As US-China tensions continue to escalate amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a global trend of deglobalization, Hong Kong’s role as an economic gateway between mainland China and the rest of the world is likely to shrink in the foreseeable future. In his article in South China Morning Post, Heiwai Tang, associate director of Asia Global Institute, talks about a three-pronged approach for Hong Kong’s third economic transformation and why it must end its reliance on the financial industry.

China is challenging the unipolar global order under American hegemony. Increasing nationalistic rhetoric about decoupling and deglobalization, and tit-for-tat trade and other sanctions have heated up the strategic rivalry. In this first AsiaGlobal Papers webinar, David Arase of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Mark Beeson of the University of Western Australia discuss the weakening of US hegemony and Washington’s withdrawal from multilateral engagement, the shift in international politics from a unipolar to a bipolar or multipolar framework, and the geopolitical and economic consequences these shifts will have for the US, China and the Indo-Pacific region. 

Efforts by Washington and Beijing to promote the development of dual-use technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and quantum computing have become a core aspect of US-China strategic competition. Understanding what constitutes a “strategic” industry is critically important for both theoretical purposes as well as policymaking. Focusing on nuclear technology and the market for cybersecurity products in United States and China, this paper outlines the variables that shape government decisions to intervene via trade policy and investment rules in these markets.

Covid-19 has plunged the global economy into its deepest recession since the Great Depression. Lockdowns, shutdowns and travel restrictions have led to bankruptcies, layoffs and a sharp fall in global trade. With economies reopening even as the coronavirus continues to spread, how resilient will be the rebound? And as governments, the business sector and multilateral organizations struggle to reset national, regional and global economies for a post-pandemic world, how will the crisis change patterns of globalization and multilateral cooperation?