ABSTRACT
China’s economy has rapidly opened up over the past twenty years. Since 1993 China has been the single largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) to newly developing countries and its trade now stands at 40 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP). China is still far from being a market economy and is under international pressure to open further, as the fourteen-year negotiations over its accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) show. A consensus has built up in China about the need to open further in order to reap the benefits of globalisation, and the need to play a constructive role in global society so as not to be marginalised. At the same time, China has to plan its path based on its own calculation of costs and benefits, and its own capability to deal with the risks of globalisation, rather than on the agendas of multinationals, foreign powers and other international interest groups.
