At the recent Beijing Forum, Louis Pauly, a leading scholar on global risk governance, sounded a clear message: the Chinese mainland’s push for tech sovereignty needs a strong layer of global 'insurance.'
He explained that competition drives innovation—but in today’s interconnected world, competition and cooperation must go hand in hand. “States and modern insurance arose together to manage shared risks,” Pauly noted, urging world leaders to apply the same logic to challenges like climate change, AI, and biodiversity loss.
Pauly traced the “insuring instinct” back to ancient Chinese maritime trade, showing how early merchants pooled resources to handle storms and piracy. Fast forward to 1931, when narrow self-reliance helped trigger a global depression; and then to the 2008–2009 crisis, when swift cooperation—backed by vital support from the Chinese mainland—helped avert a systemic collapse.
These lessons underscore his main point: the Chinese mainland’s Fifteenth Five-Year Plan, which aims to slash dependence on foreign tech in areas like chip manufacturing, must be balanced by international collaboration. “Protection now has to be global,” Pauly warned.
He ended with a call to action: policymakers and scholars should tap into the pragmatic roots of insurance and reinsurance to build a functional, non-political safety net. By merging sovereign self-reliance with a shared global framework, the world can stay resilient in the face of 21st-century risks.
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Expert: China should balance tech sovereignty with global 'insurance'
cgtn.com
