STORY: "Decoupling" from China to harm world economy: Cornell University professor
DATELINE: June 29, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:42
LOCATION: TIANJIN, China
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): ESWAR PRASAD, Professor of trade policy at Cornell University
2. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ESWAR PRASAD, Professor of trade policy at Cornell University
3. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ESWAR PRASAD, Professor of trade policy at Cornell University

STORYLINE:

Washington's "decoupling" and "de-risking" strategy to isolate China will not only bring negative repercussions to the U.S. and China, but also harm the world economy.
　　
Eswar Prasad, a senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University told Xinhua that now is a very fragile time for the world economy which is faced with a lot of uncertainties. And geopolitical conflicts will be detrimental to global growth.
　　
SOUNDBITE 1 (English): ESWAR PRASAD, Professor of trade policy at Cornell University
"Decoupling from China is going to have a lot of costs for China, as well as for the U.S. It's not desirable. On top of all of these economic uncertainties, if we layer geopolitical uncertainty and all the volatility that comes with it, that's certainly not going to be good for global growth. And for the two largest economies in the world to be at loggerheads and in a position of conflict with each other, I don't think it's going to inspire confidence either in these two countries or in the rest of the world."

The U.S. presidential election will take place in November 2024.

Prasad said, to seek advantages domestically, both parties of the U.S. will likely talk tough about China, which might further strain ties between the two countries.

The professor said high-level dialogues and engagements are needed for both sides to properly manage risks and defuse tensions.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ESWAR PRASAD, Professor of trade policy at Cornell University
"We've had U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken here in Beijing very recently. And I think it's very good that we have these high-level dialogues among key policymakers, but also technical-level discussions among Chinese and U.S. officials, so at a minimum, we don't have any further escalation of hostilities or tensions between the two countries."

As an expert in financial studies, Prasad also analyzes how the digital forms of currencies can bring about benefits and risks in his latest book, The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance.

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ESWAR PRASAD, Professor of trade policy at Cornell University
"The new technologies, I think, are going to make it much easier to conduct international payments relatively frictionlessly. And that's going to be very good for international trade, international financial flows, and even for economic migrants sending remittances back to their home countries. But it also means that the easier it is to take capital across national borders for emerging market economies, that also means more capital flow volatility, more exchange rate volatility."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Tianjin, China.
(XHTV)