Interview: China's rise no zero-sum game, Forbes

China's rise will be a mutual gain for both herself and other economies, said Steve Forbes, the billionaire business publisher when brushing aside China-threat theory Thursday in Sydney.

Telling Xinhua in an exclusive interview, he said China's prosperity is not a zero-sum game and creates a lot of commercial opportunities for global companies, including those in the United States.

Forbes, who is attending the annual Forbes' CEO global conference, cited late US president John Kennedy's words of "a rising tide lifts all boats" when describing China's growth.

He urged business people to adjust themselves to changes brought by China's growth.

He said there is a fear that China's growth will cause " enormous, sometimes painful changes to existing industries." "But those changes are going to take place anyway. In business, you always have to adjust to changes in different circumstances," he noted.

The rise of China and India has been a focus of discussion among the 350 leading CEOs, businessmen and industrialists from the world at the three-day conference.

Forbes regarded the rapid development of the two large developing economies as more opportunities than risks. He called on political officials and diplomats in the world to help create an environment to facilitate their growth.

He said China's huge needs for energy resources, as well as those by India and other developing countries, will result in more oil and energy supplies instead of uncertainties.

China and India's growth may even lead to the revival of US nuclear power industry to provide cheap and clean energy as an alternative, he said.

In a de-facto turning down of the talk of the China and India factor behind the current high oil prices, Forbes attributed the oil situation to "the excessive dollar creation by the (US) Reserve Bank and our hedge funds speculating as it is by traditional supply demanding factors."

He again predicted that, in the next 12 months, oil prices will go down by at least 20 US dollars a barrel to about 40 dollars a barrel.

On political problems between China and Japan resulting from historical and territorial issues, Forbes expressed hopes that the relationship get smoothed out to avoid spill-over of influence.

"As we've seen in the past, when Japan and China have a quarrel, the world shakes," he said.

Source: Xinhua