Initiatives show global leadership

China’s continued openingup of its economy will help it become a good role model for other countries, as globalization is under threat from protectionist forces in other parts of the world, said Rana Mitter, director of the University of Oxford China Center.

Mitter said China-led initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as well as the country’s commitment to climate change mitigation goals, already demonstrate its global leadership.

Mitter was speaking ahead of the 19th CPC National Congress, when the Party will set the country’s strategic direction and select its leaders.

He said it is important for the nation’s leadership to reaffirm at the congress commitment to “an open, global China that will commit to mutually beneficial interaction with its neighbors and the world”.

Mitter, a professor of Chinese history and politics, said the international community was pleased to hear President Xi Jinping’s advocacy for globalization at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

Xi’s address at Davos came as Britain started preparations to leave the European Union and US President Donald Trump implemented protectionist measures such as pulling the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“Around the world in many places people are becoming fearful of the economic future. People are fearful that the old industries are not able to provide for them at a time when new technologies are emerging,” Mitter said.

“With China championing the Belt and Road Initiative and the AIIB, it is sending an important signal to the wider

“WITH CHINA CHAMPIONING THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE AND THE AIIB, IT IS SENDING AN IMPORTANT SIGNAL TO THE WIDER WORLD TO CREATE A MORE INTEGRATED ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WIDER REGION.”

world to create a more integrated economic relationship with the wider region.”

And as a part of this leadership role, China should set a good example of free trade by further opening up its economy for international access and further integrating its financial system into the international financial system, he said. “For China to achieve some of its ambitions, such as the internationalization of the renminbi, more transparency is needed.”

China’s biggest achievement in recent years has been its ability to maintain GDP growth despite adverse external developments and domestic challenges, said Jim O’Neill, the economist who coined the acronym BRIC.

O’Neill came up with the term in 2001 as a way to describe Brazil, Russia, India and China as a group of nations at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. They were viewed as the economic powerhouses of the future. South Africa was added nine years later, creating the term BRICS.

“China is the only one of the four BRIC countries that, since 2011, has grown in line with my expectations,” O’Neill said, ahead of the 19th CPC National Congress. “Brazil and Russia have struggled, India has done better, but China has managed to grow at close to 7.5 percent for the decade, in line with the official desire to double living standards this decade.”

O’Neill, a former chief economist with Goldman Sachs, said few large countries have walked the path toward prosperity as successfully.

As the world’s second-largest economy, China’s GDP is close to $12 trillion, which is more than twice that of Japan, and larger than all the other Jon Taylor,

Some of the biggest challenges facing China are furthering and deepening supplyside reform, maintaining economic stability, cutting both air and water pollution, keeping home prices under control, preserving the renminbi’s value, combating corruption, and confronting the demographic pressures that have arisen with both an aging population and internal migration of labor.

My advice would be to remember that China remains a developing country and that its market reforms are incomplete. Meeting the challenges will require strong political leadership that will maintain social stability while pursuing deepened reform. My advice would also include support for greener growth, shifting China to a more sustainable energy path and promoting sustainable agriculture practices.

“XI CAN RIGHTLY BE VIEWED AS BOTH A MODERNIZER AND A REFORMER WHO HAS DONE A SUPERB JOB IN PROVIDING AUTHORITATIVE LEADERSHIP AND POLITICAL STABILITY.”

professor of political science and director of the public policy and administration master’s program at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas

Rana Mitter, director of the University of Oxford China Center