May 5 marked the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth, and a number of scholars at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee wrote articles to commemorate the creator of Marxism, the founding philosophy of modern China.

Peng Jinsong said Marxism came from practice and keeps evolving and developing.

Xin Ming agreed. He said China’s Communists are Marx’s best and most loyal students, and the best way for people today to commemorate Marx is to develop his thought in the 21st century. He quoted Mao Zedong, saying “you are a real Marxist if you surpass Marx”.

Li Haiqing said Marxism is no longer influencing Western people directly, but has not vanished. Instead, it has become part of Western society and continues to influence its future development.

The trade conflict between China and the United States is continuing to draw attention from leading Chinese think tanks.

After more than a month’s stalemate, the US finally sent a delegation to Beijing for talks on May 3 and 4, but Yu Xiang, from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the negotiation “wouldn’t be easy, judging from the members of the US delegation”.

He said negotiation in an intense situation might bring opportunities, but whether made a difference depended on the attitude of the US side.

At first, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — a man with a moderate view of the trade row, supporting US President Donald Trump’s policies but unwilling to fight a trade war with China — was planning to come to China alone.

But later, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, National Economic Council head Larry Kudlow and White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro were added to the US delegation, and Lighthizer and Navarro were famous for being hawkish on trade with China.

The reason Trump sent them to Beijing with Mnuchin was to put more pressure on China and to supervise Mnuchin, preventing him from becoming a weak point in Trump’s trade policies, Yu said.

Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said the ongoing trade conflict started with a Section 301 investigation, which is a “complete lie that is misleading US political and business circles as well as the wider public”.

The investigation report mentioned China’s “mandatory technology transfer policy”, claiming that all US companies must hand in their patents to start businesses in China. Wei said that was not true: There were more than 90,000 foreign companies in China and not one of them had filed a lawsuit over forced technology transfer.

Besides, the US’ recent imposition of sanctions on ZTE proved it had not transferred its core technology to China.

The investigation also criticized the Made in China 2025 strategy as a government-led, highly subsidized industrial policy. In fact, all developed countries have had similar policies throughout history, including the US.

“Trade conflicts between countries can be solved under WTO mechanisms, but the US would rather resort to its own laws,” Wei said. “This shows the US’ anxiety and pretense.”

It’s not just the US — anxiety is growing in the entire Western world, said He Jianhua, vice-president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

For six centuries, he said, the world has been dominated by Western colonialism, but very recently the West was surprised to find the drama on the world stage was not proceeding as it expected. The emerging economies have brought about changes.

He said the China-US trade conflict has made many people think rationally about China’s development model and innovation in high-tech sectors and core technologies. It will finally force China to expand its opening-up.

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher at the CCIEE, said “expanded opening-up” means opening-up on a new level with new models and changed rules.

It requires opening more sectors, improving the investment climate and intellectual property protection, and expanding imports. Also, the negative list for foreign investors will become shorter and shorter.

“The past 40 years witnessed the change from the planned economy to the market economy, and the next 40 years will witness the transfer from a traditional society to a modern one,” he said.

As the report of the CPC’s 19th National People’s Congress noted, China will pursue opening-up “on all fronts”. Long Guoqiang from the Development Research Center of the State Council said this means wider opening-up will take place in both eastern and western regions, in more sectors and to more developing markets.

Long said the service sector will be an area of focus in the new round of opening-up, and the improving business environment should attract more attention.

He added that two bottom lines must be kept: Financial security and resources security.

As one of China’s latest, major opening-up strategies, the Belt and Road Initiative has also sparked concerns in the US about a rising China, said Chen Wenling from the CCIEE.

“China has repeatedly emphasized that the initiative is not its ‘solo’, but a ‘chorus’, and invited the US to join, but the US insists that the initiative is a geopolitical means for China to seek hegemony in Eurasia, trying to build a China-centered, de-Americanized world order,” she said. “This is a miscalculation and the biggest concern of some US people.”

In contrast, more countries have realized that the Belt and Road Initiative is an opportunity for development rather than a tool for geopolitical competition, said Zhang Hong, from the Institute of Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Looking ahead, some regions involved in the initiative will possibly have increased political instability, influencing their policy continuity. Extremism caused by polarization between the rich and the poor will hamper Chinese investment. Regional conflicts and terrorism will also hinder the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

However, China’s commitment to further opening-up and globalization should not be shaken, Zhang said. “China will build up a new type of international relationship centering on cooperation and win-win results, and promote an economic globalization that is open, inclusive and balanced.”

Zhang Zhao is a China Watch researcher.

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