Dan Qing: Causes of and Countermeasures to "Deglobalization"

"De-risking," "trade decoupling," the "CHIPS Act"... in recent years, the United States and other Western nations have continually engaged in "anti-globalization" maneuvers to maintain their own interests and hegemony. Under the cumulative impact of factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, the current counter-current against globalization is surging, and the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to recognize the causes and essence of "anti-globalization" and to propose effective response ideas and strategies.

Primary Manifestations of "Anti-Globalization"

In the process of globalization, a number of emerging countries have continuously grown in strength, and China has become the world's second-largest economy. The US and Western nations have realized that globalization has deviated from their preset tracks and does not necessarily lead to themselves being the primary beneficiaries of political and economic interests; it has even led to challenges against their own interests and status. Consequently, the US and the West have continuously engaged in "decoupling and severing supply chains" ^[1] and "sanctions and counterbalancing," repeatedly setting off waves of "anti-globalization" in an attempt to block globalization from benefiting more countries.

Politically, forming alliances and perpetuating the Cold War mentality. In the new historical period, the US and Western nations still engage heavily in bloc politics, instigating confrontation and forcing through unilateral sanctions. For a long time, the global strategy of the United States has been to "divide and rule, and strike one by one"—dividing the EU, weakening Russia, and suppressing China—striving to maintain the traditional international political and economic order dominated by US hegemony. At the 59th Munich Security Conference in 2023, from the hype surrounding the false narrative of "democracy versus authoritarianism" before and after the meeting to the various confrontational voices inside and outside the venue, everything reflected the attempt by the US and the West to continue the Cold War mentality of camp-based confrontation in the 21st century, thereby serving the maintenance of their own hegemony.

Economically and trade-wise, imposing sanctions and building "small yards with high fences." ^[2] In recent years, the United States has frequently utilized measures such as financial sanctions and trade controls, engaging in technical blockades and creating technological divides, and taking the initiative to provoke the China-US trade war. Since 2018, the number of Chinese enterprises included on the US "Entity List" has increased from 130 to 532. The US has successively released a series of acts, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. While increasing sanctions on foreign companies, it uses either penalties or subsidies to encourage industries to return to the United States.

Diplomatically, "withdrawing from treaties" and disrupting the international order. The United States treats international cooperation under multilateral frameworks as a tool for seeking unilateral interests, using it when it suits them and discarding it when it does not. Once they find that a framework affects US interests or that they cannot extract more from it, they willfully "withdraw from treaties" or "leave groups." In recent years, the US has successively withdrawn from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, UNESCO, and a series of other multilateral agreements and organizations. These irresponsible practices not only undermine the multilateral international order with the United Nations at its core, but also exacerbate tensions between countries and even cause conflict.

Root Causes of "Anti-Globalization"

The US and Western nations were once active advocates of globalization. Why have they acted against their usual character in recent years and become the practitioners of "anti-globalization"? For the US and Western nations, there is no eternal globalization or "anti-globalization," only eternal interests. Whether they adopt a strategy of globalization or "anti-globalization" depends entirely on the needs of maintaining their own interests and hegemony. Under the new situation of international competition, out of the need to maintain unipolar hegemony, the US and the West are unwilling to see the development of emerging countries like China, and thus carry out containment through various "anti-globalization" operations.

The outward spillover and externalization of internal contradictions. By means of globalization, the US and Western nations completed the primitive accumulation of capital, the expansion of industrial capital, and the leap of financial capital. Especially in the wave of globalization after the Cold War, while the US and the West were plundering huge gains, contradictions and risks were also intensifying, such as frequent financial crises, industrial hollowing out, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. These problems are not only difficult to overcome and alleviate in the short term, but also lead to the accelerated accumulation of social contradictions. When old methods of transferring contradictions proved minimally effective, the United States adopted "anti-globalization" therapies such as "decoupling and severing supply chains" and "building small yards with high fences."

The negative-sum strategy of great power competition. In recent years, the US and the West have had to face not only internal domestic problems but also challenges from emerging countries. The United States, which enjoyed unipolar world hegemony after the Cold War, took it for granted that the 20th century was the "American Century" and that the 21st century must also be the "American Century." Out of the need to maintain its own interests and strategic containment, the United States has replaced international cooperation with unilateral action, adopting a negative-sum strategy of containing and exhausting opponents even at the cost of its own interests. For example, it no longer pursues trade globalism, but instead promotes regionalized trade and investment; it implements long-arm jurisdiction and exerts its utmost to win over or coerce allies to build a technological blockade line against China.

The lag effect of global governance. By means of the globalization they dominated, the US and the West constructed an unfair and irrational international order, attempting to achieve the permanent expansion of capitalism. However, for decades, independent of Western will, the economic proportion of US and Western nations in the global economic system has been continuously declining, while the proportion of emerging countries has been continuously rising. At the same time, global issues such as climate change and cybersecurity have become increasingly prominent, requiring all countries in the world to work together. However, current global governance mechanisms and capacities have failed to adapt to these new changes, and the role of emerging countries has not been fully realized, highlighting the insufficient countervailing force against "anti-globalization."

Strategies for Responding to "Anti-Globalization"

Humanity lives in a single global village. As globalization continues to evolve, human society increasingly becomes a community with a shared future for humanity, in which everyone's interests are closely intertwined. We must fully recognize the essence of the US and the West using "anti-globalization" as a tool for transferring contradictions, self-defense, and strategic containment. We must work together with all countries in the world that support globalization to actively promote the development of globalization toward a healthy direction of openness, inclusiveness, universal benefit, balance, and win-win cooperation.

Uphold the concept of win-win cooperation and stand on the right side of history. Facing the current adverse current of unilateralism and the backflow of economic globalization, China has never wavered in its determination to expand its opening up and has continuously improved its level of openness. Against the background of rising trade protectionism, China has continuously expanded the breadth and depth of international cooperation, overcome adverse impacts such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and held the China International Import Expo (CIIE) ^[3] as scheduled for five consecutive years. In the current critical stage of world economic recovery, China is solidly promoting high-standard opening up, bringing more stability and certainty to a turbulent world. We must unswervingly continue to pursue a foreign policy of openness, development, cooperation, and win-win results, attach equal importance to "bringing in" and "going out," ^[4] create an environment for the development of domestic and foreign capital based on fair competition, and continue to promote the development of economic globalization toward a direction of universal benefit and win-win results.

Seize new historical opportunities and construct a new type of globalization. In the current era, globalization has reached a new stage of momentum transformation and systemic upgrading, and emerging countries are facing a historical opportunity to participate in the construction of a new type of globalization. Constructing a new type of globalization depends on emerging countries and developing countries having more representation and a greater voice in global governance. China has always advocated a vision of global governance based on extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and has proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, established the Global Development Promotion Center, and created the "Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund," injecting new vitality into global cooperation and development. We should take the initiative to turn challenges into opportunities, focus on opposing the anti-globalization of the US and the West, aim at maintaining world economic development, and actively explore new ways of international cooperation that seek common ground while reserving differences and promote inclusive coexistence, opening up a path of common, win-win, and shared development.

Work together to meet challenges and build a community with a shared future for humanity. Faced with complex and volatile global issues, a fragmented "anti-globalization" is not the cure; the only real way out is for the whole world to unite and work together. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that we must "integrate the interests of our own people with the interests of the people of all countries in the world and move toward the direction of building a community with a shared future for humanity." Currently, the changes of the world, of our times, and of history ^[5] are unfolding in unprecedented ways. We must deeply practice the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity, use the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative as action plans, and make new and greater contributions to building a better world.