The 9th HKU Quarterly Forum on the Chinese Economy convened on January 29, 2026, bringing together distinguished experts, academics, and industry leaders to explore pivotal advancements and challenges shaping China’s macroeconomic environment. Hosted by the Institute of China Economy (ICE) at HKU Business School, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Alumni Association of China’s Central University of Finance and Economics, the forum attracted an impressive attendance exceeding 200 participants on-site and over 10,000 online viewers. The event was held at HKU iCube in Central, Hong Kong, reflecting the forum’s growing stature as a critical platform for discourse on China’s evolving economic landscape.
Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean and Chair of Economics at HKU Business School and Director of ICE, inaugurated the forum with a keynote addressing the significance of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan amidst a dynamically shifting global economic order. He underscored the renewed relevance of the HKU Quarterly Forum in contextualizing China’s strategies for navigating external geopolitical disruptions while galvanizing internal growth drivers to sustain economic stability. Professor Cai emphasized that open dialogue and diverse perspectives remain central to the initiative, reinforcing its role as a bridge connecting Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the international community through rigorous academic inquiry and applied research.
Highlighting the keynote theme, Professor Zhenhua Mao presented an incisive analysis entitled “2026: Seeking Double Breakthroughs of China’s Economy.” Mao’s report painted a nuanced picture of China’s economic condition: while external trade, high-technology manufacturing sectors, and capital markets demonstrated resilience, domestic demand was subdued, and consumer price indices underperformed relative to forecasts. This dichotomy, Mao argued, necessitates a dual focus on stimulating internal consumption and leveraging technological innovation as catalysts for robust and balanced economic momentum.
Central to Mao’s thesis was the imperative to bolster domestic demand, strategically aligning it with advancements in technology to drive consumer price indices upwards, ensuring healthier economic growth metrics. He further advocated for an open economic posture and expedited efforts towards global market expansion, positioning China to redefine its role and influence on the world stage. Mao articulated Hong Kong’s unique strategic advantage as a logistical and financial “bridgehead” for Chinese enterprises’ global ventures, underlining the city’s critical function in facilitating international business linkages.
The dialogue on technology-driven transformation continued with Professor Qifeng Liu’s keynote titled “Seven Questions about AI.” Liu candidly assessed the competitive dynamics between China and the United States in artificial intelligence development. He highlighted China’s leadership in open-source AI models, particularly noting Qwen’s advanced capabilities, while acknowledging a technology gap of approximately six months relative to the U.S. Liu also differentiated the stark contrast in corporate and venture capital investment magnitude, which favors the U.S. by orders of magnitude. His insights underscored the importance of feedback-driven Agentic AI systems to mitigate current industrial bottlenecks caused by limited interactive data within enterprises.
Moreover, Liu emphasized optimal utilization of China’s underleveraged computational resources, which can satisfy the demanding requirements for large-scale data generation and training of AI models, thereby unlocking vast untapped industrial potential. Advocating for a sustainable AI ecosystem, he stressed the criticality of intellectual property protection, encouragement of open-source innovation, and prevention of monopolistic practices. Liu’s foresight encourages a paradigm in which collaboration across industry, academia, and research institutions fuels robust AI development.
Education and human creativity, Liu argued, must adapt alongside rapid AI advancement. He urged students and educators to pivot from traditional learning focused on procedural “how” questions towards deeper inquiry into “why,” enhancing critical thinking. Liu projected that disciplines such as management and linguistics will garner increasing importance as essential competence areas enabling humans to effectively engage with and direct Agentic AI, ensuring augmented rather than replaced intelligence.
Insights into currency and finance were contributed by Professor Xiang Fang, Assistant Professor in Finance at HKU Business School, who delivered an in-depth presentation titled “RMB Exchange Rate: Market Forces, Policy, and Prospects.” Fang dissected the complex interplay between market-driven factors and government policy mechanisms influencing the Renminbi’s valuation. He explored the central parity rate system, explicating its operational frameworks and impacts on exchange rate stability. Prospective scenarios for RMB movements were analyzed in the context of China’s economic recalibrations and external trade pressures.
Anchoring the forum’s collaborative spirit was a robust roundtable moderated by Professor Hongbin Cai, featuring prominent figures including Mr. Zhitang Chen, President of the Hong Kong Alumni Association of Central University of Finance and Economics, and senior economists from China’s leading financial institutions. The discussion oriented around critical themes such as RMB appreciation potential, Sino-American competition in AI technologies, trajectories of consumer price indices, evolving China-US bilateral relations, and developments in Hong Kong’s digital currency markets. This multidisciplinary engagement illuminated the intersection of economic and technological forces shaping the year ahead.
The robust exchanges at the forum underscore China’s economic and technological prospects in 2026, a year defined by external uncertainties and pressing internal reforms. The collective insights indicate that China’s trajectory will hinge on harmonizing innovative technologies with consumer demand stimulation and maintaining openness to global integration. Hong Kong’s role emerges as a pivotal conduit in this transformation, leveraging its financial and institutional strengths to bridge Mainland China’s ambitions with international markets and knowledge networks.
In conclusion, the 9th HKU Quarterly Forum on Chinese Economy epitomizes the criticality of academic and industry collaboration in elucidating China’s macroeconomic challenges and opportunities. The forum’s focus on double breakthroughs—economic revitalization and technological innovation—signals a roadmap for sustainable growth amidst a complex international milieu. By fostering dialogue among thought leaders and practitioners, this forum contributes significantly to shaping informed policies and strategies integral to China’s socio-economic development and global positioning.
The forum’s success reflects a concerted institutional commitment by HKU Business School’s Institute of China Economy to serve society through impactful research and knowledge dissemination. As China continues to implement its 15th Five-Year Plan priorities, insights generated from such expert convenings will be vital to navigating the converging challenges and seizing new prosperity avenues. The encompassing conversations at the forum highlight the integral linkages between economic policy, technology progress, and global cooperation essential for China’s future trajectory.
Subject of Research: Chinese Economy, Macroeconomic Trends, Artificial Intelligence, RMB Exchange Rate, Sino-US Economic Relations
Article Title: Navigating China’s 2026 Economic Landscape: Insights from the 9th HKU Quarterly Forum on Chinese Economy
News Publication Date: January 29, 2026
Web References: HKU Quarterly Forum on Chinese Economy – High-resolution Photos
Image Credits: The University of Hong Kong
Keywords: Social sciences, Economics, Chinese economy, Artificial intelligence, RMB exchange rate, Sino-US relations, Technological innovation, Consumer price index, Macroeconomic stability
