China and the Challenge of Economic Globalization: The Impact of WTO Membership

China emerged as the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the fifth largest trading nation in the world in 2002. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) represents a huge stride forward in its reform efforts. These reforms include liberalization and modernization of China’s economy (in industrial, services, and agricultural sectors) and trading activities.

China’s growing economy, its international trade, and its large inward FDI have significantly affected the growth of global trade, the distribution of global direct investments, and the pace of expansion of global output. There is no other country in history, as a WTO member, to have achieved such expansion in a comparable time period. China is expected to be influential in future rounds of WTO trade negotiations. As the only major trading nation that is not classified as an advanced industrial economy, China is bringing an unparalleled perspective to the negotiations and exerting its power on matters important to its trade. China, as a new WTO member, is posing momentous opportunities and challenges to the United States and other countries.

A study of the Chinese economy after entering the WTO should be of importance to practitioners, scholars, and policymakers because of China’s vast size, its rapid growth in foreign trade and FDI inflows, and the unprecedented speed of its integration into the world economy. The high quality of the chapters within this volume and their authors’ expertise unite to make this book a most timely contribution to our understanding of China’s rapidly changing economy and its transformation toward globalization after entering the WTO.

This volume is divided into four parts. The first part deals with economic performance after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. The second part relates to the WTO and China’s economic welfare. The third part deals with China’s financial reforms and capital markets, and the last part discusses China’s industrial and agricultural development. In total, we have eighteen chapters that will shed light on the Chinese economy and the challenges posed by WTO membership.

Hung-Gay Fung, Pei Changhong, Kevin Zhang