Smarter digital tech fosters new advantages

As digital and intelligent technologies have become a driving force of globalization, China is building new competitive advantages via the use of digital platforms helping smaller businesses expand overseas and promoting institutional opening-up, leading economists and scholars said.

Speaking in Beijing at the Global Forum of Finance and Economics, part of the 2025 ZGC Forum, they stressed the need to further adapt to digital transformation by exploring renminbi-pegged stablecoins in Hong Kong and advancing fiscal reforms to stabilize economic growth.

Jiang Xiaojuan, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at the forum on Saturday that digital and intelligent technology has become the central force behind globalization, reshaping the landscape of cross-border e-commerce and accelerating the international division of labor across research and development, manufacturing, trade and services.

Jiang, also a former deputy secretary-general of the State Council, said that in response to this transformation, China is building new global competitive advantages through a higher level of institutional opening-up as digital platforms are helping small and medium-sized enterprises expand overseas, while cultural products and services are reaching global audiences.

The forum was hosted by the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Ma Haitao, president of CUFE, emphasized the critical importance of building a new global fiscal and tax order in the digital, intelligent era, calling for deepening multilateral cooperation, building governance consensus and improving cross-border taxation rules and dispute resolution mechanisms.

Addressing the same event, Vincenzo Quadrini, a professor at USC Marshall School of Business, said that although the current scale of the digital economy remains relatively small, it holds significant long-term development potential, which could have profound implications for financial markets.

Quadrini emphasized the importance of digital assets as a new form of value storage, saying that the continued expansion of the digital economy, along with the rise of stablecoins, might over the long run reinforce the US dollar's status as a global reserve currency.

A stablecoin is a form of cryptocurrency pegged to fiat currencies or other real-world assets at a designated exchange rate to maintain a stable value.

Li Yang, chairman of the National Institution for Finance& Development, said that the rapid development of stablecoins has posed a challenge to traditional monetary systems.

Li said that China should actively engage in the development of stablecoins and promote the internationalization of the digital yuan, proposing developing renminbi-pegged stablecoins in Hong Kong to elevate the global standing of the renminbi.

Despite the rapid development of technologies, Li Daokui, dean of the Institute for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking at Tsinghua University, said that China's economy has not reached its full growth potential amid weakening business investment and slowing consumer demand. To reverse this trend, Li called for a shift from public finance to public financial thinking, shifting government focus from short-term accounting to long-term balance sheet management and using treasury bonds to replace local government debt and promote urbanization and public service provisions.