CHENGDU, May 19 (Xinhua) -- As the world undergoes profound transformations, top scholars and business leaders from across the world gathered at the 2026 Tsinghua PBCSF Global Finance Forum to explore new pathways for financial cooperation.
Themed "Global Financial Governance in a Challenging World: New Challenges, New Opportunities, New Developments," the forum was held on Monday and Tuesday in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Featuring a series of thematic sideline forums, reports and achievement presentations, closed-door meetings, and international strategic advisory sessions, the forum covered topics ranging from AI development and green transformation to global financial growth.
Participants at the forum emphasized the importance of deepened global cooperation against the backdrop of immense uncertainties in global trade policies, rising geopolitical conflicts, and supply chain restructuring.
Jiao Jie, dean of Tsinghua University's PBC School of Finance (PBCSF), said that the global financial landscape is undergoing a profound adjustment. The focus is shifting from a singular pursuit of efficiency and integration to a balanced approach that equally prioritizes efficiency, security and resilience.
Marshall Mills, the IMF's senior resident representative in China, said that the only way to safeguard global trade, economic growth, and stability is to build a predictable and transparent multilateral trading system, further propelled by pragmatic regional and international cooperation.
AI took center stage at the forum, with experts acknowledging its immense potential to boost global productivity and growth as well as its challenges to industrial development and financial governance.
Mentioning China's strategic deployment of AI and other frontier technologies in its 15th Five-Year Plan, Nobel laureate Michael Spence said that AI's long-term progress depends not only on high-end model research but also on industrial applications.
"China is now making a major push on AI and other frontier tech in its 15th Five-Year Plan," Spence said, adding that AI's future hinges on real-world industry use and China has already integrated AI into many sectors with systematic efforts.
Gao Hao, director of the Research Center for Global Family Business at PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University, said the AI-driven tech revolution is reshaping global production and industry, while bringing new energy to capital markets. It also poses fresh challenges to asset pricing, risk transmission and global investment logic.
Zhu Min, former deputy managing director of the IMF, warned that payment systems with built-in AI agents are changing how finance works. "Payment plus AI" is now the biggest variable in global finance, and its hidden systemic risks are larger than markets expect. He called for forward-looking rules, public-private coordination, and global regulatory cooperation to tackle this challenge.
As efforts to reshape the international monetary system stall, many at the forum agreed that a better multi-currency system is urgently needed to address governance fragmentation and the weaponization of financial tools.
Marc Uzan, the executive director and founder of the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee, said central bankers widely agree that the global monetary system is at a "structural turning point," not just a cyclical test, while the current system cannot handle geopolitical conflicts or a multipolar world.
"The world has entered a new phase of currency competition. AI and currency will define the future of finance," Zhu said. With the dollar-dominated system becoming unbalanced, speeding up the renminbi's internationalization is not just in China's interest but also necessary for global stability.
A stronger renminbi aligns with the aspirations of the Global South, fits the trend toward a more diverse financial system, and supports the continued rise of China's economy, Zhu noted. ■
