Economists, CFOs object to US trade restraints

Peking University faculty also say president is forward-thinking

More than 1,100 economists have made public a letter they signed to US President Donald Trump and the US Congress that warns against the growing protectionism of US trade policies.

The group includes 15 Nobel laureates and former economic advisers to US presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama. It echoes a letter in 1930 by 1,028 economists urging Congress to reject the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which turned out to worsen the Great Depression after lawmakers refused to heed the economists’ advice.

The letter says that today Americans face a host of new protectionist activity, including threats to withdraw from trade agreements, misguided calls for new tariffs in response to trade imbalances, and the imposition of tariffs on washing machines, solar components and even steel and aluminum used by US manufacturers.

“We are convinced that increased protective duties would be a mistake. They would operate, in general, to increase the prices that domestic consumers would have to pay. A higher level of protection would raise the cost of living and injure the great majority of our citizens,” the letter says.

It also warns that few people could hope to gain from the protectionist measures, and US export trade would suffer in general. “Countries cannot permanently buy from us unless they are permitted to sell to us, and the more we restrict the importation of goods from them by means of ever higher tariffs, the more we reduce the possibility of our exporting to them,” the economists say.

They also point out that US action would inevitably provoke other countries to pay back in kind by levying retaliatory duties against US goods. “A tariff war does not furnish good soil for the growth of world peace,” the economists say.

Bryan Riley, director of the Free Trade Initiative at National

Scholars, students and university officials are drawing inspiration from the speech President Xi Jinping made in his visit to Peking University about boosting China’s innovation on its own and improving the country’s talent lineup.

They said the direction provided by Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, effectively addresses the country’s rising need to achieve high-quality, innovation-driven growth and better link education with industries.

In an inspection of the prestigious Beijing university on Wednesday, Xi called for building world-class universities with Chinese characteristics to nurture well-prepared graduates.

The visit was made ahead of China’s Youth Day and the 120th anniversary of the university, both on Friday.

At a symposium with university faculty and students, Xi called for nurturing lots of talent in areas like strategic sciences, leading industries and innovation teams capable of becoming pioneers on the global stage.

Deng Hongkui, a Peking University professor of stem cell studies, repeated Xi’s point and said university researchers should cultivate more science and technology talent and innovation teams in line with international standards.

The researchers should boost the country’s self-reliance in the process of making major technological breakthroughs, and they should produce innovative outcomes that can serve the nation’s development, Deng said.

Zou Ruiyang, a graduate student at Peking University’s School of Government, said, “The general secretary’s comments make me feel that the matters of this country and this nation are also the business of our youth.”

Hao Ping, Party secretary of Peking University, said Xi’s speech offers fundamental guidance for the university’s teaching, faculty buildup and shaping its system for nurturing high-end talent.

In his tour on Wednesday, Xi also visited the university’s School of Marxism.

Xi encouraged the students’ serious studies on socialism with Chinese characteristics in connection with changes in the Party, the country and the world to produce more influential and convincing research.

He noted this year marks the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth and the 170th anniversary of the publication of The Communist Manifesto.

Pan Jin’e, a senior expert in Marxism and socialism studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the university is the cradle where Marxism started to spread in China. Xi’s visit to the Marxism school shows that the country values theoretical studies on Marxism.

“This will inspire young people to make technology better serve socialism with Chinese characteristics, and it will boost the use of Marxism in navigating technological research for innovation,” Pan said.

Lin Jianhua, president of Peking University, said teachers and students will fulfill the goals proposed by Xi, make new discoveries and come up with new ideas, pioneer scientific and futuristic technologies and offer powerful support to the country’s development.