President's Message
On October 17, 2020, I was appointed President for the fourth term by theboard of directors of the Japan Association for Chinese Economics andManagement Studies (JACEM). I would thus hereby like to thank the board
and association members for their support and trust. I shall do my utmost tocontribute to the development of the association.
Since the merger of the Japanese Research Association for Chinese Economy(JRACE) and the Japanese Association for the Chinese Management Studies(JACMS) in 2014 and the establishment of the JACEM, our association has
grown significantly thanks to the efforts of our past presidents (Prof. Yan,Prof. Marukawa and Prof. Takahashi), and directors, as well as the efforts ofour members. In particular, the level of research has improved remarkably
and our influence both in Japan and abroad has increased. I would like totake this opportunity to express my gratitude to all those who havecontributed to the development of our association.
The JACEM usually holds various events every year, including the annualconference. Members share the same space inside and outside of the venues
and the vigorous intellectual exchange between them not only helps deepen
their understanding of academic issues but also contributes greatly to thebuilding of trust among them on the personal level. Unfortunately, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, this year the annual conference and various otherevents had to be held online. This physically diminished the opportunities forface-to-face interaction, and, I believe, to no small extent affected thefunctioning of our association as a research community. However, online
conferences have the advantage of allowing more members to participate in
the association’s activities at a lower cost - a fact that can be fruitfully
exploited for the further development of our studies. Thus, while it isexpected that the influence of the novel coronavirus will continue for a while,
I believe that we can turn the situation to our advantage to ensure that thequality of our association’s work is not compromised.
China, our research subject, has grown significantly over the past four
decades through reforms and opening up, and has become the second-largest
1economy in the world. It has even taken the position of a world leader insome fields. However, as evidenced by dizzying changes in its domestic andforeign policies in recent years, China now seems to have entered a newstage. Now we face many questions: can the marketization reforms and theopening up, which have driven China's economic development thus far, besustained; what is the future of the process of globalization which has greatly
benefited China in the past four decades; and what conditions are necessary
to ensure further reforms and globalization?
Furthermore, the confrontation between the U.S. and China, which started
with trade frictions, has gradually escalated over the past two years. It
progressed from a trade war to a technological and financial war, and since
the novel coronavirus spread around the world, has developed into an
intelligent, diplomatic, and political war, with the two countries now evensaid to be on the verge of a military conflict. It goes without saying that afull-scale confrontation between the world's first and second biggest
economic powers would fundamentally change the world political andeconomic order and bring drastic changes to the assumptions we have madethus far in our research on the Chinese economy and businesses.
In such circumstances, the association intends to hold as many exchange
events as possible to comprehend the complex situation China is facing. At
the same time, we also wish to dedicate our efforts to intensifying thepublishing of our Journal of Chinese Economy and Management Studies,
expanding our membership, encouraging young members to participate in
the activities of our association, promoting international exchange, andstrengthening our cooperation with other China research organizations inJapan, etc. In doing so, we count on further strong support and cooperationof our members.
Finally, in the midst of the rampant threat of COVID-19, I would like to urge
all our members to take utmost care of their health and safety.
December 2020
Liu Deqiang

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