{"id":4790,"date":"2017-01-03T07:29:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T12:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/?p=4790"},"modified":"2023-04-07T11:08:25","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T15:08:25","slug":"chinas-export-machine-can-teach-trump-globalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/2017\/china-currents\/16-1\/chinas-export-machine-can-teach-trump-globalization\/","title":{"rendered":"What China’s ‘export machine’ can teach Trump about globalization"},"content":{"rendered":"
Penelope B. Prime<\/a>, Georgia State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Chinese goods seem to be everywhere<\/a> these days.<\/p>\n Consider this: At the Olympics in Rio this summer, Chinese companies supplied<\/a> the mascot dolls, much of the sports equipment, the security surveillance system and the uniforms for the volunteers, technical personnel and even the torch-bearers.<\/p>\n Do you own a personal computer or air conditioner<\/a>? Or a pair of shoes<\/a> or set of plates from Wal-Mart<\/a>? They all almost certainly bear a \u201cMade in China\u201d label.<\/p>\n Put another way, China has become an \u201cexport machine<\/a>,\u201d manufacturing an increasing share of the world\u2019s products. Its initial success exporting in the 1990s \u2013 which surged after it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 \u2013 surprised everyone, including Chinese policymakers. The result was rapid growth of over 9 percent for many years. In 2014, China surpassed the U.S. as the largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity.<\/p>\n How did a country with a national income of just US$155 per capita in the 1970s turn into one of the most economically powerful countries in just 40 years? The answer not only shines light on China\u2019s success story but also offers some important lessons for governments considering a turn inward, such as the incoming Trump administration.<\/p>\n I visited China for the first time in the spring of 1976 \u2013 just before China\u2019s renewed entry into global markets. Research, teaching and taking students to China over the following decades have given me a window to observe the dynamic development that has occurred. And now, as a clinical professor at Georgia State University and director of the nonprofit China Research Center<\/a>, I am involved with research and outreach that informs policy and business to strengthen U.S.-China relations.<\/p>\n