Editor's Notes
China has seen a historic rise in its economic strength in the past decade, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the opening session of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on October 16, 2022.
Efforts will be made to boost the dynamism and reliability of the domestic economy while engaging at a higher level in the global economy. High-standard opening up will also be promoted. China will steadily expand institutional opening up about rules, regulations, management, and standards, accelerate the transformation into a trader of quality, and promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said.
Dr. Miguel Angel Hidalgo Martinez from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University wrote the paper based on China's rising economic strength and international status.
Written By Dr. Miguel Angel Hidalgo Martinez - Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
The scope of the socio-economic transformation of China is unparalleled in human history. The Chinese economy has transitioned in a very short time frame from being an emerging economy based on agricultural mechanization and labor-intensive manufacture into being an interconnected capital-intensive economy driven by technological development, urban consumption, and creativity.
In this sense, this process has not just shown the unprecedented adaptability with which China has changed to enter into the competitive knowledge-based world economy, but it has fundamentally displayed the success of a unique combination of strategic economic state planning and entrepreneurial innovation.
China is a world leader in patents, creative designs, and technology development. A robust urban society with high purchasing power is fuelling this process, turning the country into the world's largest market for many commodities and services.
Consequently, China's economic success can be regarded as an integral part of a path conducing to a more sustainable and inclusive future of the world economy. This article will briefly discuss some landmark achievements that show the high international status that China currently holds.
Mingyue Lake in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area has introduced 49 prestigious research institutions and has attracted leading scientists, as Chinese society drives innovation and technological development worldwide (Image - iChongqing Media Library)
Historically, Chinese society has been one of humankind's primary innovation and technological development sources. The echoes of this vastly rich history characterized by scientific research and the constant pursuit of creativity remain alive in China's current outstanding record of innovation.
According to The Global Innovation Index that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) of the United Nations publishes, the strength of the Chinese economy mainly comes from human capital and research, infrastructure, and market sophistication.
Within these broad categories, the WIPO recognizes China as the world's best in the following particular variables: gross fixed capital formation (including the development of urban infrastructure), market scale, technology outputs, patents by origin, and original industrial designs as % of the GDP and high-tech exports as % of total trade. In other words, the current Chinese economy is characterized by sustained intensive capital investments, a consolidated domestic market, and high-tech innovative manufacturing processes.
China is currently the world's top patent filer after it overtook the United States in 2020. This figure indicates the Chinese economy's intensive technological development and scientific orientation. Beyond serving as a re-exporting platform of assembly lines, China's overall industrial profile is leaning toward the production of intangible assets of high-value-added.
From a corporate perspective, Huawei has been the world's most important single patent filer for five consecutive years, surpassing Qualcomm (US), Samsung and LG (South Korea), and Mitsubishi (Japan). But not only do big and consolidated Chinese corporations lead the world economy through innovation, and 'small-scale' firms in the creative industries show impressive records.
China became the world's top national patent filer in 2020, while Chinese hi-tech firm Huawei has filed the most corporate patents worldwide for five consecutive years. (Photograph - iChongqing Media Library)
'Unicorns' is the term commonly used in the business world to define privately funded and owned start-up companies in sectors associated with the creative industries. These companies offer services and products of the original design by employing a wide range of highly-skilled human capital.
The world's largest 'unicorn' in market value is the Beijing-based firm 'ByteDance,' whose most important product, 'Tik Tok, has become a worldwide phenomenon. This 'unicorn' registers a valuation of approximately USD 140 billion.
In third place in the world ranking, we find another Chinese 'unicorn': SHEIN. This company offers e-commerce services and solutions based in Shenzhen with a market value of approximately USD 100 billion. These companies reflect the increasing sophistication, high-skilled profile, and creative spirit of the contemporary Chinese labor force.
Considering these figures, the days when the Chinese economy offered low production costs for manufacturing seem far behind. The Chinese workforce comprises designers, programmers, engineers, architects, and other highly skilled human capital specializing in producing intangible assets in the creative industrial sectors.
They were leading research in urban sociology and economy that recognized in the early 1990s the pattern of urbanization reshaping the world economy. This perspective led to the conceptualization of cities, particularly their service industries, as the main spaces where the world's mass consumption, innovation, and value creation take place.
Chongqing was listed among the top ten cities worldwide that will contribute most to global GDP by the year 2030 and offers a growingly competitive ecosystem for start-ups in the service industry, currently ranking 15th in Asia (Photograph - iChongqing Media Library)
We live in a world whose future is shaped by what is happening in cities. In this regard, Chinese cities are undeniably at the center of the world economy. The World Economic Forum includes seven Chinese cities in a list of the ten cities that will contribute the most to the global GDP by 2030. These are Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Suzhou.
Furthermore, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are among the world's top-five city start-up incubators and future 'unicorns.' Chongqing offers an increasingly competitive 'ecosystem' for developing start-ups in the service industries, ranking currently 11th in China and 15th in Asia.
The establishment and development of cutting-edge firms such as 'unicorns' require highly efficient urban infrastructure, particularly telecommunications and transportation, a solid domestic market, and an efficient and competitive education system. Therefore, Chinese cities are not mere recipients of foreign investments and manufacturing production but fundamentally spaces of thriving service industries, mass consumption, and entrepreneurial innovation.
Foreign ministers from ASEAN pledge to fully implement new RCEP trade rules at an informal meeting held in Phnom Penh in February 2022 (Photograph - iChongqing Media Library)
During the last two decades, after obtaining its WTO membership in December 2001, China has consolidated its economy at the center of world trade. China is now the leading actor in designing multilateral trade-governing frameworks.
The negotiations to consolidate the US-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement collapsed amidst divergences among its founding members; meanwhile, China's foreign and commercial policy in the Asia Pacific Region were crucial factors behind the successful approval of the world's largest regional trade block in November 2020.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The combined population of the 15 RCEP members is approximately 2.2 billion (30% of the global population), whereas their combined economies represent 28% of the global GDP (USD 25.8 trillion).
This partnership places China as the trade center of Asia, considering the dimension of its economy, and as one of the main poles in world trade. From a consumption perspective, China's robust and well-off urban society is shaping the demand for different commodities and services in the world market.
China's rising status in the international arena has been further enhanced by the nation leading in many world market sectors, including tourism and the service industry (Photograph - iChongqing Media Library)
For instance, the World Tourism Organization of the United Nations ranked China as the world's top tourism spender for the first time in 2012, surpassing the far United States, Germany, and the UK. This means that Chinese tourists are the central dynamo of consumption in the world's tourist sector and all related service industries. New trade deals, such as the RCEP, are increasingly incorporating the service economy, such as tourism, as part of the negotiations.
In conclusion, market size and sophistication, the scope of investments, technological development, and entrepreneurial spirit are among the main variables underpinning China's undeniable international leadership. Its global status as a solid, innovative, and creative economy leading in many sectors and industries is critical in understanding the new trends and developments in the world markets.
In other words, China's remarkable economic transformation reshaped its society and environment and was a watershed moment for the world economy.
https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2022/article_0011.html
https://www.asiafinancial.com/china-and-huawei-top-global-patent-application-rankings
https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2021/cn.pdf
Dr. Miguel Angel Hidalgo Martinez is from Queretaro, Mexico, and obtained a BA in International Relations from the Technological Institute of Higher Education of Monterrey (ITESM), Mexico. Dr. Martinez later moved to China to study the Chinese language and culture at the Dalian University of Foreign Languages in Liaoning province. He studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing, earning an MA in Public Policy.
For his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, Dr. Martinez analyzed urban infrastructure development in China, focusing on Chongqing city's infrastructure. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the Department of China Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in Suzhou, China.
The original title of the article is Analysis of China’s Rising International Status in the New Era and Great Changes in National Development
By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.
For any inquiries, please email service@ichongqing.info