Sabena Siddiqi

aking center stage amid frictions between the world’s two largest economies, the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) this year became a platform for conveying the Chinese viewpoint to the world. In the past the forum has promoted economic cooperation within Asia as well as between Asia with the rest of the world. It has often been a venue for economic debate and dialogue for leaders, experts and businesspeople alike. Having grown in prominence and significance considerably since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank took off, the gathering in China’s Hainan province this year was well attended, with representatives from 29 countries and top international financial institutions. The daily Report   Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your inbox What made it a landmark event was the Chinese president’s keynote speech, which carried potential to turn the tide of an imminent trade war. Focusing on reform, innovation and “opening up” whil

Improving China-Japan relations By Sabena Siddiqui 0   Comment(s) Print   E-mail China.org.cn, April 20, 2018 Adjust font size:  Sino-Japanese trade has undergone a marked recovery since despite sharp fluctuations in the past. [Photo/Xinhua] Holding their first high level economic dialogue since 2010, China-Japan relations have entered a new trajectory as their foreign ministers endeavoured to find converging factors to further consolidate their bilateral ties. Following this meeting, Premier Li Keqiang will be attending the China-Japan-South Korea summit and later on this year an exchange of state visits between the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Chinese President Xi Jinping is currently being planned. Pledging to upgrade relations, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterpart Taro Kono agreed on a number of issues. While reciprocating the Japanese goodwill and positive policies, Wang Yi observed, "We are also faced with some complex and

Scaling new frontiers in artificial intelligence By Sabena Siddiqui 0   Comment(s) Print   E-mail China.org.cn, April 5, 2018 Adjust font size:  A car with AI technology [File photo] Marking a significant development in the field of artificial intelligence, most of the latest research papers presented at the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in 2017 were by Chinese authors. Not only that, the extent of such publications grew from 10 percent to 23 percent in just a matter of five years according to a study by economists from the University of Toronto.  Discussing the research conducted by Chinese authors, the economists agreed that China would play an important role in the field of AI and is the rising artificial intelligence power. One of the reasons for this success is that companies like Alibaba and Tencent Holdings have large amounts of data ("economies of scale") and apply the AI skills they have acquired t