By Yu Xiong and Senmao Xia
The shift in global leadership has been brewing for quite some time now. In this article, the authors elaborate on the UK-China partnership and how it has been working to balance the global economy. Ultimately, the authors illustrate how UK can aid China in redefining the global economic order.
In October 2017, the 19th National Congress of Communist Party of China (CPC) clarified China’s newest strategy of achieving a full modernisation by 2035 and becoming a global leading power by 2050. This congress once again stressed the importance of open and globalisation in realising China’s vision. In the same month, the US confirmed it will withdraw from United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by the end of 2018. This is a newest move to show the US’s “America First” policy, after the US decided to pull out of Paris Climate Agreement in August and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) in January this year. Many voices within the US strongly oppose globalisation as a lot of ordinary people find it hurt their interests. Some American politicians accuse other countries of free-riders as they think these countries benefit from globalisation but leave global responsibilities to the US. In recent years, the US pays more attention to its domestic issues and leaves more global responsibilities to other countries.
The world is experiencing a significant shift between two global powers. Although the US is still the largest economy, the gap between the US and China is diminishing rapidly. China contributed to around 30% of the global economic growth in the last five years, while the US’s contribution was less than 20%, according to the data of International Monetary Fund (IMF). When the US is concerned about globalisation, China spares no effort in contributing to globalisation. China’s president XI Jinping publicly welcomed all countries to ride on China’s development in his speech in World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2017.
Britain is a visionary country and was good at taking advantage of the shift of world economic orders in the last several hundred years, so is this time. In fact, the UK has been trying to play an irreplaceable role in facilitating China to change the governing institutes of global economy, introduce a new global innovation-spillover pattern, as well as endorse the “created-in-China”.
About the Authors
Professor Yu Xiong is the Chair of Technology and Operations Management in Newcastle Business School of Northumbria University. He has been advising the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategies (BEIS) in the UK about innovation collaboration with China, via his role as a core member of the China UK Innovation Expert Group run by the BEIS. In China he was appointed to be a member of the International Affairs Committee, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Chongqing (Chinese provincial parliament). He is also a committee member of the All China Youth Federation, and win the prestigious May 4th Medal presented by Chongqing Government.
Dr. Senmao Xia, School of Leadership and Strategy, Faculty of Business and Law, Coventry University, Coventry, UK. He participated in several influential research projects funded by Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS, UK) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST, China). Senmao is a guest editor of Technovation (ABS 3*/SSCI/SCI) Special Issue and the anonymous reviewer of several high-quality journals.
