The China International Import Expo (CIIE) that lasted for a week had come to an end. Through CIIE, China showcased its ability to buy the world's goods and the scale of the "Chinese market", its attitude of opening-up to the outside world, and its desire to promote economic globalization. During this time of global trade disputes, China's actions show its determination to continue to open-up to the outside world. Although China needs to respond urgently to the pressures of trade friction from the United States, it must also look towards the future from a strategic level. An unavoidable question is that, how should China participate in the economic globalization in the future? What kind of globalization does China want to promote? China needs to rethink its path and direction of globalization.
Since the waves of globalization in the 1990s, after realizing the global allocation of the manufacturing industry chain and promoting international trade, we can see more and more negative impacts on the participating countries' economic and social development, which gradually formed the anti-globalization wave in the present time. From Brexit to the rise of Donald Trump in the United States, and the rising of European populist forces, and now the U.S.-China trade frictions, to the anti-immigration movements in Europe and the United States, and the protectionism in the international trade, behind these series of anti-globalization events is the reactions of different countries to the negative impacts of economic globalization.
The current globalization is a "capital-friendly" globalization with multinational corporations as the main driving force, which can also be termed as the globalization of "neo-liberalism". The essence of such globalization is to use the global allocation of capital to drive the efficient use of resources and labor, and to form the competitiveness of commodities. The development of science and technology makes the globalization of capital more convenient and rapid than the globalization of people. However, from the perspective of labor factor, the global mobility of the labor force is affected by circumstances such as geography, culture, and family, and it lags far behind the flow of capital. This is the so-called "clash of capital and national boundaries."
The globalization of neo-liberalism has increased the uneven distribution of social wealth. In the United States, for example, a PEW Research study shows that the middle class in the United States fell from 61% in 1971 to 49.4% in 2015, and the median family wealth (net assets after deducting liabilities) from 2001 to 2013 has decreased 28%. In the process of globalization, trade and financial liberalizations have made the elites of the developed countries (traders, bankers, and possibly politicians) the biggest beneficiaries, while the middle class and the low-income class continue to be squeezed out. Statistics show that the income of 20% of the highest-income households in the United States accounts for 50% of the national total, and this is increasing year by year. At the same time, the proportion of low, mid-low and middle-income households has been in decline.
The rise of the "anti-globalization wave" now and the increasingly common trade protectionism and populism is precisely because of the negative impacts of economic globalization, which is inevitable. China is a latecomer to economic globalization and it is one of the beneficiaries of globalization; this is especially true after the "golden fifteen years" it joined the WTO. However, if China blindly views the "anti-globalization" wave as "xenophobia" or "countercurrent", it cannot fully understand the roots and long-term and seriousness of the problem, and it will be difficult to adapt to the future global new pattern, which is not conducive to its further opening-up. Anbound's chief researcher Chan Kung pointed out that the key issue between China and the United States, and the global trade war is the dominant influence of the world market space. This is a global level market war, one that involves in the commercial interests of different countries, and its core is commercial space. This battle for market space will not end within near future, but will exist for a long time. Facing the global market that will change profoundly in the future, it would not be enough for China to rely solely on is purchasing power to promote globalization.
What then, is the future of economic globalization? What kind of globalization should China promote?
We believe that unlike the "capital-friendly" globalization, the globalization of "humanism" that promotes common progress and common prosperity can cope with the "anti-globalization" wave, thereby benefitting more people; this is the main problem that needs to be solved in the current globalization process. We have always believed that the process of globalization cannot be truly reversed, but it will continue to evolve and develop into a new form of global economic and trade cooperation. This new stage of globalization is the "global amalgamation" stage pointed out by Anbound's chief researcher Chan Kung. First mentioned by Anbound in Market, Space and Global Market War that stresses on the importance and objectivity of global amalgamation, we believe that only by transcending ideology and going beyond the framework of pure economic wealth and competition to moving towards the direction of global amalgamation that globalization can be expected to achieve true peace and balance.
At CIIE, President Xi Jinping proposed to promote economic globalization that is open, tolerant, balanced, inclusive and mutually benefitting. This formulation is intrinsically consistent with the "global amalgamation" proposed by Anbound. The economic globalization that China wants to promote in the future needs to make globalization from pure pursuit of economy and wealth to stable and healthy social balanced development; from the pursuit of pure efficiency and commercial competition to global integration and consensus. In the process of promoting globalization, China should not only promote the increase and balance of trade volume by expanding exports or imports, but also the globalization of services and science and technology, and the internationalization of humanities to promote the new globalization of economy, in order to promote global integration.
Final analysis conclusion:
Although China is currently in the midst of trade frictions, it is necessary to look into the future for a new pattern of global economics and trade. It would be necessary to think ahead about how the future will participate in a new phase of globalization. This kind of thinking and transformation will lead to a new pattern of globalization under "global amalgamation".
