The following is a summary of Li Tao's comments during a roundtable discussion at the Eighth Annual Conference of Government and Economics held at Tsinghua University, Beijing, on May 23, 2026. Li Tao is Vice President of the Central University of Finance and Economics.
On May 27, 2026, the Eighth Annual Conference of Government and Economics, co-hosted by the Society for the Analysis of Government and Economics (SAGE) along with Tsinghua University's School of Social Sciences and the Academic Center for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking (ACCEPT), was broadcasted online. Vice President of the Central University of Finance and Economics, Li Tao, participated in a lively roundtable discussion where he discussed the contributions that government and economics has made to the establishment of China's own independent knowledge system.
Li remarked that research in the emerging field of government and economics is of great significance for contemporary public governance and the development of the market economy. The government is a key participant in the modern market economy and its actions directly affect, if not even having a determining impact on, the quality of economic operations. Investigating how institutional design can make the government's incentive mechanisms more finely tuned so as to better support the development of a thriving market economy is a core topic that contemporary economic research cannot overlook.
On this basis, Li proposed three frames of reference to describe China's independent knowledge system in economics: the first is its academic originality, which means remaining rooted in Chinese practice when forming new knowledge, theories and methods; the second is gaining international recognition in order to avoid closed-door development; and third is that the maturation of academic disciplines serves as a focal point, which covers multiple dimensions that range from scientific research, knowledge creation, talent cultivation, international cooperation and cultural transmission, with particular emphasis on cultivating younger generations of professional researchers. Li acknowledged that government and economics has already achieved outstanding results in all three aspects as mentioned above, having since made positive contributions to China's independent knowledge system in economics.
Li stated that the Central University of Finance and Economics will continue to keep closely in lockstep with the overall direction of the field of government and economics, leveraging its own specialization in the disciplines of finance and economics, while continuously serving China's economic development, actively contributing to the development of this branch of learning and coordinating with peer institutions for the purposes of future collaborations.