more pronounced. He advocated for a move beyond conventional thinking to comprehensively deepen reforms while managing dual objectives: stabilizing expectations and boosting confidence. Gao suggested that a combination of policy-led and reform-driven approaches is essential for sustaining economic recovery.
Yuan Hongying, Party Secretary and President of the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, noted the need for new think tanks to operate at higher standards and quality. She stressed the importance of enhancing the theoretical weight of decision-making support, the quality of analytical strategies, and the value of research outputs.
The forum was co-hosted by the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, Yantai University, and Zhongtai Securities Co., Ltd. It featured both in-person and online discussions, organized into keynote reports and roundtable dialogues, with the theme “Further Deepening Reforms to ‘Take the Lead and Bear the Burden.'”
During the keynote session, experts from top institutions like Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nanjing University, Yantai University, and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Rural Economics Research Center presented their findings on various topics, including new productive forces, macroeconomic conditions, rural reforms, urban-rural integration, and artificial intelligence.
Liu Zhibiao, Executive Dean of the Yangtze River Industrial Development Research Institute at Nanjing University, remarked on the need to effectively manage the relationships between traditional, emerging, and future industries, as well as balancing intelligent transformation, digitalization, and connectivity.
Wu Jinxu, Director of the Strategic Emerging Industries Research Center at Tsinghua University, acknowledged that while China has emerged as an innovative nation, there remains a pressing need to enhance investments in fundamental research and deepen reforms.
From a historical economic perspective, Zhang Yaguang, Deputy Dean of the Economics Department at Peking University, highlighted that while China’s economy is experiencing one of its best phases ever, it is also navigating a tumultuous period of profound adjustments in the global economic landscape, with varying degrees of challenges faced by different countries. He called for a further integration of effective governance and vibrant markets.
Urban-rural integration emerged as a hot topic of discussion. Zhang Zhaoxin, a researcher at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Rural Economics Research Center, underscored the significance of promoting urban-rural integration as crucial for the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. He urged for heightened attention to the integration of urban and rural planning, construction, and governance, facilitating the equal exchange and reciprocal flow of resources between urban and rural areas.
Professor Liu Yinliang from Peking University’s Law School presented on “Intellectual Property System Innovation in the Age of AI.” He discussed the urgent legal issues surrounding intellectual property in artificial intelligence, emphasizing the need for adequate property protection for AI inventions rooted in scientific principles.
In the roundtable discussion segment, experts and scholars from government, research institutions, and universities engaged in in-depth discussions and academic exchanges on topics such as modernizing the national governance system and governance capabilities, new productive forces and modern dynamics, and strengthening collaborative education within the economics disciplines in Shandong Province.
The Taishan Think Tank Forum is a prominent initiative launched by the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, aimed at exchanging academic ideas, pooling expert wisdom, and enhancing advisory service levels.
