From July 3 to 5, the 2026 China Annual Conference of the Chinese Economist Society (CES) took place at the Liulin Campus. Co-hosted by SWUFE and CES, the conference centered on the theme "Technology-Driven Growth in a Changing Global Economy: AI, Green Transition, and China's Macroeconomic Rebalancing." The event brought together hundreds of scholars from leading institutions worldwide, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Stanford University. CES President, Professor Chen Kaiji, from Emory University, along with SWUFE Vice Presidents Li Zhisheng and Wang Qing, delivered opening remarks.
The keynote session featured distinguished speakers: Professor Fang Hanming (University of Pennsylvania) discussed pension system reforms under the constraint of "getting old before getting rich"; Professor Song Zheng (Chinese University of Hong Kong) drew lessons from Japan's "Lost Decade" to examine fiscal misallocation under low interest rates; Professor Miao Jianjun (Zhejiang University) analyzed how income inequality hampers growth by dampening innovation incentives; Professor Wei Shangjin (Columbia University) offered a "Darwinian" perspective on China's digital entrepreneurship boom; and Professor Xiong Wei (Princeton University) elaborated on the unique institutional features of China's market economy.
The conference featured eight invited thematic sessions, including one on "AI and Finance," with expert presentations from scholars at Tsinghua University, the University of Chicago, Duke University, Peking University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Yale University, Stanford University, Georgia State University, the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), Fudan University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Wuhan University, and Liaoning University. The conference also included six parallel on-site sessions, eleven virtual sessions, and three journal editor forums, covering cutting-edge topics such as AI, industrial policy, and climate transition.
