Co-organized by China Academy of Social Sciences(CASS), Tsinghua University School of Economics and Managment, the U.S. journalNature, Society, and Thought, andWorld Association for Political Economy (WAPE), the Third Forum of WAPE took place during May 24-25 at Langfang City of North China's Hebei Province. Under the theme of "Marxism and Sustainable Development", the forum brought together nearly 100 experts and scholars in relevant areas.

Topics at the forum included the population problem in different countries and on a global scale and its causes and countermeasures; the resource problem in different countries and on a global scale and its causes and countermeasures; the environmental and ecological problem in different countries and on a global scale and its causes and countermeasures;the inter-relationship between population, resources and environment and its modeling analysis; the development and innovation of basic economic theories on population, resources and environment; the sustainable development view of modern Marxian political economy; review of ecological Marxist theories and other relevant economic and social issues.

Vice-chair of the Association, professor of Graduate School of Economics of Kyoto University Hiroshi Ohnishi presided at the opening ceremony of the forum. Executive Vice President of CASS Wang Weiguang, Chair of the Association, standing sub-dean of the Marxism Research Institute of CASS Professor Cheng En-fu addressed at the opening ceremony.

Professor Wu Zuodong, Director of Tsinghua SEM's Research Center for Public Assets delivered a keynote speech entitled "Marxism and Sustainable Development" at the closing ceremony of the forum.

(Professor Wu Zuodong delivers keynote speech at WAPE forum 2008)

WAPE, registered at Hong Kong, China, is an international academic organization founded on an open, non-profit and voluntary basis by Marxian economists and related groups all around the world. The standing body of WAPE includes the council, secretariat, academic committee and advisory committee. The mission of WAPE is to utilize modern Marxian economics to analyze and study the world economy, reveal the law of development and its mechanism, and offer proper policies to promote the economic and social improvement on the national and global level, so as to improve the welfare of all the people in the world. The First WAPE Forum, “Economic Globalization and Modern Marxian Economics” was successfully held in April 2006 in Shanghai. In October 2007, over eighty Marxian economists from fifteen countries in five continents attended the Second WAPE Forum held in the University of Shimane, Japan to probe into the theme “The Political Economy of the Contemporary Relationship between Labor and Capital in the World”.

The fourth WAPE forum will be held at Paris, 2009 under the theme of "Nation, State and Democratic Governance of Global Political Economy".