Vice-premier adds weight to push for Shanghai to become global financial centre
He Lifeng was accompanying President Xi Jinping on Chinese leader’s first inspection tour since US tariffs escalated trade war
The Chinese leadership’s renewed emphasis on accelerating Shanghai’s emergence as a global financial centre reaffirms Beijing’s commitment to the long-standing vision as rising tensions with the United States pose potential financial risks, analysts said.
“There have been precedents of vice-premiers in charge of financial affairs attending forums or meetings in Shanghai, but it’s uncommon to see a dedicated symposium of this kind held in the city,” said Lian Ping, director general of the China Chief Economists Forum.
“This shows the level of importance being attached to the matter now.”
At the symposium, the vice-premier called on the city to “calmly analyse and respond prudently to recent changes in the external environment … to strengthen Shanghai’s role as a gateway for financial opening up, on the premise of safeguarding financial security”, Xinhua reported.
He also called for efforts to enhance the city’s status as a global hub for yuan-denominated asset allocation and risk management.
Yang Jianwen, an economic researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the comments reflected Beijing’s broader, longer-term approach to addressing risks arising from the trade war with the US.
“The current tariff battle is not the whole picture,” he said. “From Beijing’s perspective, it’s about preparing in advance for … further international economic and trade frictions – and among those preparations, the most important is in the financial sphere.”
Positioning Shanghai as an international financial centre has long been part of China’s strategic vision. In early 2001, the State Council approved the city’s 1999-2020 master plan, which explicitly set out the goal of making Shanghai a global hub for finance, trade, shipping and the economy.