Professor James Heckman is an American economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2000. On May 3 last year, more than 1,000 U.S. economists, including 15 Nobel Prize Winners, signed an open letter to President Trump and Congress. They voiced strong opposition to tariffs and protectionism. Professor Heckman was one of them.

Yesterday, at the Global A.I. & Robotics Summit held in China's tech mecca, Shenzhen, he spoke with CGTN's Ge Yunfei, voicing his stance on the current U.S.-China trade war and the technology competition between the two countries.

CGTN: Now, the tariff conflicts are escalating worldwide, and protectionism is rising globally. What's your take on this?"

Heckman: The first thing is that President Trump and his administration don't listen much to professional advice on economics or another area. So, it's more or less seat of the pants for Trump. So, I can't say that I'm surprised he didn't listen. I think the weight of professional evidence in economics around the world, not just in the United States, is against this kind of protectionism. So, I don't think anybody who knows anything about the economy supports this.

CGTN: Not only in A.I. but also China is moving fast in many other technological fields. Some call it a competition between China and the U.S., or even an arms race of technology. How do you see it?"

Heckman: A lot of people in the United States, and the government I should say, feel strongly that China is moving quickly in certain areas of strategy, military prowess, and so forth. And they see a potential challenge between the U.S. and China, the U.S. and its allies, including countries like Japan in particular. Well, if you'll notice, a lot of the presentations today were projects that were jointly authored papers and so I think science is an international field. It's a field where good people will cooperate to develop ideas at the frontier. I think from the point of view of the development of ideas and science it is very good thing that China is taking such an active role... Many of the groups here, Huawei and some other companies here, are pioneers, and it's recognized as such in the world, including the United States. So, I don't think that's a source of great concern.

CGTN: You mentioned Huawei. The company's founder, Ren Zhengfei, attributed the root cause of the trade war to education. He said that China's education is lagging behind, especially in rural areas.

Heckman: I think he's correct. I think that's recognized by many people in China. I think the (Chinese) leader himself, Xi Jinping, has actually been very strongly supporting interventions and promotion of educational policies in the west, poor areas in the west, and in rural areas. And given the fact that China's population is going to shrink and that it has to consider investing more broadly ... I think those kinds of disparities should be tackled. They are being addressed now, as far as I can see.

CGTN: In one of your previous papers, you said China's economic miracle is mainly due to its large-scale medium-skilled labor force before the country's reform and opening-up began. Right now, as you said, China's population will shrink in the future. Does China have enough of a stockpile of high-end talent needed in the future, especially in the realm of A.I.?

Heckman: A.I. is a way for China to become competitive... remain competitive, but actually right now A.I. in the face of the current comparative advantage is a little bit crazy. If you think about the labor, your comparative advantage still is in labor — unskilled labor. So, A.I. is a labor-saving technology generally speaking, and therefore, if anything, you are going against its comparative advantage.

But in the long run that is a strategy because you are not going to be having that many bodies, but you can make those bodies more productive and so creating a more productive workplace is going to be a way to overcome the problem of a declining population.