China Urges APEC Coordination on AI and Supply Chains

China’s Finance Minister Lan Foan urged the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to coordinate on artificial intelligence, supply chains and economic policy at a meeting in Hong Kong on Tuesday. His appeal puts cooperation among APEC members at the center of China’s response to challenges facing the global economy. The source article describes calls for coordination, but reports no transfer of decision-making power or binding agreement among members.

The agenda in Hong Kong

Lan spoke at the opening of the APEC Finance Ministers' meeting. He said the forum has an increasingly important role in addressing economic challenges and called APEC an “engine of global economic growth” that “shoulders greater responsibility.” The grouping includes the United States, Japan and Russia, along with 18 other members.

Lan called on members to work more closely together to boost growth amid rapid global change and the fallout from geopolitical conflicts. On the meeting's first day, China also called for closer coordination on macroeconomic policies, faster transformation, cooperation on AI, greater openness and more resilient supply chains. The article doesn't specify how members would carry out those proposals or whether they would adopt shared rules.

Policy coordination and uncertainty

Lan said intertwined challenges to global growth and accelerating industrial transformation, exemplified by AI, had made the need for cooperation clearer. He also pointed to uncertainty in the international environment. “Given the profound uncertainty in the current international environment, we should enhance the robustness of our own policies while strengthening communication and coordination to prevent negative spillovers resulting from policy adjustments,” he said.

His remarks called for governments to communicate as they adjust policies. The source doesn't identify particular policy changes that might produce negative spillovers, nor does it name any country or institution as responsible for them. It also gives no details about proposed ways to resolve disagreements among members.

Lan urged governments to cooperate on AI, the digital economy and green-sector development. He said those efforts would create new sources of growth. The article reports that China called for greater openness and more resilient supply chains, but it provides no figures on trade, supply-chain dependence, employment or effects on workers and communities. It doesn't describe demographic or cultural effects, or report objections from nationalist or dissident voices.

China's stated reform plans

Lan said China, the world's second-largest economy, would continue comprehensive economic reforms. He didn't elaborate, and the article provides no further description of the reforms or their expected effects. It also doesn't identify companies, institutions or other groups that might benefit from the proposals discussed in Hong Kong.

The finance ministers' meeting precedes the APEC leaders' summit scheduled for Shenzhen on November 18 and 19. The article reports no decisions from the leaders' summit, which is still scheduled to take place. For now, the reported outcome is a set of calls from China for closer coordination among APEC members on economic policy, AI, the digital economy, green-sector development and supply chains.