Economic Daily: (Tu Xinquan) takes proactive actions to contribute Chinese solutions to global economic governance
(Source: "Economic Daily" 2020-01-06)
The world today is undergoing a new round of major development, transformation and adjustment, and the transformation of the global governance system is accelerating. As a global public good, the global governance system has great particularities in its supply and demand. Although the demand for global public goods is worldwide, that is to say, all countries need it, its supply is in the hands of individual countries. The quantity and quality of supply largely depend on the will and ability of the hegemonic country, which leads to easy misalignment between supply and demand. Historically, the supply of global public goods has often been dominated or even monopolized by hegemonic countries. The global economic governance mechanism after World War II was mainly designed and promoted by the United States. Since the United States has long maintained its scale and quality advantages in various fields such as world economy, politics, science and technology, and military affairs, and its own economic development and maintenance of hegemony also require a stable global governance system, it has generally maintained a high willingness and ability to supply. However, after the global financial crisis in 2008, the relative advantage of the United States was significantly weakened, its status as a superpower was challenged to some extent, and its dissatisfaction with the current global governance system gradually accumulated. Moreover, due to the influence of multiple factors such as globalization, technological progress, and political system failure, the income distribution gap in the United States continues to widen, triggering the rise of domestic populism and blaming the so-called unfair global system as the main reason. Changes in mentality both internationally and domestically have led the United States to adopt a so-called destructive construction strategy towards the current global governance system, that is, to withdraw from multiple international organizations and agreements, including paralyzing the WTO's appellate body and refusing to pay United Nations dues; at the same time, it uses its strength to restructure bilateral systems that are beneficial to the United States, or to forcibly promote the reform of multilateral frameworks. The destructive actions of the United States have indeed had a serious impact on the operation of many international organizations, causing a significant shortage of supply in the current global governance system.
It should be said that this situation where one country catches a cold and causes the whole world to sneeze just shows that the current global governance system is seriously unreasonable and unbalanced. It is dangerous to pin the stability of the entire world system on one country. This state of affairs arises both from historical reasons and from the deliberate maintenance of individual countries or groups. More importantly, the core countries of the current system have a tendency to deny themselves, hoping to maximize their own interests by destroying this system to a certain extent, and the negative consequences will be more serious. Therefore, for the entire world or the global governance system, there is an urgent need for new forces to actively participate in the maintenance and construction of the global governance system and fill the system loopholes caused by the destruction of core countries. As a big country with a population of one billion and a GDP of 10 trillion, and as an important beneficiary and supporter of the current global governance system, China should make its own contribution to this.
However, China has its own unique understanding and conception of the transformation of the global governance system. Although we are willing to make greater efforts, this does not mean that China will replace the United States or join forces with the United States to lead the world. We do not believe that so-called hegemonic countries or major powers should monopolize or control the supply of global public goods. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly stated: "China adheres to the global governance concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits." China adheres to the global governance concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, actively advocates the concept of win-win cooperation and the correct view of justice and interests, and strives to promote the development of the global governance system in a more fair and reasonable direction. Today, no country can develop itself in isolation, and no country can live alone. To achieve self-development, cooperation is an inevitable choice. Old concepts and practices such as beggar-thy-neighbor, win-lose, exclusive alliances, and monopoly are no longer in line with the trend of the times and have become obstacles to the development of international relations in the era of connectivity. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that “the destiny of the world should be jointly controlled by all countries, international rules should be written by all countries, global affairs should be managed by all countries, and the fruits of development should be shared by all countries.”
In the most highly integrated economic field, there is a greater need for a global economic governance system that is shared by consultation, joint construction, and sharing. The most representative one is the World w88 Organization (WTO). The WTO's consensus decision-making mechanism and rules-based multilateral framework should be said to fully embody the concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and are the most democratic part of the current global economic governance system. However, the United States took advantage of a loophole in the WTO system and paralyzed the Appellate Body by refusing to approve the appointment of judges. At the same time, the United States has also taken advantage of the inefficiency of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism to arbitrarily adopt unilateral w88 restrictions, seriously undermining the authority of the WTO. In the past year, China has fought resolutely on multiple occasions, firmly safeguarded the multilateral trading system, and at the same time put forward its own constructive plans for improving and developing the multilateral trading system.
First of all, at relevant WTO institutions and meetings, China strongly criticized the United States’ unilateralism and destructive practices, and firmly upheld the basic principles and framework of the WTO. China, together with the European Union, India and other members, has proposed initiatives on reforming and improving the dispute settlement mechanism and special and differential treatment for developing countries. In response to the current crisis faced by the WTO and its future development, China has independently put forward its propositions, positions and suggestions for systematic reform of the WTO, fully demonstrating the responsibility and capabilities of the world's largest trader in goods. Secondly, China hosted a small WTO ministerial meeting during the Shanghai International Import Expo in November 2019 to promote discussions on issues related to WTO reform. In particular, it jointly signed an investment facilitation statement with 92 members, which raised new possibilities for the future development of the WTO. Third, China has also joined forces with other countries that support multilateralism on multiple multilateral and international occasions, such as the G20, APEC, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to hold high the banner of safeguarding the multilateral trading system. Fourth, increase the increase in w88 and investment liberalization and consolidate the governance system of economic globalization by accelerating negotiations on regional or bilateral free w88 agreements and investment agreements. For example, the RCEP negotiations were concluded as a whole in December 2019, the free w88 agreements with Pakistan, ASEAN, Chile, and Singapore were upgraded, a free w88 agreement was signed with Mauritius, China-EU geographical indication negotiations were concluded, and China-EU investment agreement negotiations were accelerated.
China’s efforts to maintain and promote the global economic governance system always view and deal with the shortcomings and flaws in the current global economic governance system with a constructive attitude and a developmental perspective, and do not start from scratch or start over; We always adhere to the concept of win-win cooperation, inclusiveness and sharing, and do not pursue selfish interests. In particular, China has set an example and lead by accelerating and deepening its own reform and opening up. We always adhere to multilateralism, do not engage in small groups or circles, and abandon the previous model dominated by individual countries or groups. Although the current global economic governance system faces many risks and challenges, we believe that achieving common prosperity and development is the common aspiration of people around the world, and global governance based on extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits is the only way to realize this aspiration. China is willing to continue to use its own efforts and join hands with other members of the international community to jointly promote and improve the global economic governance system.
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