Global Significance of China’s Economic Development
By CAI FANG
On September 14, the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, people bustle about the Liberation Stele of southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, where the huge national flag draws crowds.
O VER the past seven decades since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949, China has emerged as the second largest economy in the world from a once poor country. While enabling its people to live a well-off life,China has also made prominent contributions to the world’s economic growth.
Why Is China’s Experience in Development Important?
After the founding of the PRC, the Chinese economy embarked on a journey of independent development.On an economic foundation built over the first 30 years,China implemented the reform and opening-up policy in the following 40 years. In the process, institutional barriers of the planned economy were removed, and effective motivation mechanisms of a market economy have been put in place, enabling reallocation of resources. China has also participated in the global division of labor. Incorporating these efforts, China created an economic miracle never seen before in history while also making a prominent contribution to the world’s economic development.
China’s current standing in the global economy is the result of the reform and opening-up over the last four decades and the explorations it made during the 30 years before the implementation of the policy. The founding of the PRC in 1949 saved China from the clutches of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and enabled it to develop as an independent country. China restored its economy from social unrest, improved people’s livelihood, and substantially reduced mortality rate. As for the population growth pattern, the country evolved from a phase featuring high fertility and mortality rates and a low natural growth rate to a phase characterized by high fertility, low mortality, and high growth rate. That shift was inevitable for China to later come to the phase when fertility, mortality, and natural population growth rates are all low, and reap its demographic dividend for economic growth.
The complete industrial system the country built in the first 30 years after the PRC was founded laid a foundation for industrial restructuring and effective resource allocation during reform and openingup. The newly founded PRC prioritized heavy industry in national development. This was a rational choice under the historical conditions at the time. Facing development bottlenecks brought about by the economic blockade by Western countries, China had to depend on its heavy industry. Admittedly, its economy failed to catch up to developed nations and fell further behind during those three decades.
In fact, due to the dichotomy of the global economic system as a result of the Cold War, that round of so-called globalization was restricted to a certain scope. In the 1990s, emerging economies and many countries transformed from planned economies adopted the policy of opening up and took part in the new round of economic globalization, which fundamentally changed the global economic landscape. China actively participated in this process and also benefited from this round of globalization. Within 40 years, it overtook many developed economies.
美国国家标准与技术研究院（National Institute of Standards and Technology，NIST）对云计算的定义：云计算可提供快速的包括网络、服务器、存储、应用软件、服务等计算机网络资源，采用的是按量付费的模式，可提供按需的便捷网络访问，与资源供应商交互少，投资也少。所谓的“云”，是指计算机网络资源中的服务器群，主要提供存储和数据计算等服务。云计算技术就是将计算机技术与互联网技术相结合形成全新的计算机网络服务技术。
Entering the 21st century, China has increasing impact on the world economy with its high-speed growth rate, expanding economic size, and bigger share in the global economy. Besides material outputs, the country has been creating public goods for the international community, with its experience and development philosophies gained in reform and opening-up, as well as its increasing voice in shaping policies and constructive suggestions to development strategies.
As a result of global economic convergence, the average income per capita in developing countries rose significantly, and the population living in absolute poverty and the headcount poverty ratio across the world dropped by an unprecedented extent. With the overall improvement of household incomes in both rural and urban areas brought by reform and opening-up, China lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and made great contributions to the global poverty reduction efforts. The World Bank estimated that the number of extremely poor people, those who live on US $1.90 a day or less, had fallen by 1.14 billion from 1981 to 2015.This means more than 60 percent of people living in extreme poverty were lifted out of distress. Of the total number, 76.2 percent were able to live a better-off life in China.
China doesn’t seek economic hegemony, nor export its development mode. However, as the world’s second largest economy, the largest industrial country, the biggest exporter of goods, and the country with the largest foreign exchange reserves, China is duty-bound to be a voice for itself and other developing countries, especially emerging economies, concerning international economic and trade policies, while also leading the efforts in improving the approach to global governance.
China had been contributing more than 10 percent to global economic growth since 1990. This figure held steady at around 30 percent after the 2008 global financial crisis. When compared with other regions, China’s economy maintains stable growth and plays an increasingly prominent role in stabilizing the world’s economy.
The growth of emerging economies and developing countries, largely led by China, makes the theory of global economic convergence a reality. From 1978 to 2017, the share of low-income and middle-income countries in global GDP rose from 21.3 percent to 35.3 percent,whereas the proportion of China’s GDP in the total volume of low-income and middle-income nations jumped from 5.3 percent to 36 percent. During this period, in terms of constant prices, the total economic volume of all low-income and middle-income countries quadrupled. Among them, China contributed as much as 43.6 percent.
The global economy would have been totally different without the high growth achieved by China. The growth rate variance of the global economy without China far outnumbers that including China. As the Chinese economy continues expanding and stabilizing,its role in fortifying the global economy is becoming increasingly prominent.
最后，相关部门分工协作、紧密配合，全盘掌管课题资金的使用。应由科管科负责监督检查课题实施执行情况；项目负责人每季度召开会议，向财务科、科管科汇报项目经费使用情况及项目进展情况；财务科根据课题预算表和决算表、财务项目支出表、财务原始凭证、固定资产台账、公共实验室的实物资产、科管科的课题结题验收材料，全程监管课题经费使用情况。
Chinese characteristics do not mean its development path is exclusive to China. In retrospect, China’s reform and opening-up shows the logic behind its development and the three necessary steps and conditions to catch up to developed nations.
The first step was the introduction of an appropriate incentive mechanism. After the PRC was founded,to keep the price of agricultural products at a low level for industrial development, a priority of the national economy at that time, China adopted a state monopoly on the purchase and marketing of agricultural products.Accordingly, the country established communes, where people worked collectively and shared the welfare, and introduced the household registration system across the nation to retain productive factors and labor forces for agriculture. The system resulted in misallocation of resources and poor productivity of the agricultural sector. The lack of incentives seriously impacted the economy before reform and opening-up started.
Decoding China’s Success
Before the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy, China distanced itself from Western countries and international organizations, and explored its path to development independently. After the policy was implemented, China established partnerships with multinational agencies, like the World Bank, by engaging in global trade,introducing foreign investment into the country, and encouraging its businesses to go global.
Since the inception, China has never adopted previous dogmas, or copied established development paths or so-called consensus.Instead, the country has implemented progressive reform by the principle of inclusive development, for the fundamental purpose of improving productivity, composite national strengths,and the people’s livelihood.
The growth of emerging economies and developing countries, largely led by China, makes the theory of global economic convergence a reality.
发射机的互调发射(IM)是由于发射机末级功率放大器包含非线性元器件，当同时存在多个信号时，这些信号间由于相互调制而产生增生信号[1,2].当发射机距离较近，如一个基站或一个军用平台上通常有多部发射机，发射机互调易于发生，若没有准确掌握发射机的互调特性，则同一区域内的其它无线电设备就存在被干扰的潜在风险.
Under those circumstances, reform that could improve agricultural productivity would be embraced by the public especially those in rural areas. The household responsibility contract system was installed nationwide. A performance-based evaluation system and the rising price of agricultural products sparked farmers’enthusiasm. As a result, agricultural output increased exponentially over a short period of time, lifting a substantial proportion of rural residents out of poverty and raising the supply of agricultural products.
The 2019 China Industrial Internet Conference & Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Digital Economy Conference kicks off on August 27, 2019 in Guangzhou.
The second step concerned economic restructuring for reallocation of resources. With increasing enthusiasm and productivity, the hours of labor input per unit of land substantially dropped, resulting in more surplus labor in the agricultural sector. Under the household responsibility contract system, farmers gained the autonomy to allocate production factors, particularly their own labor. Based on market rules, the surplus labor forces flowed to other sectors and regions.
2.3.3 培育壮秧，增强抗性。壮秧根系发达，抗逆性强。春季要旱育稀植和喷施多效唑，是培育壮秧行之有效的方法。
Thanks to the gradual removal of institutional barriers to the free flow of labor, the personal motivation to improve income and the driving forces for resources reallocation jointly made large-scale labor migration a reality, and also drove economic restructuring at the macro level. During reform and opening-up, China’s overall productivity rose 17-fold. About half of this increase (44.9 percent) is attributed to the reallocation of labor forces across the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries and their migration from the agricultural sector to non-agricultural sectors.
Over the last four decades of reform and openingup, China’s economy has witnessed an average annual growth of 9.5 percent. With such an achievement, China made a great contribution to the global economic convergence as well as the rise of the developing world.Thanks to the participation of developing countries in the process of globalization, emerging economies realized substantial development, enabling the first-ever global economic convergence in history. This shows that China’s reform and opening-up has both unique characteristics and conforms to the general rules of development.
The expanding trade volumes, inflow of foreign investment, and the booming export-oriented economy in the coastal areas created a great number of jobs for the surplus labor forces. China emerged as a manufacturing powerhouse.
The third step was participation in the global industrial chain. China’s economic reform was implemented in tandem with the policy of opening its market to the outside world. In 1979, the special economic zone concept was approved by the central government. It was followed by the opening up of coastal cities, coastal provinces, and the entire Chinese market. In 1986, China applied for the restoration as a signatory country of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the predecessor of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2001,China acceded to the WTO.
New Contributions to Global Economic Growth
The 70-year history of the PRC is a journey of exploration and innovation. Whether achieving success or dealing with setbacks, they are valuable lessons and experience, which can be shared with other developing countries. Based on its accumulated experience, China is expected to continue its development on the path of reform and opening-up toward the goals it has set and make greater contributions to the world.
The first goal is upgrading economic growth drivers. As the Chinese economy goes through the Lewis turning point, meaning the surplus rural labor reaches a financial zero, and the demographic dividends diminish, the stage of dualistic economy will end. Economic growth will be more dependent on the productivity increase driven by skilled labor forces, competition based on market rules, and technological innovation.
To avoid the middle-income trap, China needs to deepen economic institutional reform in all respects.The advancement of reform will increase potential economic growth rate. Given the effects of reform policies,China’s potential growth rate is expected to outperform the global average and that of high-income countries like the U.S. in the foreseeable future.
大概是这位阿姨把这些话传给了婆婆，等阿姨们走了，婆婆拉着我的手感动地说：“孩子，以前妈做得不好，以后我们好好做家人。”我点头。
The second goal is extending reform, opening-up and development to more regions and sectors. In China’s case, the coastal areas first implemented the reform and opening-up policy and realized economic growth.Amid widening regional disparities, two mechanisms played a mitigating role. The first is the market rules. A booming manufacturing sector in the coastal regions created great demands for labor, attracting the inflow of rural surplus labor from the central and western regions. Rural residents’ income and the overall productivity were increased as a result.
苹果树“巧施肥”，要突出一个“巧”字，要巧在时间点上，巧在施肥量上，巧在配方上。下面，笔者结合对陕西彬州市南北两塬果园施肥情况实地调查，谈谈苹果园如何巧施肥。
The second is based on government policies and strategies boosting the economy. Initiatives for regional coordinated development, like those for China’s vast western regions, have helped improve the infrastructure and business climate in central and western areas.
生态学是一门综合性、实践性很强的学科。室内实验与野外调查相结合是生态学教学中一项十分重要的教学活动，是检验理论知识掌握得牢固与否的主要手段。
As the Chinese economy passes the Lewis turning point, labor shortage will become a more prominent problem in its coastal regions, which will further diminish the comparative advantages of their labor-intensive manufacturing industry. The central and western regions have the conditions to take over the relocated industries from the coastal regions. A model of the flying geese paradigm for domestic division of labor based on the comparative advantages of the coastal, central, and western regions is taking shape.
At the same time, China rolled out plans of regional integrated development like the building of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the integration of the Yangtze River Delta Region. The plans aim to maintain the strengths of the manufacturing sector. The diminishing comparative advantages of China’s labor-intensive industries necessitate the forming of a flying geese paradigm for the international division of labor. In other words, the production of some goods should move from China, which sees rising labor costs,to neighboring countries or African economies where labor is abundant. The Belt and Road Initiative is implemented with infrastructure projects as the focus of efforts. Based on this, some industries will be transferred.The pattern is in line with the flying geese paradigm and has proven to be successful by China’s domestic practice.
Last but not least, China deepens reform and opening-up by the principle of shared and inclusive development. Nations across the world pursue economic progress not for development per se, but for the people’s wellbeing. The reason why reform and openingup has been embraced by the Chinese people is because it puts the people’s wellbeing as the ultimate goal. This is also the secret for China’s success over the past four decades.
(3)发展农村社会保障事业，完善农村扶贫体系。除了前面提到的新型农村合作医疗制度，政府从2007年开始，先后建立了农村最低生活保障制度、新型农村养老保险制度、社会救助制度等，并完善了农村“五保户”制度，初步形成了农村社会保障网络。这些农村社会保障制度虽然多为普惠性制度，但是由于它们瞄准的多为贫困人口集中的低收入农户、老年人口和患病人群，客观上起着一定的扶贫作用，成为了中国农村扶贫体系的重要组成部分。
CAI FANG is vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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