In his keynote speech at the opening session of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017 in late January, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a strong case for advancing globalization and rejecting protectionism that was applauded by the international community.

Although globalization has become an international consensus, its development has never been smooth. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2005 discussed the status quo, causes and trends of globalization in his book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of The Twenty-First Century, which is a representative work on this topic. However, only three years later, economist David Smick offered a counterargument to globalization in The World is Curved, saying that globalization has jeopardized the world.

Actually globalization is a double-edged sword, but opponents tend to overemphasize its disadvantages. For example, globalization can lead to the formation of interest groups, which means that not all countries or people profit from it equally. Some are also concerned that it can put a country’s sovereignty and security at risk, which means we must be vigilant against the possibility that some major countries will force others to adopt their social regimes and values.
However, most countries are currently benefiting from globalization and there is not a single country that has realized rapid economic growth without participating in it.

Currently, the world is experiencing an economic downturn, which has sparked more opposition to globalization. A World Trade Organization report suggested that China and the United States are the two countries that benefit most from globalization and they play a significant role in promoting the trend. However, both the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area are in danger of unravelling. According to the US-based magazine Foreign Policy, if the United States withdraws from the global system, China is poised to lead the world.

There are four ways in which China can take a leading role in promoting economic globalization.
One is to gain international discourse power by making economic progress while maintaining stability. Though the country’s growth rate has slowed in recent years due to changes in the international environment, domestic restructuring and increasing economic volume, its performance is still the best in the globe. According to International Monetary Fund, China’s contribution to world economic growth was 39 percent in 2016, which is twice as much as that of the Unites States, Japan and Europe combined.

The second is to have the courage to lead the world. China has progressed from knowing to understanding the mechanisms and rules of international economic activities. Through resolving a large number of trade disputes since it joined the WTO more than a decade ago, China has accumulated rich experience.  Therefore, China should adopt the responsibility of a major country to promote economic globalization.

One thing to note is that playing a leading role does not mean becoming an economic hegemon. It means uniting countries and driving the common development of the world. 

The third is to have the courage to exhibit Chinese wisdom. There is no shortage of excellent ideas in the world, but only the strategic, forward-looking and operable ones are convincing. Xi’s views on economic globalization at the ceremony and his proposed measures expanded people’s vision and pointed the way forward.

For example, he won the praise of the international community for such proposals as developing a dynamic, innovation-driven growth model; pursuing a well-coordinated and inter-connected approach to develop a model of open and mutually beneficial cooperation; developing a model of fair and equitable governance in keeping with the trend of the times; and developing a balanced, equitable and inclusive development model.

The last one is to make efforts to allow more countries and people to benefit from economic globalization. With a diversity of economic foundations, social environments and policies, countries find it hard to achieve a balanced engagement in globalization. Nevertheless, bringing benefits to more people is the only way for globalization to win wide support. China will adhere to a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up for the common prosperity of the world. As Xi said at the speech, “We will open our arms to the people of other countries and welcome them aboard the express train of China’s development.”

 

Liu Houjun is a professor from the School of Economics at Nanjing University.