China in Global Value Chains: Implications for Industrial Policy and Development
Abstract
Rapid technological advances and liberal trade regimes permit functional reintegration
of dispersed activities into new border-spanning business networks variously referred
to as global value chains (GVCs). Given that the gains of a country from GVCs depend
on the activities taking place in its jurisdiction and their linkages to global markets,
this study starts by providing a descriptive overview of China’s economic structure
and trade profile. The first two chapters of this paper demonstrate what significant
role GVCs have played in China’s economic growth, evident in enhanced productivity,
diversification, and sophistication of China’s exports, and how these economic benefits
have propelled China’s emergence as the world’s manufacturing hub in the past two
decades. However, benefits from GVC participation – in particular technological learning,
knowledge building, and industrial upgrading – are not automatic. What strategies
would help Chinese industries engage with GVCs in ways that are deemed sustainable
in the long run? What challenges and related opportunities China would face throughout
the implementation process? The last two chapters of this paper focus on implications
of GVCs for China’s industrial policy and development. Chapter Three examines how
China is reorienting its manufacturing sector toward the production of higher value-added
goods and expanding its service sector, both domestically and internationally; while
Chapter Four provides illustrative policy recommendations on dealing with the positive
and negative outcomes triggered by GVCs, within China and beyond the country’s borders.
To the end, this study also hopes to shed some light on the lessons and complexities
that arise from GVC participation for other developing countries.
Type
Master's thesisDepartment
Graduate Liberal StudiesPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12778Citation
Jiang, Chun (2016). China in Global Value Chains: Implications for Industrial Policy and Development.
Master's thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12778.Collections
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