Lijun Duan Discusses Geopolitical Adaptation and Opportunities at IACE Enterprise Days
During the Enterprise Days organized by IACE, Lijun Duan, Senior Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization and former chairwoman of Yankuang's board of directors, participated in a panel discussion titled "Adapting to Geopolitical Changes: Challenges and Opportunities." She delivered an in-depth analysis of global geopolitical transformations and their impact on businesses, highlighting China's crucial role in this context.
According to Lijun Duan, the current environment is marked by constant evolution, forcing companies to adapt and seize opportunities. She identified three major geopolitical trends influencing businesses: climate change and sustainable growth, the decoupling between the United States and China, and the Chinese government's initiatives for high-quality development.
China's Climate Commitments
Lijun Duan particularly emphasized China's climate commitments, including President Xi Jinping's announced goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. These commitments are supported by a revolution in solar energy. China now dominates the photovoltaic (PV) panel sector, producing around 90% of global output. Thanks to innovations in manufacturing and management, China has achieved a competitive energy cost, below 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, without government subsidies since 2021.
Lijun Duan condemned anti-subsidy and anti-dumping measures targeting Chinese products in this sector, deeming them unsuitable for an industry that has become indispensable globally. "China is not only a leader, but its PV industry is now the world's," she stressed.
Decoupling and Strategic Development
She also addressed the growing decoupling between the United States and China, highlighting its repercussions on global trade and innovation. This phenomenon is counterbalanced, according to her, by the Chinese government's efforts to promote high-quality economic development, responding to environmental and economic global challenges.
In conclusion, Lijun Duan expressed regret over the lack of effective international cooperation to fully exploit available renewable energy technologies, emphasizing that these solutions exist on a large scale but remain underutilized.
Her intervention underscored the importance of a global and proactive vision for businesses in the face of current geopolitical upheavals, highlighting China's central role in the global energy transition.
