China, Trade and Power


Book Description

From a Western point of view, the policy of economic engagement with China has failed. A rapid rise in living standards in China has helped legitimize and strengthen the Chinese Communist Party's power. How did Western, market-orientated, property-owning, liberal democracies go from being in a position of complete global hegemony in the early 1990s to the current crisis of confidence and loss of moral foundation? This book tells the story of the most successful trading nation of the early twenty-first century. It looks at how the Communist Party of China has retained and cemented its monopoly on political power since China's accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001. It is the most extraordinary economic success story of our time and it has reshaped the geopolitics not just of Asia but of the world. As China has come to dominate global manufacturing, its economic power has been translated into political power, and the West now has a global rival that is politically antithetical to liberal values. The supply-side deflation from allowing 750 million low-cost workers into the global trading system combined with the policy of inflation targeting by Western central banks has led to falling real incomes for many in the West and rising asset prices that have benefited the few. Worse still, China's mercantilist model is now held up as a viable economic alternative. To have a fighting chance of protecting the freedoms of liberal democracies, it is of the utmost importance that we understand how the policy of indulgent engagement with China has affected Western society in recent years. Only then can the global trading system be reoriented for the mutual benefit of all nations.




Bridging The Pacific


Book Description

The terrain of the world trading system is shifting as countries in Asia, Europe, and North America negotiate new trade agreements. However, none of these talks include both China and the United States, the two biggest economies in the world. In this pathbreaking study, C. Fred Bergsten, Gary Clyde Hufbauer, and Sean Miner argue that China and the United States would benefit substantially from a bilateral free trade and investment accord. In the process, they contend, each country would also achieve progress in addressing its internal economic challenges, such as the low saving rate in the United States. Achieving greater trade and investment integration could be accomplished with one comprehensive effort or through step-by-step negotiations over key issues. The authors call on the United States to seek liberalization of China's services sector as vital to securing an agreement, and they explain that such contentious matters as cyber espionage and currency manipulation be handled through parallel negotiations rather than in the agreement itself. This is an important study of the benefits and difficulties of a complex matter that could yield dividends to the two economies and help stabilize the security and well-being of the rest of the world.




Schism


Book Description

China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 was heralded as historic, and for good reason: the world's most populous nation was joining the rule-based system that has governed international commerce since World War II. But the full ramifications of that event are only now becoming apparent, as the Chinese economic juggernaut has evolved in unanticipated and profoundly troublesome ways. In this book, journalist Paul Blustein chronicles the contentious process resulting in China's WTO membership and the transformative changes that followed, both good and bad - for China, for its trading partners, and for the global trading system as a whole. The book recounts how China opened its markets and underwent far-reaching reforms that fuelled its economic takeoff, but then adopted policies - a cheap currency and heavy-handed state intervention - that unfairly disadvantaged foreign competitors and circumvented WTO rules. Events took a potentially catastrophic turn in 2018 with the eruption of a trade war between China and the United States, which has brought the trading system to a breaking point. Regardless of how the latest confrontation unfolds, the world will be grappling for decades with the challenges posed by China Inc.




US-China Trade Disputes


Book Description

As China continues its rise as a great power, The United States Congress and the administration wrestle with one another over the strategies to shape US-China economic relations. What major disputes now, and looming on the horizon, will shape future US-China relations? This book examines these issues and offers suggestions for both sides.




Developing China: The Remarkable Impact of Foreign Direct Investment


Book Description

The importance of foreign investment to China goes well beyond the USD 1.6 trillion in investment received since its opening. The unique analysis in this book shows that the investments, operations, and supply chains of foreign enterprises have accounted for roughly one-third of China’s GDP in recent years, and that foreign enterprises have made numerous additional contributions to China through technological, managerial, business practice, supply chain, and other spillovers. This book shows how China’s leaders managed this process and provides lessons for policy makers interested in building their own economies and tools for companies to demonstrate their contribution to host countries.




The State Strikes Back


Book Description

China's extraordinarily rapid economic growth since 1978, driven by market-oriented reforms, has set world records and continued unabated, despite predictions of an inevitable slowdown. In The State Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China?, renowned China scholar Nicholas R. Lardy argues that China's future growth prospects could be equally bright but are shadowed by the specter of resurgent state dominance, which has begun to diminish the vital role of the market and private firms in China's economy. Lardy's book arrives in timely fashion as a sequel to his pathbreaking Markets over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China, published by PIIE in 2014. This book mobilizes new data to trace how President Xi Jinping has consistently championed state-owned or controlled enterprises, encouraging local political leaders and financial institutions to prop up ailing, underperforming companies that are a drag on China's potential. As with his previous book, Lardy's perspective departs from conventional wisdom, especially in its contention that China could achieve a high growth rate for the next two decades—if it reverses course and returns to the path of market-oriented reforms.




US-China Economic Relations


Book Description

Outright trade war between the world’s two largest economies would be devastating to the working people of both countries, as well as destructive to the future of the entire world economy. The costs of conflict between China and the United States far outweigh the current causes of dispute in their economic relationship. These costs would be both direct, in terms of short-term losses of growth and employment, and indirect, in terms of long-term damage to the world trading system, diminishing investment and efficiency. There are points of genuine dispute between the United States and China over their economic interaction. Even if their economic significance is often exaggerated, these are legitimate points of contention and have to be addressed in a constructive manner. The analyses in this volume aim to contribute to a more reality-based consideration of both countries’ enlightened self-interests, which would yield progress on points of dispute in a manner consistent with keeping the world economy open for business.




The China-US Trade War and South Asian Economies


Book Description

The USA and China, the world’s largest economic powers, have been engaging in trade war since January 2018. The impact of this trade war is felt not only by US and China but also by other economies who have economic ties with them. This book provides insights into damages caused by this trade war. The first section of the book looks at the impact of the trade war on the global economy. It goes deeper to examine the trade war impact on the South Asian region. It is well-known that any imposition of new tariffs or an increase in existing tariffs would make imports more costly and render the exported goods less competitive. Yet, the book posits that the trade war has provided a window of opportunity to other countries not caught in it. The South Asian region, with countries like Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, has actually reaped benefits from the widening trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies. This book will be a useful reference to help policymakers to undertake informed decisions and initiate programs to minimise the trade war impact.




Global Economic Prospects, January 2019


Book Description

The outlook for the global economy has darkened. Global financing conditions have tightened, industrial production has moderated, trade tensions have intensified, and some large emerging market and developing economies have experienced significant financial market stress. Faced with these headwinds, the recovery in emerging market and developing economies has lost momentum. Downside risks have become more acute and include the possibility of disorderly financial market movements and an escalation of trade disputes. Debt vulnerabilities in emerging market and developing economies, particularly low-income countries, have increased. More frequent severe weather events would raise the possibility of large swings in international food prices, which could deepen poverty. In this difficult environment, it is of paramount importance for emerging market and developing economies to rebuild policy buffers while laying a stronger foundation for future growth by boosting human capital, promoting trade integration, and addressing the challenges associated with informality,




US-China Cooperation in a Changing Global Economy


Book Description

978-0-88132-729-8, PIIE, IIE, Peterson Institute for International Economics, US-China Cooperation in a Changing Global Economy, CF40, Adam S. Posen, China-US Economic Cooperation, Policy Changes, US Fiscal Policy, US Economy, Trump Administration, Exchange Rates, Finance, International Monetary System, G-20 Cooperation, Trade and Investment, US-China Trade Disputes, wto, bilateral Investment Treaty, fdi, Trade Wars