Boao facilitates Asia's cooperation facing tariff threats

Scheduled for March 25-28, the Boao Forum for Asia will be held at a time of extraordinary challenges and opportunities. Ever since its launch in 2001, the forum has both reflected and shaped vital structural shifts, including China's entry into the World Trade Organization (2001), its "peaceful rise" (from 2004), overcoming the global financial crisis (2009), antidotes to the US tariff wars (2018), and the China-proposed Global Security Initiative amid external attempts to divide Asia (2022).

For the past two decades, the forum has been promoting regional economic integration by helping to bring Asian countries closer to their economic goals, even against economic headwinds.

More than half a decade ago, the tariffs imposed during Donald Trump's first presidency on almost $400 billion worth of Chinese goods affected more than 90 percent of Sino-US trade. Today, the first round of the US' tariff war against Canada, Mexico and China alone will affect trade worth more than $1.3 trillion.