How Does Made in China Maintain Strong International Competitiveness (People's Opinions)
Core reading
The formation of the unique advantages of China's manufacturing in international competitiveness is a process of continuous accumulation of advantages one after another with the advancement of practice, including the advantages of factor endowments, advantages of open cooperation, advantages of infrastructure and industrial agglomeration, advantages of large-scale markets, and Internet technology innovation The continuous formation and accumulation of advantages.
The formation of the international competitiveness advantage of China's manufacturing is accompanied by the process of my country's reform and opening up.
Continuously deepening reforms and expanding opening up have promoted the formation of the internal driving force and institutional guarantee for the international competitiveness of China's manufacturing.
Since the reform and opening up, my country has seized the strategic opportunity of international industrial transfer, actively participated in economic globalization, and promoted economic development to achieve world-renowned achievements.
Since 1994, my country has reversed its long-term deficit in trade in goods and entered the stage of surplus in trade in goods. It has been 27 years since then.
Since 2010, the added value of China's manufacturing industry has ranked first in the world for 11 consecutive years.
While satisfying domestic demand, China's manufacturing has exported a large number of products to the world, making great contributions to the long-term stable development of the world economy and forming a strong international competitiveness.
What is the mystery of Chinese manufacturing maintaining strong international competitiveness?
To scientifically answer this question of widespread concern at home and abroad, we must thoroughly examine our party’s leadership of the people to promote reform and opening up and the magnificent practice of socialist modernization, and reveal the institutional innovation, practical creation, and theoretical logic behind the Chinese economic story.
The process of accumulating one advantage after another
The unique international competitiveness advantage of Chinese manufacturing is a process of continuous accumulation of advantages one after another.
According to the sequence of practical logic and historical logic, the process of superposition of its advantages is: the continuous formation and accumulation of the advantages of factor endowments, the advantages of open cooperation, the advantages of infrastructure and industrial agglomeration, the advantages of large-scale market, and the advantages of Internet technology innovation.
Labor factor endowment advantage.
Before the reform and opening up, the Chinese market was basically isolated from the international market, and there were very few trade exchanges.
During this period, the main characteristics of my country's trade system were planned management and unified national management. The function of foreign trade was limited to the exchange of presence and absence, adjustment of surpluses and deficiencies, and the import and export of various products were very small.
From a structural point of view, with the advantage of low-cost labor, China's exports are mainly labor-intensive products such as agricultural products and handicrafts, and the export of primary products accounts for more than 50%.
The dual advantages of factor endowment and open cooperation are superimposed.
Reform and opening up broke the shackles of the planned economic system and effectively released the vitality of factor flow and economic growth. my country's economy has begun to actively integrate into the world economy.
While domestic-funded enterprises have grown stronger, foreign-invested enterprises have also developed rapidly.
Through the two trading methods of "materials, parts, samples, processing and assembling" and "materials processing", using our low-cost labor to process finished products and sell them to foreign markets is a "first move" for our products to open up the international market.
This kind of "two ends outside" processing trade accounted for the proportion of total import and export value, which rose rapidly from 6% in the early stage of reform and opening up to 41.2% in 1993.
The advantages of factor endowments, open cooperation, infrastructure and industrial agglomeration are superimposed.
After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, my country began to fully integrate into the global value chain, and its position in the global value chain has continued to rise. An important indicator is the substantial increase in the export of intermediate products, while the import of intermediate products has not slowed down. "Out" is a typical feature of this stage.
For this period, we can observe two typical facts: First, the level of industrialization in my country has increased rapidly, especially the rapid development of township and village industries, and some township and village industrial enterprises have become important microscopic subjects of import and export trade; The rapid advancement on the basis of continuous strengthening, the effect of industrial agglomeration began to appear. As an important carrier of industrial agglomeration, industrial parks have grown "blow-out". Its unique supporting advantages, economies of scale and business environment have promoted the international competitiveness of Chinese manufacturing. Accumulation and synthesis.
With the continuous accumulation of competitive advantages in the capital and technology-intensive production sector, my country's exports of machinery and equipment manufacturing products have increased significantly, and will become the world's number one in 2021.
The four-fold advantages of factor endowment, open cooperation, infrastructure and industrial agglomeration, and large-scale market are superimposed.
The stock of infrastructure in my country is increasing rapidly.
From 2001 to 2008, the average annual growth rate of my country's infrastructure capital stock was as high as 17%, and in 2010 it rose to the third place in the world, second only to the United States and Japan.
The extraordinary development of my country's infrastructure is also an important factor in the miracle of my country's economic growth and trade growth.
During this period, my country's domestic large market also began to take shape.
After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with the implementation of policies to expand domestic demand, promote new urbanization, and the continuous improvement of residents’ income levels, my country’s domestic large market has accelerated, and the scale of the consumer market has grown rapidly, which has strongly supported my country’s manufacturing companies in opening up domestic and foreign markets. .
my country's foreign trade development model of "two ends outside" has gradually changed to "paying equal attention to both inside and outside."
The five-fold advantages of factor endowment, open cooperation, infrastructure and industrial agglomeration, large-scale market, and Internet technology innovation are superimposed.
With the deepening of the innovation-driven development strategy and the enhancement of independent innovation capabilities of enterprises, my country’s new momentum for international trade has accelerated. The prominent feature is that the development and widespread application of Internet technology has led to innovation in trade models, and cross-border e-commerce has become a new format of my country’s foreign trade. .
In 2019, the scale of my country's cross-border e-commerce market exceeded 10 trillion yuan, accounting for 33.29% of the total import and export value that year; the import and export trade volume achieved through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform reached 186.21 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.3%.
The application of Internet technology has changed the micro-organizational structure of foreign trade enterprises. Many foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises have used Internet technology to drive more small and medium-sized production enterprises to form a new division of labor structure, forming a stronger organization and more specialized division of labor competitiveness.
These practical experiences are difficult to find in Western international trade theories.
It can be seen that the formation of the international competitiveness advantage of Made in China is a "snowballing" and spiraling process with Chinese characteristics.
The five advantages of labor factor endowment, open cooperation, infrastructure and industrial agglomeration, large-scale market, and Internet technology innovation have gradually progressed, stacked and spiraled in the historical evolution of reform and opening up. During the formation of the previous advantages, the next period The advantages of the company are constantly being bred, and various advantages are gradually superimposed. In the end, a huge multiplier effect is formed after a variety of advantages are gathered.
This is the successful practice and great creation that has formed the international competitiveness advantage of Made in China.
Continuously deepen the reform and expand the process of opening up
The formation of the international competitiveness advantage of China's manufacturing is accompanied by the process of my country's reform and opening up.
It is the continuous deepening of reforms and the expansion of opening up that have promoted the formation of the internal driving force and institutional guarantee for the international competitiveness of China's manufacturing.
Reform of the foreign trade system and foreign investment management system.
Since the reform and opening up, my country has continuously deepened the reform of its foreign trade system and joined the World Trade Organization in December 2001.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has further deepened the reform of the foreign trade system, accelerated the implementation of the free trade zone strategy, and introduced important measures such as the negative list of cross-border service trade in the free trade pilot zone, which has strongly promoted my country’s foreign trade and manufacturing. Industry development.
The reform of my country's foreign investment management system is mainly promoted along the two main lines of policy formulation and law formulation.
In terms of policy formulation, from the establishment of special economic zones to implement preferential policies, to the establishment of free trade pilot zones to implement "special management measures for foreign investment access (negative list)".
In terms of law formulation, from the beginning of reform and opening up, the Sino-Foreign Joint Venture Law, Sino-Foreign Cooperative Enterprise Law, and Foreign Investment Enterprise Law were promulgated, and the Foreign Investment Law will be implemented on January 1, 2020, becoming the basic law for my country to utilize foreign capital in the new era. , To clarify that foreign investment shall implement a management system of pre-entry national treatment plus a negative list.
The reform of the foreign investment management system has provided a powerful system guarantee for my country to effectively attract and utilize foreign capital. It has played a huge role in making up for the capital and technological gaps in my country’s economic and foreign trade development at different periods. It has also effectively promoted my country’s integration and utilization of international capital. Economic and trade rules have laid the foundation for enhancing the international competitiveness of Chinese manufacturing.
Reform of the RMB exchange rate system.
Since the founding of New China, the RMB exchange rate system has undergone many important adjustments.
In the 1990s, my country began to implement a single, managed floating exchange rate system based on market supply and demand, abolished the corporate foreign exchange retention system, and changed to a foreign exchange settlement and sales system, realizing the convertibility of the renminbi under the current account.
These important measures not only effectively solved the previous exchange rate overestimation problem, brought greater cost advantages to enterprises, promoted the rapid development of exports and effective use of foreign capital, but also helped stabilize the RMB exchange rate expectations, and played a huge role in the development of my country’s foreign trade. Promoting role.
In the new century, with my country’s accession to the World Trade Organization and its rapid integration into the world division of labor, we have further deepened the reform of the RMB exchange rate system. We have strengthened the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate by coordinating the opening up of the financial industry, reform of the RMB exchange rate formation mechanism, and the internationalization of the RMB. The RMB exchange rate is basically stable at a reasonable and equilibrium level.
The reform of the RMB exchange rate system has created a good financial environment for the development of my country's foreign trade, and has played an important role in enhancing the international competitiveness of China's manufacturing.
Form a complete export tax rebate and export credit insurance system.
Export tax rebates and export credit insurance are two important and commonly used policy tools in international trade.
Since the reform and opening up, my country’s export tax rebates and export credit insurance system rules and policies have been continuously adjusted and improved, which not only effectively promoted the development and growth of foreign trade, but also played an active role in guiding my country’s industrial transformation and upgrading.
Practice has proved that the export tax rebate policy has effectively promoted the transformation of my country’s export trade mode and supported the rapid growth of my country’s export trade; the export credit insurance policy has provided perfect credit protection for the growth of my country’s foreign trade.
Promote the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".
The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is a major initiative taken by my country to actively promote opening up and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
Promoting foreign investment and infrastructure connectivity will help make good use of both domestic and international markets and resources, promote the orderly and free flow of economic factors, enhance the well-being of trading partners, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
According to a research report by the World Bank, the “Belt and Road” initiative will lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million people out of moderate poverty in relevant countries, and will increase the trade of participating countries by 2.8% to 9.7% and global trade by 1.7% to 6.2%, global revenue increased by 0.7% to 2.9%.
Through unremitting efforts, the co-construction of the “Belt and Road” has transformed from concept to action, from vision to reality, from initiative to global popular public product, and promotes the smooth connection of the industrial chain and supply chain, making it for my country and participating countries. The improvement of the international competitiveness of the industry has created a good environment and greater space.
(The author is a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Pei Changhong