US-China talks and the global outlook dominated discussions at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, where Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan said his country will keep opening up and working for peace.
(Bloomberg) — US-China talks and the global outlook dominated discussions at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, where Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan said his country will keep opening up and working for peace.
Citadel founder Ken Griffin also weighed in on the importance of US-China relations, along with US politics and the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX.
Ken Griffin Talks Trump, China (12:45 p.m. SGT)
Citadel’s Griffin, a vocal supporter and financial backer of Ron DeSantis, said the Florida governor will run for president on the back of a strong record, likely facing “three-time loser” Donald Trump.
Griffin said this month’s midterm elections — which saw DeSantis elected by a landslide while Democrats outperformed expectations nationally — were a “great result” given overall turnout and voters splitting their ballots between the parties.
The billionaire also slammed Bankman-Fried’s FTX, saying it represented a travesty which undermines trust in financial markets. He said the US should avoid a recession this year, but may not be able to do so 2023. Even as he sees the inflationary path as having peaked, Griffin said the Fed should “get the job done now” in fixing inflation or risk losing credibility.
In a morning that was dominated by discussion of US-China relations, Griffin said the US remains dependent on Taiwan for semiconductors.
Nardini Says China Leading Race Into Space (12:30 p.m. SGT)
There will likely be eight space stations in orbit in 10 years time, said Helene Huby, co-founder and chief executive officer of The Exploration Co., which is developing modular, reusable craft to carry cargo, and eventually people, into space. Two of those stations will be in orbit around the moon, and there will be at least three privately-owned US stations, she said.
In a panel discussing the commercialization of space, Flavia Tata Nardini, co-founder and chief executive officer of Australia’s Fleet Space Technologies, which uses low-earth orbit satellites to search for minerals on earth, said China is currently leading the space race, with the most satellite companies and workable rockets.
Ex-Australian PM on Biden-Xi (11:17 a.m. SGT)
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the meeting between Biden and Xi Monday yielded “reasonable progress” and showed two competing nations seeking to ease tensions.
“Things were beginning to spiral out of control and to be frank the US-China relationship has been in freefall for quite some time,” he told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in an interview Tuesday. “So, if before it was eight out of 10 in terms of the heat factor, we may have brought it down to seven.”
Qiming on China Startup Funding (11:10 a.m. SGT)
Qiming Venture Partners Founding Managing Partner Gary Rieschel said China’s early-stage startups have seen no decline in funding even as geopolitical headwinds affect venture capital investments more broadly.
“There’s still a vast amount of money for early-stage venture capital,” Rieschel told Bloomberg Television at NEF. “The funds that have had a hard time raising money now are the later-stage crossover funds.”
US Trade Rep on Xi-Biden, IPEF (10:55 a.m. SGT)
The face-to-face meeting between Biden and Xi was a powerful signal to the rest of the world that both leaders can manage ties, according to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
On the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an economic accord the US is negotiating with 13 other countries, Tai said an agreement is possible and could happen within the next two years. She said Biden has directed her to design a “worker-centered” trade policy, though IPEF is deliberately not a trade deal.
“This is a global economy that’s going through a lot of changes” so by design IPEF allows countries to “evolve” engagement, she said. Tai declined to weigh in on whether China should have been admitted to the World Trade Organization a generation ago, saying there was no going back on that decision.
Singapore, Japan Discuss Outlook (10:00 a.m. SGT)
The current spell of weakness in the global economy is the result of central banks the world over misreading inflation a year ago, Singapore’s Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said. Recession is the “price we pay” for misreading inflationary pressures, said Tharman, who is also chairman of Singapore’s central bank.
Speaking on the same panel, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said cooperation, not decoupling, is important at a time of crises, disruptions and conflicts in supply chains, noting he was committed to carrying forward former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s vision of a free economic order.
Tharman also noted that reduced US-China tensions won’t assure the world of peace, and there will continue to be constant friction between the world’s two biggest economies. “But it’s much safer than a world that is decoupled.”
Kissinger on Xi-Biden, Russia (9:40 a.m. SGT)
The former secretary of state praised Monday’s meeting between Biden and Xi as part of the needed “bridge building” between the world’s two biggest economies. Pressed on whether “extremists” in each country were dominating the political debate, Kissinger said that underscored why the meeting in Bali was so important.
“The two leaders that met briefly will know the consequences of economic disaster and military impact on each other,” Kissinger said. “All we can say today is that a method for discussion has been agreed on and general statements have been made that are compatible with a cooperative world, but a long road still has to be undertaken.”
Biden, Xi Take Biggest Step in Years to Avoid US-China Clash
Turning to the war in Europe, Kissinger said countries need to focus on what their longer-term objectives are with Ukraine and Russia, and not be distracted by short-term pressures. But he demurred on what Russian President Vladimir Putin would agree to, saying “there’s no question that for some people, Vladimir Putin is an obstacle to this vision.”
BPEA CEO Says China ‘Investable’ (9:30 a.m. SGT)
China’s path is showing more clarity for investors, according to the head of private equity firm BPEA EQT, who underscored how the market is still investable even with a global slowdown of private-equity money deployed in the country.
“I am pretty confident the directions become more clear as things progress,” Jean Eric Salata, who is also EQT AB’s Asia chairperson, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the NEF.
Wang Says China Wants Peace (9:25 a.m. SGT)
Leaders of the world’s No. 2 economy will stick to a path of peaceful development, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan pledged, a day after the Biden-Xi meeting in Bali.
“Upholding world peace and stability is in the fundamental interest of the Chinese nation,” Wang said in a recorded speech. “China safeguards and promotes world peace through its own development.”
Wang also sought to reassure his audience that the ruling Communist Party would continue opening China, and “maintain strong policy continuity to provide greater certainties and stability for the world.”
Bloomberg Warns on Climate (9:10 a.m. SGT)
“Unless bolder, more urgent global action is taken,” those challenges will only get worse, Bloomberg said, adding that the leaders gathered at the annual forum should focus on “practical, concrete ways to tackle issues that governments alone cannot or will not solve.”
The forum begins a day after Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. After years of souring relations, the leaders managed to agree on how to get talks between the world’s two biggest economies back on track.
PwC’s Moritz Talks China (8:20 a.m. SGT)
On the sidelines of the NEF, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Chairman Bob Moritz said companies are thinking of how to structure their operations in China and around the region because of US-China tensions.
“You see a number of companies thinking through: do I need to restructure my operations in terms of what I have in China, outside of China or around the region?” Moritz said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “But it’s with flexibility to say I’m not sure it’s going to get worse or better so I want multiple options and flexibility to be agile to react to that market opportunity, depending on what comes up.”
The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
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–With assistance from Tom Redmond, Bill Faries, Adrian Kennedy, Jing Li, Jill Disis, Sarah Zheng, Michelle Jamrisko, Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Karthikeyan Sundaram.
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