People attend the 16th Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum in North China's Tianjin on June 24, 2025. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

International attendees at the World Economic Forum's 16th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos, which is being held in North China's Tianjin, on Tuesday expressed optimism over China's economic prospects, while voicing opposition to unilateralism and protectionism in certain parts of the world. 

Themed "Entrepreneurship in the New Era," this year's Summer Davos has brought together about 1,800 participants from more than 90 countries and regions, offering a crucial window into the world's second-largest economy by staging a range of conferences and exhibitions.

"A forum like this gives us cause for optimism in an environment in which geopolitical tensions, conflicts among countries, trade wars and currency wars seem to be the order of the day," Jeffry Frieden, professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the Summer Davos.

What China holds out for the rest of the world is an example of extraordinarily rapid economic growth where hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty by rapid growth, Frieden said. "The fact that China was able to do so indicates that international economic integration can be a very positive force for economic growth, and that other countries can do well too," he said.

"The economic outlook for China continues to be a positive one. We expect growth to continue. The pace of growth may not necessarily be as high as it has been in the past, but we must consider the high base that China is already working on. Based on the previous growth that China has enjoyed over many years, it continues to be impressive. It has positive implications for the rest of the world," Tshepiso Malele, Brand South Africa's country head for China, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the forum on Tuesday.

China is a key partner of South Africa with a strong bilateral relationship. Coming from that bilateral relationship, "we are also seeking to increase economic exchanges between our two countries and source more investment out of China into South Africa," Malele said.

At the Summer Davos, many foreign representatives are also actively seeking cooperation opportunities with Chinese companies in a wide range of areas from new-energy vehicles to infrastructure. 

Oscar Felipe Rueda Plata, commercial counsellor of the Embassy of Colombia in China, and director of Procolombia China, told the Global Times on Tuesday that he hopes to strengthen relationships with many companies, especially large Chinese companies that are currently investing in Colombia.

"We are very interested in introducing technology for electric vehicles from China, as well as attracting pharmaceutical companies, infrastructure investment, and of course, green energy," Plata said, noting that Chinese companies are playing an important role in supporting the energy transition in his country.

"We consider China a very reliable partner. There is still much work to do. At the moment, we are mainly exporting agricultural products such as coffee, beef, meat, fruits, and others. We hope to continue expanding the market in China for Colombian products," he said.

However, despite the international community's genuine desire for increased cooperation, unilateralism and protectionism are growing in certain Western countries in various forms such as tariffs, trade barriers and export controls. Attendees at the Summer Davos said that such protectionist measures are harmful for economies.

Overwhelming evidence, especially from the tariffs that were imposed by the US administration in 2018, shows that the tariffs may have helped some companies, but they didn't help the economy as a whole, Frieden said. "We lose jobs when tariffs are put in place. When tariffs are put in place, it increases the price of goods that were imported and makes it harder for our companies to compete internationally," he said.

A white paper titled "Global Economic Futures: Competitiveness in 2030" released during the Summer Davos also showed that since 2022, governments in various countries around the world have increasingly deployed tariffs, subsidies, export controls and restrictions on technology transfers to advance geopolitical goals. Nearly 80 percent of the 5,716 policy measures recorded in this period were discriminatory, tilting the global economy toward fragmentation rather than cooperation, the white paper warned.

"It is unfortunate to see that global economic growth is potentially stifled at this juncture. We all need to be working together as countries in order to achieve win-win outcomes. We shouldn't necessarily be seeking to achieve success by slowing down others," Malele said.