The world can expect much from China’s continuing championing of economic globalization, according to Jon Taylor, a China scholar and professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.
“China has a strong sense of global responsibility and desires to play a greater global governance role,” he said, pointing to President Xi Jinping’s speech at the Davos Forum in January, which laid the groundwork for China’s future role as leader in an increasingly economically integrated world.
“Xi’s speech was, in many respects, a real turning point for China, which has embraced globalization with enthusiasm since reform and opening-up began in late 1978,” Taylor said.
“These reforms have seen China move from being a marginal player, at best, in global trade to the world’s second-largest economy in the span of less than four decades.”
For Taylor, China’s nearly 40 years of experience with economic development shows that it can and will continue to pursue a common development strategy that can serve as an alternative to the Western development model.
While the Chinese economy has been affected by global headwinds, strong and targeted policy measures designed to handle the slowdown have resulted in a process of fundamental economic transformation, he said, adding that China’s role in globalization is evident in its shift from an investment-based model to one based more on domestic consumption.
Globalization has also created an opportunity for China to move from inward foreign direct investment to outward FDI and from low-skill intensive to high-skill production.
“These developments can and are having a major impact on both economic globalization and global economic governance,” Taylor said.
He cited President Xi’s remarks in Davos that “China’s remarkable achievement in poverty reduction has contributed to more inclusive global growth. And China’s continuous progress in reform and opening-up has lent much momentum to an open world economy.”
“Promoting economic globalization and supply-side structural reform in China means a win-win for the global economy,” he added.
