By Huan Yuping, People’s Daily
Some pessimism about economic globalization has emerged in recent years due to rising protectionism, increasing blockages in global industrial and supply chains, and weakness of international trade. This has led some to proclaim the “golden age” of economic globalization is over.
While concerns about challenges facing the world economy are understandable, such outright pessimism is unnecessary. Economic globalization remains the trend of the times. Despite many counter currents and dangerous shoals, its overall direction has never changed and will not change.
To grasp the development trend of economic globalization, it is important to start from the objective laws of historical development.
Historically, economic globalization is an objective requirement of social productive force development and an inevitable result of technological progress, rather than something artificially created by certain people or countries. Technological and industrial revolutions have greatly reduced the costs of global transportation of goods, information dissemination, and human mobility, providing a profound material and technological foundation for economic globalization.
The deepening development of economic globalization has provided a powerful impetus for the progress of human society. Statistics show that from 1992 to 2022, global GDP rose from around $25 trillion to around $101 trillion, and per capita GDP increased from $4,659 to $12,647.
From 1992 to 2019, the share of global trade in global GDP grew from 40.15 percent to 56.33 percent. The proportion of the global population living in poverty dropped from 36.5 percent to 8.5 percent, and life expectancy increased from 65.6 years to 73.4 years.
The setbacks in economic globalization in recent years were mainly due to policy shifts in some countries. International institutions see the rise of protectionism as a serious risk to global economic recovery.
The International Monetary Fund warned that if economic fragmentation continues unchecked, it could reduce global GDP by 7 percent – roughly equivalent to the combined size of the French and German economies.
Economic globalization is a “double-edged sword.” Bridging the equity deficit is an important issue all sides need to face.
Problems are not to be feared; the key is finding solutions. To steer economic globalization on a steady course that delivers long-term benefits and better well-being to people of all nations, the international community should join hands in championing an inclusive economic globalization that benefits all.
Economic globalization should be beneficial to all, aligning with the universal aspirations of countries around the world, especially developing ones.
It should effectively address imbalances in development between and within countries resulting from global resource allocation. Development should be both full and balanced, fostering globalization that enables all countries, particularly developing ones, to accelerate growth.
With interdependence prevalent today, nations must develop themselves while also considering how to advance in sync with the world. It is important to make the pie of economic globalization bigger together and share it fairly, so different countries and people of different social groups can all participate in and benefit from socioeconomic progress, achieving mutual benefit, win-win outcomes, and shared prosperity.
Economic globalization should be inclusive, supporting countries in pursuing development paths suiting their national conditions, while jointly creating common development for all humanity. All forms of unilateralism and protectionism must be opposed, along with discriminatory and exclusionary standards and rules.
Trade and investment liberalization and facilitation should be promoted to maintain stable and unimpeded global industrial and supply chains. All sides should show mutual understanding and accommodation, addressing each other’s concerns, in order to resolve structural issues hindering healthy global economic growth. This will sustain the vitality and momentum of the world economy.
Looking ahead, economic globalization remains an inevitable path forward and an irreversible trend of the times for human society. The international community should join hands to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all, injecting inexhaustible momentum into the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
