Link to Article: https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3108496/xi-jinping-calls-global-cooperation-get-economies-back-track
In a video address to the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Xi appealed for global cooperation to overcome the economic challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic. Xi said the decision to hold the annual event reflected China’s “sincere desire to share market opportunities with the world and promote world economic recovery”. Xi believes that “This epidemic reminds us that all countries are a community of shared destiny, and no one can stand alone in the face of major crises,” Xi also believes nations should embrace “trust instead of suspicion, and join hands instead of exchanging fists”. Despite his comments, not everyone is convinced China will deliver on its promises to be more open. The EU Chamber of Commerce in China said that Beijing’s rigid travel restrictions had “an acute negative impact” on European companies and damaged business confidence. While the Shanghai expo had been “touted as a symbol of China’s market liberalisation and the sustained confidence of international investment,” in the eyes of the European business community, “this event has so far amounted to little more than an ambitious trade fair”.
The Covid-19 pandemic is not going away, and while many countries have put in their own set of rules and restrictions to contain the spread of the virus, the cases have yet to decline in most parts of the world. With these restrictions many companies have gone out of business and countries’ economies are plummeting. Xi believes that a global cooperation would help with the negative impact Covid-19 has put on many countries’ economies. While Xi wants global cooperation, the European business community does not seem to be on board with working with China. They seem to believe that China has not done anything to make the global economy better and does not seem willing to work those issues out.
The Collective Goods Problem is the problem of shared interests and conflicting interests. It’s the problem of how to provide something that benefits all members of a group regardless of what each member contributes to it. In this case, the problem would be the battle against the negative impact Covid-19 has had on the global economy. Now, if all countries were to work together in some way to fight against the negative impact Covid-19 has had on the global economy, that would be an example of the Collective Goods Problem. This is because the countries have a shared interest -to stop the spread of Covid 19 and help rebuild the global economy- and they all would have to come together to provide information and come up with a way to help rebuild the global economy that every country would have to follow. But it seems as if some countries don’t want to work together so there will be no Collective Goods Problem solving anytime soon.