Transcript China’s state-centred development model and its role in

China’s state-centered
development model and its role
in international relations
UvA-IDS lecture series
11 November 2010
Dr Frans-Paul van der Putten
Clingendael Institute
I. China’s development trajectory
China’s economic development
approach since 1978
• Domestic dimension: agricultural lease
system, township and village enterprises,
labour surplus, migration to coastal cities
• International dimension: special economic
zones, foreign direct investment, manufacture
of consumer goods, export-based economic
growth, upgrade to higher value-added, buildup of foreign exchange reserves, emergence of
domestic consumer market
Context
• China became a centralized state in 221 BC
• Continuity in political thought and bureaucracy
• China has always been the country with the
world’s largest population
• Until the late 19th century, dominant power in
East Asia
• Important preconditions for economic
development put in place before 1978
• China became the world’s second economy in
2009
II. Lessons for development
Peter Ho: Chinese lessons in
pragmatism
• Country-drivenness: China is a statedominated economy; state carves out its own
trajectory; country retains autonomy towards
donors
• Chinese pragmatism:
– Credibility: institutions should fulfil their functions
in the eyes of the stakeholders
– Gradualism: step-by-step approach, based on
institutional innovation at the grassroots
Sarah Cook: what is there to learn?
• China’s development model: pragmatism,
experimentation and gradualism
• China’s experience offers insights but not
specific guidance for other countries
• China is itself becoming a major actor in
international development, its motives and
interests should be studied by development
researchers and practitioners
III. Is there a China model?
Ross Garnaut: China’s success
• China itself did not use a model; having no
blueprint was a virtue because any theoretical
model would have been inappropriate
• Each society must develop its own economics
• Countries cannot adopt formula’s developed
for other economies
Pan Wei: the uniqueness of the
Chinese model
• The China model is based on elements that are
unique to China (social organization, economic
development, government, outlook on the world)
• China does not want to convert others to its
belief system
• China is ideologically neutral, believes that each
country should have its own political values,
different countries should live with each other
not try to change each other
• Chinese communist party cannot be understood
from Western perspective
Johan Lagerkvist:
limits of the China model
• China is not unique: economic modernisation
leads to pluralism, it just takes longer than the
West would like
• China’s leadership will be challenged by middle
class expectations and environmental
degradation; leadership uses nationalism and
economic growth to stay in power
• China is offers only general lessons, is not
interested in exporting its model
• No ideological war with democratic capitalist
world, no Beijing Consensus
IV. What is the Beijing Consensus?
• Washington Consensus:
– deregulation, privatization of state enterprises,
liberalization of trade and inward investment
• Beijing Consensus:
– Alternative to Washington Consensus
– No clear definition: China as a model? China as a
leader? Anything other than the Washington
Consensus?
The Beijing Consensus (BJC)
• Joshua Cooper Ramo:
– BJC is a new paradigm for development, after
collapse of Washington Consensus
– Three theorems: leap-frog old technologies,
measure by sustainability and income equality,
self-determination as security doctrine
– BJC is a security revolution, every nation can
achieve self-determination
– China wants to project its model abroad; is both
example and the tool to implement this example
The Beijing Consensus (BJC)
• Arif Dirlik:
– BJC is not an alternative to Washington Consensus,
but a method to moderate its consequences
– Only in one regard does BJC offer a real alternative: in
reshaping the global political environment that is the
context for development
– New global order, founded on economic relationships,
recognition of political and regional differences
– Because of its economic AND political experience
China is qualified to lead formation of the new order
– China’s model is only for China, BJC is for the world
The China Model
1) China’s development trajectory cannot be copied
2) It remains unclear whether China eventually will be forced
to reform politically to become a more open, liberal
society
3) But China did introduce a new development paradigm:
away from focus on an ideal end state toward focus on
less-than-perfect pragmatic solutions that can deliver at
present
4) Also unclear is whether China actively promotes itself as a
model
5) But China does openly promote a political principle:
countries should be free to choose their own
development path
• Washington Consensus rephrased:
– Developed countries must exert influence on
developing countries to help them develop according
to the Western model
• Beijing Consensus rephrased:
– Developing countries must be free to establish their
own development trajectory; focus should not be on
the end state but on whatever works now; political
diversity should therefore be the basis of the global
order; China leads the way toward this order
V. China and the relationship between
the West and the Rest
Fareed Zakaria: Rise of the Rest
• 2008: The Post-American World
• The great story of our times is the
Rise of the Rest
• Because of economic development,
the non-West is becoming stronger in
relation to the West
• This is the main challenge for the US
(and the West as a whole)
Stefan Halper: market
authoritarianism
• China exports the basic idea of
market-authoritarianism
• Going capitalist and staying
autocratic
• Clash of governing models:
liberalism versus authoritarianism
• China model appeals to
developing countries
• Threatens the West
Ian Bremmer: threat to free markets
• Chinese leaders use the China
model to ensure that markets do
not threaten their political power
• China is stable, West has economic
difficulties
• China model imitated by developing
world
• Western companies in developing
world disadvantaged towards
Chinese state-owned companies
• China supports authoritarian
regimes
Halper and Bremmer
• China is undermining Western influence in the
developing world and expanding itself
• This makes China stronger economically and
diplomatically, while the liberal values of the
West are threatened
• Because of the China, political diversity is
strengthened
• Main problem: the role of the state
China and the role of the State
• Party controls state, state dominates economy
and society
• State allows no challenge to the power of the
Party
• Constant experiments with economic and
social and administrative change, openness to
foreign influence
• State dominates external economic relations,
also with developing world
Is the role of the state a problem?
• China is not just another competitor for the
West, it challenges the Western liberaleconomic principles: Western firms and
economies find it difficult to compete with
China
• The influence of the Chinese state in
developing countries forces Western countries
to be more pragmatic and less normative
• A good or a bad development?
VI. China and the Netherlands as an
actor in international development
• Context: weakening economic position
• New government approach, based on WRR report: less poverty
reduction, more economic development
• Effect of China’s rise #1: pressure towards more pragmatism, less
ideology
• Effect #2: smaller role for NL in multilateral institutions
• Effect #3: global governance less dominated by West and Western
values, more diverse and ideologically neutral; Dutch influence
further decreased
Scientific Council for Government
Policy: ‘Less Pretention, More
Ambition’
• There is no real alternative to the Western model:
development means by definition a transition
towards becoming in economic-political terms
similar to what Western countries are already
since the 19th century
• All elements in the Beijing Consensus are fully
compatible with this notion, including the
emphasis on national autonomy
• Emphasis within trajectory may be different, but
ever country moves towards the same end state