After World War II, the United States vigorously promoted free trade and founded various international organizations to promote free trade, such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US, as the hegemon of the unipolar world, spared no effort to push for economic globalization in multiple ways, including coercion. Its significant achievements include the North American Free Trade Agreement, the successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, the establishment of the World Trade Organization, and the birth of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. However, starting about a decade ago, the US ceased to promote globalization and instead adopted a series of “de-globalization” or “anti-globalization” policies. They include trade decoupling, supply chain fracturing, export and import controls, outbound and inbound investment restrictions, onshoring and nearshoring, and friendshoring. The rapid about-face in the US attitude toward globalization is driven by the belief that globalization has brought adverse effects to the country, such as deindustrialization, the outflow of jobs, a widening wealth gap, and an ever-growing trade deficit and national debt. The US abandonment of economic globalization will inevitably throttle global trade, slow global economic recovery, and suppress economic growth in countries worldwide, including the US.
The situation in China is precisely the opposite. Since pursuing reform and opening-up, China has been a participant, promoter, defender and beneficiary of globalization. China’s reform and opening-up have propelled economic globalization, which has accelerated China’s reform and opening-up. These two interactive processes became more prominent after China joined the WTO. Today, as the US intensifies its economic “isolationism”, most countries still hope that globalization will continue to advance and optimize. More and more countries are looking to China to uphold the banner of globalization, combat the countercurrent of “de-globalization” and “anti-globalization”, and guide globalization in a fairer and more reasonable direction.
China has taken a consistently responsive attitude toward the expectations of countries worldwide, especially the Global South, and is willing to serve as an active champion and promoter of globalization. In fact, since 2017, President Xi Jinping has delivered speeches at the Davos World Economic Forum thrice, explaining China’s economic globalization proposition from a historical and philosophical perspective. Xi has repeatedly highlighted China’s determination and capacity to spearhead economic globalization amid significant global changes. In his speech in 2017, Xi emphasized: “Historically, economic globalization is an objective requirement for the development of social productive forces and an inevitable result of scientific and technological progress. No person or country artificially creates it. Economic globalization has contributed to world economic growth. It provides a strong driving force and promotes the flow of goods and capital, the progress of science and technology and civilization, and the exchanges between peoples of various countries.”
Over the years, Xi has incessantly emphasized the importance of economic globalization for the development of all countries and humanity, and warned that globalization should not be allowed to roll back but should instead actively push forward. On Nov 15, Xi pointed out at the APEC CEO Summit: “Economic globalization is an objective requirement for the development of social productivity, an inevitable result of scientific and technological progress, and a mighty historical trend. Although it encounters headwinds and undertows, its development trend has never changed. To hinder economic cooperation under various pretexts and to insist on dividing the interdependent world is to set back the wheels of history. Economic globalization’s driving force and resistance are in a stalemate, but the driving force still outweighs the resistance. The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing in-depth, and the world economy’s digitalization, greening, and becoming more intelligent are accelerating, which has accumulated strong momentum for economic globalization to accelerate again. We must correctly guide the direction of economic globalization and cannot pursue the hegemony of a few countries. We must promote economic globalization to unleash positive effects and enter a new, dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable stage.”
On Nov 16, Xi stated at the 31st APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting: “We must adhere to the general direction of multilateralism and an open economy, firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization as its core, and fully activate APEC as an ‘incubator’ for global economic and trade rules, strive to promote regional economic integration and interconnection, dismantle the high walls that separate trade, investment, technology, and service circulation, maintain the stability and smoothness of industrial and supply chains, and promote the economic cycles in the Asia-Pacific and the world. The Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific is a grand vision for regional economic integration and is related to the long-term development and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific.”
In his speech on “Reform of Global Governance Institutions” at the second stage of the 19th G20 Leaders’ Summit, Xi advocated: “Creating an open, inclusive and nondiscriminatory international economic cooperation environment, improving global trade governance, building an open world economy through placing development at the center of the international economic and trade agenda, continuing to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, continuing to advance the reform of the World Trade Organization, opposing unilateralism and protectionism, promoting the dispute settlement mechanism to resume normal operation as soon as possible, and incorporating the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement into the World Trade Organization rules framework to reach an agreement on the e-commerce agreement at an early date.”
China’s proposals for economic globalization have been accepted and echoed in two major international economic conferences held recently.
The 2024 APEC Leaders’ Machu Picchu Declaration states, “We acknowledge the importance of, and will continue to work to deliver a free, open, fair, nondiscriminatory, transparent, inclusive and predictable trade and investment environment. We reiterate and support our commitment to advance economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region in a market-driven manner.”
The G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Declaration (2024) also emphasized that “international trade is an important engine for inclusive economic growth, combating poverty and hunger and promoting sustainable development and the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals).”
Today, China has replaced the US as economic globalization’s principal champion and driving force. Of course, China’s conception and deployment of economic globalization differ significantly from that of the US. China hopes to rely on promoting economic globalization to work with other countries to build a new economic globalization that embodies the principles of equality, tolerance, and win-win cooperation, where hegemony and bullying will have no place whatsoever
In the resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China declared its intention to further promote economic globalization through its continuous reform and opening-up of the Chinese market. Among the priorities, opening and optimizing the mainland market and building a unified national market is essential. Specific policies include: Building a national unified market; promoting the unification of basic market systems and rules, fair and unified market supervision, and high-standard connectivity of market facilities; eliminating and abolishing various regulations and practices that hinder the national unified market and fair competition; actively aligning with international high-standard economic and trade rules; expanding autonomous opening-up; expanding the opening up of China’s commodity market, service market, capital market and labor market in an orderly manner, and expanding unilateral opening-up to the least-developed countries; expanding the industries in the catalogue that encourage foreign investment, rationally reducing the negative list for foreign investment access; implementing the comprehensive lifting of restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector; and promoting the orderly expansion of opening-up in the fields of telecommunications, internet, education, culture and healthcare.
Initially, the purpose of establishing the WTO was to implement the US’ intention to promote economic globalization, and the WTO’s composition and rules are designed in such a way that they particularly benefit Western countries. However, in the current feverish anti-free-trade atmosphere, the US believes that the WTO has become a stumbling block in its pursuit of protectionism and unilateralism. The US has repeatedly launched trade wars violating WTO rules and paralyzed its appeal mechanism for handling trade disputes by obstructing personnel appointments. China’s position, on the contrary, is to reinforce the critical status of the WTO in global free trade. Concomitantly, China advocates appropriate reforms to its operations and governance to enable it to play a better role. The resolution of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee emphasized: “We must adhere to the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, better promote the global economic governance system to reflect the new reality of the world economic pattern. … It is necessary to maintain the multilateral trading system with the WTO as the core, promote the construction of an open world economic system.”
China’s suggestions for reforming the WTO include improvements to the WTO’s dispute settlement system to ensure a fair and timely resolution of trade disputes among member states, taking measures to better address the concerns and interests of developing countries within the WTO framework to better promote their development, updating and modernizing existing trade rules to better reflect current global trade practices and technological advancements, enhancing transparency within the WTO to promote trust and confidence among member states, adopting measures to make the decision-making processes within the WTO more inclusive and participatory, and expanding the inclusiveness of the WTO and respecting the different economic systems and development models of member states.
China’s stance on attaching importance to and reforming the WTO has received an enthusiastic response from the international community. The 2024 APEC Leaders’ Machu Picchu Declaration reaffirmed support for the rules-based multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core. It remains committed to working toward the necessary WTO reform to improve its functions.
The G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Declaration (2024) also agreed: “To enable trade and investment to fully realize its potential and act as a driver of global growth and prosperity, we emphasize the need to ensure a rules-based, nondiscriminatory, fair, open, inclusive, equitable, sustainable and transparent multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core. Ensuring a level playing field and fair competition consistent with WTO rules is essential to ensuring prosperity and fostering a favorable trade and investment environment. We reiterate the centrality of the development dimension of the WTO.”
Previously, the US vigorously promoted the conclusion of free trade agreements by countries worldwide and the establishment of various institutions in the European Union and Europe to promote regional economic integration. The US itself also initiated the establishment of NAFTA. However, the US has recently been increasingly opposed to signing free trade agreements with other countries. Then-US president Barack Obama once tried to forge a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with some countries in the Asia-Pacific region to contain China economically. However, Trump abruptly torpedoed it as soon as he took office. At the end of 2024, after Trump was reelected as president of the US, he announced that he would increase tariffs by 25 percent on goods exported to the US from Canada and Mexico, a blatant act to abolish NAFTA.
On the contrary, China actively pursues the signing of international free trade agreements to promote economic globalization. The most obvious example is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, signed in 2020. In September 2021, China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. China has also launched negotiations with relevant member states and contracting parties to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement. As of 2022, China has signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 countries and regions, with free trade partners covering Asia, Oceania, Latin America, Europe and Africa.
Economic globalization requires the support of a large amount of hardware and software. In these aspects, the US lags behind China. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China has built transportation infrastructure with economic and strategic value for many countries. The more important ones include the China-Laos Railway, the Hungary-Serbia railway, the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway, Gwadar Port in Pakistan, Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates, Piraeus Port in Greece, and Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka. The recently opened Chancay mega-port in Peru has extraordinary strategic significance for the future economic development of South America and the financial and trade relations between it and China. The interconnection of energy and information infrastructure between China and many countries is accelerating. The construction of all these infrastructures will help promote trade within relevant countries and regions and will continue to strengthen their trade ties with China.
Today, China has replaced the US as economic globalization’s principal champion and driving force. Of course, China’s conception and deployment of economic globalization differ significantly from that of the US. China hopes to rely on promoting economic globalization to work with other countries to build a new economic globalization that embodies the principles of equality, tolerance, and win-win cooperation, where hegemony and bullying will have no place whatsoever.
The author is a professor emeritus of sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a consultant for the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
