A workshop was held on the 15th of May between a delegation of senior researchers, experts and researchers of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, and a delegation of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies. The Vice President of the Institute Professor Yang Jiemian headed the Chinese delegation. The Assistant Director of Al-Ahram Center Dr Hasan Abu Taleb headed the meeting between the two delegations. The workshop focused on the Egyptian -Sino bilateral relations and means to advance the economic ties between the two states.
The workshop began with a presentation from the Chinese side on the latest economic developments taking place in China. In their briefing the Chinese delegation discussed the Chinese model of economic development and China's attempts to achieve economic prosperity. During their briefing, they expressed some of the obstacles that faced China in its economic development program liking bridging income gaps between different sectors of the Chinese population. The Ahram Center delegation was interested in the Chinese model due to partial similarities with the Egyptian model.
The Chinese delegation also expressed the Chinese vision of the international system which is based upon three elements the democratization of International Relations, International Peace and Development. The delegation asserted the Chinese refusal of the U.S flexing muscle policy on the international system; on the other hand, they asserted China's belief in the multipolarity of the international system and the cultural and civilizational cooperation among nations.
The Ahram Center senior researchers and experts gave political and strategic analyses on current events taking place in the Middle East especially the situation in the occupied Iraq. They also highlighted the crises escalation on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Then, they discussed the initiation of political reforms in Egypt and means to improve the Egyptian-Sino economic relations.
The Ahram Center delegation outlined during the meeting the repercussions of the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq on the war on terror, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, political reforms in the Middle East and the enlargement of the European Union. The two delegations agreed in their discussions that the U.S occupation of Iraq is only an attempt to change the patterns of the international system through the American unilateral approach and the preemptive wars.
As for the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Egyptian experts discussed the stagnation of the peace process and the collapse of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Then, they described the state of radicalization that occurred to the Palestinian and Israeli public opinions; in which, both sides lost hope in a political settlement and they became more supportive to violence as a political solution and a management technique to the crises. In addition, the U.S declined as powerful mediator to play a pivotal role in containing the crises. Some aspects of the political reformations in Egypt were discussed during the workshop. The government role in this process was explained and Alexandria conference resolutions were mentioned as guidelines for the process of political reform in Egypt.
At the end of the workshop, the two delegations focused their concerns on the weakness of the Egyptian-Sino economic relations although the two states enjoy respectively healthy political relations. Al-Ahram Center economic experts argued that the absence of a Chinese economic policy towards Egypt is among the main reasons behind the weakness of the economic ties. They added that China should implement a consistent economic policy towards Egypt through increasing their investments and halt their cheep products dumping of the Egyptian market. The Chinese dumping policy had negative repercussions on the Egyptian markets and the Egyptian industries. Then, they pinpointed some steps to strengthen the economic ties between the two states like making usage of the Egyptian agreements with the European Union and the COMESA. As for the Chinese side, they demanded an Egyptian effort to build an economic environment for Chinese investments. Finally, the two sides emphasized the necessity for the continuation of talks and discussions for the benefit of the two states.