The 7th East Lake Forum on Global Governance, organized by the Institute of State Governance of HUST and the National Governance Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province was held in HUST from November 20th to 21st. You Zheng, President of HUST and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Qin Daoming, Deputy Secretary-General of Hubei Provincial People's Government, Zhang Mingxin, vice chairman of the Leading Party Group of the Hubei Federation of Social Sciences, and Ouyang Kang, president of the Institute of State Governance attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Vice President Xu Xiaodong presided at the ceremony.

On behalf of the university, You Zheng offered congratulations on the opening of the7th “East Lake Forum on Global Governance”. He said that the forum has enjoyed a larger scale, higher level, and more influence since its launch in 2015. It has become an important platform for exchanges and exploration of global governance at home and abroad. The theme of this year’s forum, “Geopolitics and Global Governance”, also corresponds to the common concern of international society. The international situation is undergoing profound changes while global governance still lags and geopolitics remains tense. This forum will provide key intellectual support for the international society to accurately recognize changes in global governance, review the impacts of geopolitics on the evolution of the international order, and develop appropriate geostrategies.

Qin Daoming fully affirmed the contributions that the Institute of State Governance has made to promote global, state, and regional governance research. Apart from that, he also said that the theme of this forum is of great practical importance for addressing prominent issues in global governance.

Zhang Mingxin said that the world economy has declined severely amid the COVID-19 pandemic and that human beings are thus suffering multiple crises, which further increases the difficulty of global governance. He believes that the wisdom contributed by experts and scholars at this forum will deepen the understanding of geopolitics and global governance and will help China develop future geostrategies.

Ouyang Kang said that geopolitical study plays an important role for China in considering both domestic and external situations in a coordinated way while promoting the healthy development of global governance. The differences in geopolitics form conflicts while economic globalization and political pluralization inject more complicated factors into geopolitics. Under these circumstances, the study of geopolitics and global governance should pay attention to both the global and the local, both the whole and the details.

The theme of the forum is “Geopolitics and Global Governance”, with one conference report, two parallel forums, and one youth forum. In the conference report,13 experts from universities, research institutes and think tanks at home and abroad, addressed speeches and had in-depth discussions on topics about improving global governance, building a community with a shared future for mankind, global and hot areas geopolitical landscape and China’s geopolitical environment and strategic planning.

In the parallel forums, 34 experts had a lively discussion about the current international situation, new trends of global governance, power games with the international order in the future, the evolution and current situation of the geopolitical landscape, China’s current geopolitical challenges and coping strategies, and China’s responsibility and contributions regarding global governance.

In the youth forum, 17 young scholars from various universities had in-depth discussions about geopolitics and global governance from various fields and perspectives to make contributions regarding improving global and regional governance.

In the closing ceremony, Ouyang Kang made a concluding speech. He said that the research of geopolitics at this forum is of utmost importance and the review of all the speeches will also help to conduct further study.

Experts and scholars at home and abroad who participated in this forum agreed that this forum is of great significanc, which reflects the mission and vision of HUST and the Institute of State Governance - to focus on major issues and serve the community. Through the joint efforts of all experts and scholars, this forum accurately summarizes, deeply reflects the geopolitical and global governance issues and China’s corresponding strategic planning, which has provided new solutions to promoting global governance and the peaceful and stable development of the world.

The forum is an international symposium held during the epidemic. Most of the experts at home and abroad spoke online through video conference and more than 5,000 people attended the forum both online and offline.

Written by: Zhang Zhanyu

Edited by: He Rong, Scott, Peng Yumeng

Source: Institute of State Governance