Pursuing Balanced Growth
China strives to seek a balance between self-sufficiency and global participation in achieving future economic goals
Founder and CEO of US-based consulting firms 5 New Digital and China BrightStar
As China strives to achieve its goal to build a modern socialist economy with Chinese characteristics, it needs to maintain its growth trajectory. At the recently concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, laid out the path forward for the country’s economic growth and modernisation. He called for furthering reform and opening-up policies while also emphasising the need for achieving self-sufficiency in key sectors.
A big question on the minds of businesses, investors and global leaders in the lead-up to the Party congress was “Where does the Chinese economy go from here?” While there is no easy answer to this question, we can begin by recognising that China is facing many of the same challenges that other
From a historical perspective of the time needed for the full development of a nation’s economy from an undeveloped starting point, China has exceeded all norms, expectations and historical precedents over the last 30 years.
China’s GDP has grown from roughly $500 billion in 1992 to the present level of more than $15 trillion, second only to the United States.
How rapid was China’s economic rise? In 1992, India’s GDP was $288 billion and it now stands at $3.18 trillion. We can make similar comparisons to economies in South America, Africa and other parts of Asia and the conclusion is the same. China built its economy faster than any other country on Earth during this period and at an all-time high rate.
China’s reform and opening-up policies focus on establishing and improving a market-oriented economic system, private-public corporate development and absorbing best business practices, technology, investment and talent from outside China. These movements help to unleash the dynamic drive, brainpower and entrepreneurial instinct of Chinese citizens. In the past decade, the world has witnessed the flowering of Chinese innovation as the need to copy ideas and processes from other countries has receded. Today, Chinese companies are known the world over as some of the biggest global brands are now Chinagrown, including Huawei, China Mobile, Alibaba, TikTok and SHEIN, a global