This book tries to reflect on the gains that China has made from its policies on globalization and give a detailed review on the relationship between China and the rest of the world regarding the concept of globalization. A summary of China’s policies in approaching globalization has been elaborated. This book tends to unravel the myth of globalization and gives an account of the pros and cons of the concept.
Insight to an era of globalization in China. Globalization is featured by the flow of goods and services within the globe. This includes optimized allocation of technology, capital and information. With this era of information technology revolution globalization has become inevitable. No country can prosper alone and hence interaction and economic integration important each day. After years of isolation, china has learnt that seclusion leads to backwardness and that growth, development and progress are brought about by opening and integrating with other counties through exchanges and cooperation.
China has therefore taken to embrace opportunities created by globalization and has been implementing various reforms to keep up with the changing world. China, which has a population of about 1.3 billion people, creates an important market to both developed and developing countries. Therefore prosperous china means a good market and by extension a high demand for goods and services. During the recent world economic crisis, China was very instrumental in the recovery of the Asian market because of its fast economic growth. China is now calling for a new world economic order that ensures all countries, rich and poor, big and small, developed or developing have equal opportunities in global affairs. It is calling for a principle of mutual benefits and equitable distribution of the opportunities created by globalization. Studying China in this era of globalization is a puzzle because in one aspect it is viewed as a bully especially by the west who feel their interests are being threatened. It is accused of exploiting poor African countries of their resources without really caring about the welfare of their people. Its policy of giving aid to African countries without preset conditions is seen by the west as if the country is supporting dictatorship and bad governance in the country. On the other hand, some African countries see china as an alternative source of funding without having to fulfill preset conditions as those set by the west. There has been a lot of competition between China and the west over the exploitation of resources in Africa. China has been accused of dumping cheap low quality goods to poor nations and hence killing the domestic industries.
RE-ENGAGEMENT IN WORLD ECONOMY
China has adopted a systematic opening up policy in all fields including social development .In the economic field; China is exploiting its low labor cost in attracting foreigners to invest in their country and this way integrating the Chinese economy to the world economy. China is also promoting regional integration with other Asian economies to enhance risk resistance ability. China has signed several economic treaties with its Asian neighbors in order to forge closer economic treaties. In the recent past, the Chinese government has held several summits involving Chinese officials and African leaders to discuss trade and investment opportunities existing between those two blocks. This has led to the outcry of Chinese motive in Africa!
In the 1997 financial crisis in Asia, China used a responsible approach to help affected countries strengthen and reconstruct their financial system. This helped to normalize the financial situation in the region. China has increased trade with the semi-autonomous Taiwan creating market for its products. Trade between China and Japan has increased tremendously and China is now Japan’s no.1 importer overtaking the US.
China has been pushing for restructuring of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which it accuses of policies that favor developed countries and therefore creating trade imbalances. This also slows development in developing nations as they are plunged into unending debts. China has signed various trade agreements with the US and European Union and this has made it assert it’s position as world power. In summary cheap labor, vast ready market and emerging technology has strengthened China’s say in the global economy. This means the bargaining strength of China as a global economic giant cannot be overlooked and that China will play a central role in shaping future trade policies. All this can be attributed to the establishment of a market economy that helped China’s economy rebound after years of seclusion and stagnation.
BEYOND BILATERALISM; what statistics don’t tell us?
Because of lack of equitable and just world economic order, the impact and severity of globalization in different countries varies. The benefits or “˜dividends’ from globalization are not fairly distributed. Developed countries have an upper hand in terms of technology, capital and administrative expertise .They are in fact the drivers and greatest beneficiaries of globalization. So far the statistics and data presented do not clearly show how developing countries benefit from bilateral including those signed between poor African countries and China .They also fail to tell us how the benefits are monitored to ensure ordinary citizens have their share and not just the elite in power.
Statistics also fail to explain bilateral agreements and globalization affect economic security and sovereignty of developing countries. Though China has been praised for not interfering with the internal affairs of a country there is doubt as to the feature of these agreements. There is no concrete information given on the risks of globalization and how prepared these countries are to face the challenge in case it occurs.
The impact of bilateral agreements and globalization on cultural diversity especially in developing countries has not been well elaborated. These agreements have also led to influx of substandard and unsafe goods to the African market. This kills the local industries and increases overreliance to the developed countries. This also reduces employment in developing countries
The political impact of bilateral agreements cannot be ignored as was experienced in the cold war. Big nations, China included try to woe small nations in order to get support especially in the United Nations for geopolitical reasons.