The Institute of World Economics at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences releases "The World Economy Under the Weight of Responsibilities": AI and green transition as twin engines driving global economic resilience

Recently, the Institute of World Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences released a new book, "The World Economy Bearing Heavy Burdens on a Long Journey: New Resilience, New Momentum, New Restructuring." The report points out that geopolitical conflicts, the restructuring of industrial and supply chains, and artificial intelligence and green transition will profoundly reshape the global landscape; the world economy is entering a period of high volatility amid divergence, and macroeconomic policy is seeking a difficult balance between growth and stability, making it urgent to strengthen new resilience, stimulate new momentum, and advance new restructuring. At the book launch, Researcher Zhao Beiwen, Deputy Director (presiding over work) of the Institute of World Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, introduced the main content of the report. In 2025, the global economy demonstrated resilience beyond expectations under the burden of escalating trade protectionism, intensifying geopolitical conflicts, and accumulating debt risks: artificial intelligence and green transition, the "two wheels," are driving world economic development and spurring active private investment and growth in global investment demand. Among these, investment related to the digital economy has become the core growth pole for manufacturing upgrading. The Global South has become a key engine of growth. Emerging and developing economies achieved an overall growth rate of 4.4%, not only far exceeding advanced economies but also becoming the absolute main force driving global growth. At the same time, however, global industrial and value chains are accelerating their transition from the principle of efficiency first to the principle of security first, and are accelerating fragmentation along geopolitical fault lines. Participating experts held in-depth discussions on the topic of "New Characteristics and New Trends in Changes in the World Economic Situation." Professor Tian Suhua of the School of Economics at Fudan University summarized the confusion over the Federal Reserve's monetary policy objectives, the blunting of tools, and the trend toward broad-caliber operating methods, and pointed out the economic challenges facing Warsh's Federal Reserve reform and the policy implications for China. Professor Wang Da, Deputy Dean of the School of Economics at Jilin University and Deputy Director of the Institute of American Studies, compared the differences in involution between developed countries in Europe and America and the development models of Southeast Asia and Asia, and proposed ideas for breaking through bottlenecks in China's industrial upgrading and value chain climbing. Professor Zhang Lei, Director of the International Economic and Trade Governance Research Center, a Shanghai university think tank at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, summarized the new requirements that three major trends—current global digitalization and green transition, differentiation of participation conditions, and the rising role of industrial policy—pose for WTO reform, and argued that decision-making mechanisms, development issues, and fair competition have become the focus of reform, and that China should proactively participate in rule formation within the multilateral framework and constrain the spillover of industrial policy.