China and Globalization

Globalization has become one of the primary lenses through which Chinese domestic and foreign policy should be viewed today. For most Chinese observers, globalization is conceived as an increasingly competitive struggle among national economies over the means to create wealth within their territories. As such, China’s leaders now explain a wide variety of issues, including the reform of state-owned enterprises and the desirability of World Trade Organization membership, in terms of the country’s ability to meet the formidable challenge of globalization. Jiang Zemin’s major speeches since 1997 cumulatively suggest that the forces that most define China’s national economic identity at the turn of the millennium are those associated with globalization. The dominant image of China projected by Jiang is a country that must face the imperatives of global economic life forthrightly, especially as regards international economic competition. More broadly, I argue, Beijing is trying to foster the emergence of a “global na tionalism “ in China.