Extra credit Blog: China and Globalization - Jeongeun Park

1. When did China start to participate in globalization in earnest?

I think it started when China was joined the WTO by President Bill Clinton of the United States on November 10, 2001. China, which has become an official member of the WTO, has had a profound impact on the world, to the point that China's accession to the WTO has completed the bridge between the East and the West since Marco Polo's expedition to China in the 13th century.



2. Trump's re-election, and the U.S. and China


Trump will be elected president of the United States this time, and we need to pay attention to the promises that Trump has made. Trump seems to be opposing accelerating globalization by promoting the MAGA(Make America Great Again) policy. That is why we need to pay attention to the actions of the United States and the reaction of China. This is because he declared a trade war, saying he would impose 60% to 100% tariffs on China. In fact, the hegemonic war with China has continued since President Trump's first term in 2017. Until Trump took office in 2017, it was unexpected to ban exports to China, which was an important trading partner for the United States and a member of the global supply chain. Former President Biden continued his hegemonic war with China after this, and as the relationship between the United States and China has worsened, he expects President Trump's move to become stronger.


3. Korea and China


The diplomatic relationship between Korea and China was established on August 24, 1992, through a joint statement of diplomatic relations between Korea and China in Beijing, China. In fact, even before that, there were frequent economic and cultural exchanges because Korea and China were geographically close to each other and belonged to the same Chinese character culture. According to the <Trump 2.0 Era> written by Park Jong hoon, a Korean economist, a fierce US-China hegemony war will arrive. The aforementioned tariff war is also a problem, but a more threatening measure to Korea is to regulate the export of semiconductors to China. If Korea is regulated for the export of memory semiconductors to China, the damage will be enormous. Even before President Biden, the export regulation of semiconductors has been used as a major weapon in the hegemony war with China. As a case in point, the revocation of the export licenses of Intel and Qualcomm for semiconductors to Huawei, China. As a result, Qualcomm had to bear over $10 billion in losses in 2024 because Huawei developed its own chips.



4. China and Globalization


Globally, China is a country with strong domestic demand along with India. In other words, even if it does not go through international trade, it is sufficiently supported by the economic situation domestically. However, if China regulates exports, the brunt will be passed on to other countries, including Korea. President Trump's export restrictions to China will also accelerate China's independence in memory semiconductor technology.



4-1. Does China have a good influence on globalization?


China has the fourth largest land in the world and is a country with 1.4 billion people. It is also the largest bridge connecting the East and the West. Due to the low labor force, the U.S. was able to quell high prices once China joined the WTO. Not only the U.S. but also Korea was able to greatly help lower prices by importing Chinese products. Also, according to a BBC article, China accounts for about 50 percent of global luxury consumption. He mentioned that if the rich Chinese people cut back on their consumption of Swiss watches, Italian ties, and European luxury cars, of course, global luxury goods companies will be hurt. As such, it is obvious that China is an indispensable country, especially in the global economy.


4-2. Is globalization good for China?


Despite its significant impact on the world, China has also benefited the most economically from globalization. China's rapid development can be measured in a number of ways, but the most impressive number is the state-led reform that has emerged from poverty in the past 40 years. China's per capita GDP was $282 in 1986, but it exceeded $8,100 in 2016. The middle class in China accounted for only 4% of the population in 2002, but 31% in 2013. However, the Chinese economy cannot be booming forever. The global financial crisis, which occurred from 2008 to 2010, taught China's leaders that consumers in the United States and Europe must be more agile in order to buy Chinese cheap products. In order to maintain economic stability in the long run, China needs to build and strengthen its middle class, which can buy more factory-made consumer goods. China's success has triggered wage hikes for its people. However, it loses the advantage of attracting many foreign companies as salaries rise. Even Chinese companies have begun to shift their production bases to the poorest countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, where the labor force is cheap. The reason why China has developed at such a rapid pace is that China was at the center of globalization, but I think it should be able to read and cope with the global economic trend facing reality.



5. The future of globalization


What would happen to the world if one of President Trump's promises, the 'four-year plan to halt imports from China' was actually implemented, that is, if the economies of the United States and China were completely separated? The likelihood of a military conflict, or a heat war, would increase. Even in a hegemonic war, it is difficult to cause a war if either side is tied to a global value chain. However, if economic separation is achieved through decoupling, it is easy to be under the illusion of benefiting from war. World War II is a prime example of this. When the world faced its worst crisis due to the Great Depression that began in 1929, they scrambled to raise tariff barriers and strengthened protectionism. As a result, the global economy was divided into the Commonwealth, the French colonial empire, and the German-Japanese trade bloc. As the global economy became more fragmented, conflicts between powerful countries became much easier to escalate into military conflicts. We must remember this heartbreaking history and not forget that all countries can survive only when they all cooperate.



[ Reference ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVTJaDiceqY&t=1008s

The video above summarizes the economic foreign media of major countries (Germany, Korea, China, India, etc.) in Trump's re-election. I strongly recommend this video. For your information, this video is in Korean.


https://www.bbc.com/korean/features-58828148

https://asiasociety.org/korea/segyehwaui-gajang-widaehan-seonggong-salye-junggugui-hohwanggineun-gwayeon-jisogdoel-su


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HUANG LINGXUAN （What is globalization?）

The term "globalization" first appeared in 1962, and today it has transformed from a specialized term into a common expression. <The Economist> called it “the most overused word of the 21st century.” Merriam-Webster defines globalization as the process of promoting activities and motives across global spaces, a process that has been ongoing for a long time. In fact, the roots of globalization can be traced back to humanity’s early migrations and expansions. The year 1492 marked a significant milestone in the history of globalization. The discovery of the New World brought together people who had been isolated for millennia, and various species began to exchange globally. For example, Peru’s potato and Mexico’s chili peppers spread around the world, while Ethiopian coffee found new homes in Brazil and Vietnam. During this period, different societies not only evolved in diverse ways and established unique political and economic structures but also developed different tech...
Read more

What is Globalization? -Dabin Kim

Globalization refers to the process by which countries around the world are economically, politically, socially, and culturally interconnected. As time and space constraints are reduced due to the development of technology and communication, interactions between countries become closer and the world works like a "one global village." Roland Robertson defined globalization as a "spread of global consciousness," while Anthony Giddens described globalization as a "compression of time and space," stressing that local events have an immediate impact on the world. There are economic globalization, cultural globalization, and political globalization. Economic globalization is a phenomenon in which economies are connected to each other through the free exchange of goods, services, and capital between countries. For example, the spread of multinational corporations and the increase in international trade are prime examples of economic globalization. Multinational c...
Read more

Blog1: What is globalization? - Jeongeun Park

Blog1: What is globalization? In the 21st century, as globalization progresses rapidly in various fields, such as the media industry and the IT field, I believe that there might be no one who doesn't know the word "globalization." Nevertheless, it is questionable whether they know exactly what globalization is. According to Roland Robertson and Harrison White, emphasizes different aspects of the global interconnectedness in sociology and cultural theory. While both of them recognize the sweeping influence of globalization, their perspectives separate in meaningful ways. Robertson looks at the cultural and global consciousness it fosters, whereas White focuses on how globalization impacts the social relationships and structures that bind people and institutions. Especially, the concept of “Glocalization” suggested by Robertson was interesting to me. This means that local cultures actively reshape global influences to fit their own context. I reckon that the perspective sho...
Read more