The Becker Friedman Institute hosted a forum on China’s role in the global economy on November 1 and 2 in Mandel Hall. The event featured several speakers including Becker Friedman director Michael Greenstone and several UChicago economics professors.

Additional speakers included Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India and current Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Booth, Caroline Freund, the World Bank Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment director,  University President Robert J. Zimmer, and Wang Yanzhi, executive director and president of the Silk Road Fund.

“It is a particularly special moment for the University to explore issues related to China at a crucial moment when tensions are high and several perspectives on different public policies have been proposed,” Zimmer said at the event.

The first day of the forum focused on China’s economic outlook and discussed diplomacy in an era of trade tensions. One speaker was CNBC contributor Michelle Caruso–Cabrera, who raised questions about the increasingly important roles of business, trade and sustainability dialogues in shaping interactions between the U.S. and China.

Day two included speeches by UChicago Provost and political theorist Daniel Diermeier and Acting Consul General of Chicago Liu Jun. Jun underlined the immense deficit in understanding between the two countries with regard to economic issues.

Along with broadly focusing on sustainable infrastructure development and China’s role in global finance and trade growth, the second day probed into the geopolitical issues of China’s initiatives. The forum concluded with an evaluation of the current situation in terms of global economic risks.