The Boao Forum for Asia 2025 Annual Conference was held in Boao, Hainan from March 25 to 28. The theme of this year’s conference is “Creating Asia’s Future Amidst Global Turbulence.”
At the Boao Forum, Yao Yang, a Peking University Boya Distinguished Professor and Director of the China Center for Economic Research, pointed out in an exclusive interview that “The second term of the Trump administration in the United States has caused shocks to the world, but Asia has instead become more closely united. Chinese enterprises are now facing a historic opportunity to reshape global manufacturing. Looking ahead to the next 10 or 20 years, Chinese enterprises will recreate a ‘China’ overseas.”
The Unexpected Impetus of Trump 2.0
The Trump administration’s policies, such as imposing tariffs and restricting technology exports, have intensified global uncertainty. However, Professor Yao Yang believes that these actions have paradoxically become a catalyst for regional integration in Asia.
“When the United States voluntarily relinquishes the fruits of globalization, the industrial chain cooperation between China and regions like Southeast Asia and India is deepening.”
Data shows that Asia has already contributed 40-50% of the global GDP, with its share continuing to rise. This pattern of “when the East is not shining, the West will” demonstrates the resilience of the Asian economy.
The Irrational Prosperity of the US Economy as a Warning
In response to the Federal Reserve’s warning of recession risks, Professor Yao Yang made a sharp analogy: “The US economy is like trying to move forward by pulling its own hair.”
He pointed out that the current prosperity of the US stock market, which relies on the support of the “Seven Sisters” tech giants, is strikingly similar to the bubble before the 2008 financial crisis. Meanwhile, China’s DeepSeek’s breakthrough in the AI field has not only shattered the technological myth but also exposed that the US development model, which overly relies on hardware stacking, has reached a bottleneck.
“When China achieves technological leaps with ten-thousand-card-level computing power, NVIDIA’s chip hegemony is crumbling.”
The Global Breakthrough Code of Chinese Manufacturing
Faced with US technological blockades and export restrictions, Professor Yao Yang described it as a “century-old misjudgment”:
“The US pressure has forced China to break through in 7-nanometer chips and take the lead in optoelectronic hybrid chips. Its policy of restricting direct exports to China has become a key driver. The wave of Chinese enterprises going global is sweeping the world at an unprecedented speed. I believe that looking ahead to the next 10 or 20 years, Chinese enterprises will recreate a ‘China’ overseas.”
From being forced to respond to taking the initiative to break the deadlock, the globalization of Chinese enterprises has entered a new stage.
As the “world’s factory” upgrades to a “global manufacturing network operator,” this silent industrial revolution is rewriting the rules.
As Professor Yao Yang said: “Pressure not only breeds technological breakthroughs but also a qualitative change in the economic form.” Under the spotlight in Boao, the answer from Asia is already clear – to counter closure with openness and navigate through changes with innovation. The global new map of Chinese manufacturing going overseas is gradually unfolding.
