Globalization Of China | EssayIvy.com

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Globalization of China

Introduction

The past few decades have heightened the tremendous impact that China has shown on the

global stage. Defined as the process where a country integrates the economies between different

nations by increasing the impact and influence of international economic aspects, globalization

has contributed much to China's history. The phenomenon of globalization has continuously and

it still changing the way of living in the country. Due to globalization, people have been moving

to cities since the early 1900s, and the industry of China as a country has expanded beyond the

imagination of other nations (Edward 320). It cannot be denied that China has been active in the

global market ever since the early years. With the aim of getting to the core of globalization in

China, it is essential to ask and answer some questions that highlight some of the terms that shed

light on how the country has changed over time. Some of these terms include economic growth,

the comparison between the time, changes in policymaking, sustainability, production of goods

and services as well as a change in the standards of living.

Some of the Questions

In the light of this, China is put under the question of being able to indeed hold on to the role of

being the leader of globalization. Questions such as “how will China lead globalization?” and

“How will Xi Jin Ping play a role in the realization of China being the trendsetter?” arise along

with the issue.

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Background

After many decades of poor economic performance especially from the historically dominant

country, China made enormous reforms starting from early 1978. For example, the economic

depression of the 1930s left the country down as the ration of foreign trade to GDP shocked

every citizen. Since most of the strong manufacturing sectors relied on the better economy

before great economic depression 1930s, China faced many challenges. As Lowe (653)

highlights, the country went through a hard time including the Chinese Civil War that was

between the communists and their counterparts nationalists. As a result, this worsened the

situation by disrupting any economic recuperation. In other words, it is worth mentioning that

the country was at its worst in most of the social service deliveries.

Not until in 1958-1961 where the country started making some series of economic reforms

which were known as "Great leap forward," the country was in bad shape as far as its economic

performance is concerned. Furthermore, the launch of such reforms under the communist agenda

brought more disruptions as the economy of the country stagnated. In fact, this was primarily

because of the poor quality of life which was characterized by the famine as well as purges

killings that left millions of teenagers dead.

Reforms that Changed China

The rise of an Asian state as the lead of globalization is something new. Emphasizing China as

the lead convener of a more progressive global arena calls for possible changes in the system.

The transition from the West's lead to a country from the East is a context to be considereond.

The idea sparks personal interest as to how will the transition turn out.

In an article "The changing world economy" Steger (635) highlights how Deng Xiao

Ping changed the economy of the country especially after seizing control of China following the

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reign of the gang of four in the late 1970s. Despite the fact that the nation, was under chaos and

thus deviated from presenting its best in the global stage in the years of Mao Ze Dong’s

dictatorship, the Post-Mao Zed Dong China took some time to recover but eventually led to the

development of a fast-paced society that grew more involved in globalization. Following the end

of Mao Ze Dong’s rule was the start of Deng Xiao Ping’s where he initiated a policy that

showed the country opening to the world.

Deng Xiao Ping came up with a policy that to enact ambitious and strategic economic

reforms that opened the gates of the thriving Chinese economy to the world. In other words, this

was the time that the country said enough is enough and embarked on opening up to fix the

broken economy that had lasted for many years (Lowe 645). Deng’s “reform and open up”

policy developed China to be a more active state within the globe. An article from the University

of Cambridge states that this has inherently led to the continuous entry of foreign goods into

China as well as the equally rated exit of goods from their local market to the worlds. Ideas, not

just goods, reached the country and had helped in the massive improvement of China’s

consumption pattern, a way of living and development in their “architecture and spatial

organization.”

Under the new leadership, China as a country started offering the wealth of cheap

Chinese labor to various foreign countries in a bid to bring foreign investment. Such investment

was projected to boost both urbanizations as well as the living standards of people in general

(Steger 17). In this perspective, it is worth mentioning that offering cheap Chinese labor had in

the past contributed to the boosting of Chinese manufacturing sector. According to Duara (152),

the first round economic reforms witnessed the liberalization of different industries including

agriculture. For example, the sector of agriculture started allowing crops to be sold at what

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Duara called market mechanism price, especially after production quotas. As a result, this

created a room for boosting efficiency as many farmers sought the final profit margins.

In conjunction with most of these reforms, different special economic zones were formed

in various coastal provinces with the aim of allowing special tax incentives, especially for

interested foreign investors. In other words, this strategy was to enable such provinces to depend

on international trade. In fact, this period witnessed different zones relying on foreign

investment for their economic growth. For example, a region like Shenzhen registered an

auspicious time as it witnessed its growth of GDP at an annual average of more than 28%

(Gardels). As Eckes (408) indicates, such increase in GDP was missing for decades in China.

While comparing with the national average of 10%, these special economic zones realized a

transformation from fishing villages and turned to the thriving economic centers. In this

perspective, it there is no doubt that these zones experienced stock exchange business for the

first time.

Like any other catching topic of discussion, the Chinese transformation continues to

attract the attention of many scholars in the modern time. For example, how the creation of

unique zones in China such as those in Shenzhen became the engines of growth for what many

had termed as "stagnant economy." The economic performance of China increased to the extent

of 10% GDP growth rate against the United States which was hovering around 2% (Eckes 415).

Four Ways of China’s Transformation

First, the government of China decided to move its economy from the socialist business model

that blocked the growth of the country for many decades. During the socialist model, the

economy of the country was stagnant especially under the inefficient “State-owned enterprises”

(SOEs). In this case, the government of China embraced the brand of capitalism of what they

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prefer calling "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics." Second, the country moved from being

an agricultural economy and welcomed the industrialized economic model. In fact, most of the

rural peasant-based business was transformed to urban-based societies.

Third, since China was previously focused on the domestic economy, most of the reforms

changed the focus to trade-oriented model. Besides, this was highly integrated with the ideas of

the global economy in a bid to utilize the opportunities of globalization. As a result, this allowed

the country to strengthen its manufacturing sector with was down for decades to start exporting

to different countries with wealthier consumers (Duara 173). In other words, these reforms

allowed China to gain the global stage in business. Lastly, research shows that China as a

country became one of the world's economic power through contributing to global output, trade

investments as well as economic growth which allowed the state to utilize its international

power through the creation of beneficial trade factors which were in its favor including trade

agreements.

Impact of Globalization on China

According to Steger (23), the influence of globalization, especially to the economic performance

of China, has been much significant. While looking at the economic growth that was hovering

around 8-10% around the 1990s to 2000s, there is no doubt that the drivers of such economy

were the business investment as well as the net exports (Steger 23). In fact, a significant

contribution of this growth has been the influence of foreign direct investment. In their research,

Eckes and Alfred (420) indicate that foreign direct investment contributed to more than 45% of

GDP by 2007. Furthermore, this was primarily because of the encouragement that Chinese

government brought through the concessions that witnessed the creation of special economic

zones to attract foreign business. However, various reports show that overdependence of foreign

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investors by China has sometimes been unfavorable since the country in one way would drop in

growth as a result of Asian Financial Crisis and in most cases the poor investors’ confidences.

For the past few years, the government of China under the leadership of Xi Jin Ping has

been working on the restructuring process of the country's economy. One of the strategies has

been concentrating on the wage increment as well as pulling middle class into an increased

expenditure with the aim of reforming economic growth. The idea has been to let the economic

growth hinge on consumption instead of overdependence on foreign investment (Duara 182).

More so, this has been dramatically on the consideration that is given to labor force when it

comes to Chinese population age. As research shows, these reforms have been partly because of

the Chinese economic growth decrease as the country registered drops roughly from 10% to

approximately 7%. Besides, many companies started to seek for dirt and cheap labor which as

well dropped the standards of living.

Economic Growth.For decades, the country's economy made leaps as well as bounds especially

regarding human development and non-material indicators of living standard. For example, the

last 30 years indicate that China’s economic growth resulted in more than 600 million people in

the country to jump the poverty line of living on a less than $1 in a day. Despite the fact that

China's reforms significantly reduced poverty, it still leaves a vast gap to be closed when it

comes to the total number of Chinese citizens who are still struggling with debt by the great leap

forward (Edward 327). For example, millions of people in China are still unable to access clean

drinking water, and this indicates that the rapid growth of China through the creation of special

economic zones benefited a few in the global scale. Therefore, who benefits and who does not

have recently been politicalized in one way or the other.

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Increase in Inequality.Among other things, globalization has created inequality among the

citizens of China. In comparison to former governments, the gap between those in government

and private citizens have been increasing. Furthermore, the creation of special economic zones

to became prosperous left most of the other provinces behind. Despite the good intentions, these

reforms created an inequality that was not there before (Edward 329). As a result, the standards

of living and economic status of some people became batter at the expense of other millions of

Chinese population. Therefore, globalization in China brought adverse effects despite the

opportunities that came with such elements.

Unemployment.As Lowe (653) highlights, unemployment is one of the severe economic

challenges that came with globalization in China. As the country underwent various reforms

especially those that focused on opening up liberal internal markets, most of the SOEs were

undermined as the private sector was preferred. As a result, many people lost their jobs since

most of the positions in the new model required advanced skills.

My Opinion

In my opinion, the impact of globalization as far as China's economy and standards of living are

concerned, there is no doubt that globalization has been good for the country. For example, the

economic growth was lifted than never before, and this resulted in better outcomes for

development in different aspects. In this case, living standards of millions of people got better,

personal income was increased, and international relations between countries has been

strengthened in one way or the other. Despite the adverse effects of globalization in China

including unemployment, inequality to mention but a few, it is undeniably true that globalization

lifted the country from a lower level to one of the leading economic leaders in the world.

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Works Cited

Duara, Prasenjit. "History and Globalization in China's Long Twentieth Century." Modern

China, vol. 34, no. 1, 2008, pp. 152-164.

Eckes, Alfred E. "Globalization." A Companion to International History 1900–2001, pp. 408-

421.

Edward, Wang, Q. "Globalization, Global History and Local Identity in ‘Greater

China’." History Compass, vol. 8, no. 4, 2010, pp. 320-329.

Gardels, Nathan. “China Is Now The De Facto Leader Of Globalization.” The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Jan. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-leader-

globalization_us_58753fe8e4b02b5f858ba6ce.

Lowe, Norman. "The changing world economy since 1900." Mastering Modern World

History, 2013, pp. 635-666.

Steger, Manfred. "2. Globalization and history: is globalization a new

phenomenon?" Globalization, 2013, pp. 17-36.

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