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Efficient allocation of resources and transition towards cleaner sources of energy are among the key factors in minimizing the negative externalities arising from the growing dependency on fossil fuels. Moreover, environmentally benign trade policies are crucial due to the rapid expansion in global trade and comparative advantage. To explore the relationship between global trade and Consumption‐Based Carbon Emissions (CBCE) in China in the context of renewable energy consumption and energy efficiency from 1990 Q1 to 2020 Q4, this paper employs the dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lags (Dynamic ARDL) model to evaluate the connection between international trade, renewable energy usage, energy efficiency, and CBCE, with the Kernel‐Based Regularized Least Squares analysis being used to determine the causal association. The findings reveal that GDP and imports are directly linked with CBCE in the long run, while exports, energy efficiency, and renewable energy consumption have a negative significant long‐run and short‐run influence on CBCE. In addition, exports help in the reduction of CBCE by sharing and adapting environmentally friendly technologies adopted in, for example, renewable energy and ecological advancements. Renewable energy promotes the quality of the environment, which is attributable to the performance of renewable energy and environmentally friendly technologies that directly stimulate the reduction of CBCE emissions. By cutting CBCE, energy efficiency tends to boost environmental quality. The research findings have noteworthy policy implications; trade enhances the quality of environment by introducing lower energy intensive production methods and technology that support sustainable development. As a result, this study advocated quite stringent policies in terms of aligning international trade orientation with environmental quality policy in China. Furthermore, energy efficiency policies are required to lower CBCE by focusing on high‐energy‐using industries and providing alternative clean energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's relationship with Africa has grown exponentially over the last decade with US$95 billion in bilateral trade in 2008 and US$5.4 billion of Chinese investment in Africa for the same year. The growth of Sino-African relations also has an impact on the role of traditional development partners in Africa in particular in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which has already led some traditional development partners to reduce their aid budgets and subsequently their Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to Africa. The objective of this paper is to analyse different development cooperation modalities in Africa of traditional development partners and China. This requires identifying trends in aid, debt relief, general budget support, trade, preferential trade access, and investment flows of both traditional development partners and China. The paper advocates that complementarities can be built between these development modalities on a national, regional and global level. This would enhance development effectiveness, increase efficiency and create win-win situations which would be beneficial to African countries, China and traditional development partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's foreign trade has entered a new stage, marked by some profound changes since 2003. After 5 years' consecutive high growth, China's foreign trade experienced a significant slowdown in growth following the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. The purpose of this article is to present a review of the development in China's foreign trade over the past 10 years, and to explore important changes that have taken place during this period of time. A major finding of the present paper is that the traditional forces driving the high export growth in China, that is, low-cost labor, low-cost resources and low-cost money, have been disappearing. The policy implication is that over the next 10-15 years, the most important conditions for sustaining high export growth will be promoting the development and export of private enterprises in traditional heavy industries and high-technology industries, and relying on technological progress and high productivity to propel export expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, China and North Korea have been described as 'blood brothers' because of their common socialist ideological ground. Since 2000 the basis of their relationship has shifted from one-sided economic support by China into strategic and mutual cooperation. In this paper, we analyse changes in their relationship by examining two specific points: first, China's growing investment and trade in North Korea, and second, close linkages of regional development strategies between the two countries. While the prevalent discussions around North Korea and its relations with China concentrate on geopolitical issues, this research shed more light on geoeconomic engagement between China and North Korea. This paper argues that it is crucial to grasp how China and North Korea perform geoeconomic calculations toward each other and how this affects geopolitical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the trade of China in the past 150 years, starting from the first opening of China after the Opium War. The main purpose of the paper is to identify what is (and was) China's 'normal' level of foreign trade, and how these levels changed under different trade regimes, from 1840 to the present. We present new evidence on China's foreign trade during the treaty port era (1842-1948), drawn from disaggregated trade data collected by the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, that yields important findings for current research. First, although the volume of foreign trade remained limited initially, there was a notable expansion in the diversity of products, with many new goods being imported into China. Second, the regional diffusion of foreign goods through China was greatly facilitated by the expansions of the port system. Third, the importance of Hong Kong as an intermediary in China's trade has undergone long-term fluctuations suggestive of learning effects. China's recent wave of liberalization has led by the early 1990s to a trade level comparable to the high of the 1920s. While much of China's recent growth in world trade is in line with her income growth, there is no doubt that China's trade openness today, comparable by some measures to Denmark's, is a stunning reversal relative to the pre-1978 and also the pre-1840 period. The paper emphasises the roles that history and institutional change have played in this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying a commonly used index for export sophistication in a cross-country study, Rodrik finds that the technological content of Chinese exports over the past decade has been so high that it cannot be explained simply by the economic fundamentals of a low-income country abundant with unskilled labor. Question has been raised for the empirical robustness of the index. I am also doubtful with Rodrik's analysis but develop my argument from a different perspective. This paper briefly reviews Rodrik's methodology and identifies other factors his empirical results potentially hinge on. Based on this, it elaborates on China's unique processing trade regime, the uneven distribution of its exports across Chinese regions and the limitation of HS codes in terms of identifying differentiated products, in an attempt to show that these factors also contribute to higher estimations of China's export sophistication level. Finally, it organizes trade data to reveal the trade patterns that are indeed consistent with the country's comparative advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central theme of this paper is that China's macroeconomic development can be divided into three distinct stages with significant trend changes. Market-oriented reform and opening to the outside world provide main driving forces for the convergence. However, the gradual reform and some inappropriate policies have caused serious ups and downs in China's macroeconomic performance. (Edited by Zhinan Zhang) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the growth of production and employment in China during the period 1978 to the early 1990s. It argues that the Chinese experience with export-led growth provides an excellent case study of the phenomenon of a vent for surplus resources provided by exports, identified by Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations and elaborated by Hla Myint. The paper extends the Smith-Myint model of‘vent-for-surplus’ productive capacity to‘vent-for-surplus’ resources by allowing for foreign investment flows. The‘vent-for-surplus’ effect of exports on employment and growth is examined in a dynamic labour demand framework for a panel of township and village enterprises (TVEs) in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at studying the investment flows in the Greater Pearl River Delta region (Hong Kong-PRD) in China and its impacts on industrial restructuring at the firm-level using a business survey with the Hong Kong-PRD entity acted as a core-periphery economy. The critical effects of gravity distance on transaction costs in the determination of investment flows are examined statistically by a gravity model by incorporating a hypothetical infrastructural construction project. Survey findings show that the evolution of the cross-border operations at the main core has directed the outward FDI flows and the subsequent industrial structural adjustments of the core-periphery economy. This paper has presented a typical illustrative case for further studies of investment flows and its impacts upon industrial adjustments and performance in other regions in China especially after the WTO accession. Its implication on regional economic growth is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The explosive growth of Chinese trade may be due to international production fragmentation, but few have assessed these phenomena together, in part, because it is difficult to measure the vertical specialization (VS) of China's trade. Unique features of China's processing trade cause both identification of imported inputs and their allocation across sectors to vary by trade regime. This paper estimates the VS of Chinese merchandise exports, addressing these two challenges. A new method to identify Chinese imported inputs is developed, and used to calculate VS by sector and destination. VS estimates based on the official Chinese input-output table are contrasted with those based on a split table, capturing processing and normal exports separately. Last, the paper tests whether Chinese 'export sophistication' can be explained by VS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I perform Arellano-Bond GMM estimations using panel data over the period 1995-2008 and explore the growth effects of Africa's trade with China, distinguishing between the effect of imports and the effect of exports, and controlling for the role of export concentration. Four important results are obtained from the empirical analysis. First, there is no empirical evidence that exports to China enhance growth unconditionally. Second, the results suggest that export concentration enhances the growth effects of exporting to China, implying that countries which export one major commodity to China benefit more (in terms of growth) than do countries that have more diversified exports. Third, contrary to the widely held view that increasing imports from China would have a negative effect, the empirical results show that the share of China in a country's total imports has a robust positive effect on growth. Finally, the evidence suggests that there is an inverted-U relationship between exports to developed countries and growth in Africa. Overall, the results seem to provide support for the hypothesis of growth by destination (i.e., that where a country exports matters for the exporting country's growth and development). I draw on these findings to outline some policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the global financial and economic crisis, China has continued to experience strong export-driven growth and, indeed, became the world's largest exporting country in 2009. This rise of China in international markets presents African countries with growing competition in their home and export markets, but also with new opportunities. This paper focuses on the impacts of these developments on countries in North Africa, which are directly affected by the prominence of Chinese manufacturing. In particular, the analysis addresses two policy questions: First, is competition from China leading to substantial displacement of resources that incur significant adjustment costs while moving to new activities, or are there opportunities to exploit finer patterns of specialization that entail less disruption? And second, will policies that mitigate the impact of competition from China limit the longer-term capacity to exploit new opportunities in the global market? The findings from the empirical analysis suggest that policy makers can support North African producers in the increasingly fierce competition with China by reviewing the regulatory and incentives environment, reducing trade logistics costs, and broadening trade promotion efforts to non-traditional markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically focuses on examining the hypotheses of export premium (exporters are more productive than non-exporters), selection-into-exporting (more productive firms are ones that tend to become exporters) and learning-by-exporting (new export market entrants have higher productivity growth than non-exporters in the post-entry period). The propensity score matching method is used to adjust for observable differences of firm characteristics between exporters and non-exporters, allowing an adequate 'like-for-like' comparison. We also use the difference-in-difference matching estimator to capture the magnitude of different productivity growth between matched new export market entrants and non-exporters in the post-entry period up to two years. Drawing on 2,340 Chinese firms in the period 2000-02, we find evidence for export premium and self-selection, and once the firm has entered the export market there is additional productivity growth from the learning effect, in particular in the second year after entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid industrialization and recent accession to the WTO makes it difficult for the country to maintain self-sufficiency in agricultural products. Genetic modification technology could ease the situation, but is not without controversy. This paper focuses on the implication of GMO controversy for China. It explores the potential economic effects of China's not adopting versus adopting GMOs when some of its trading partners adopt that technology. The effects are shown to depend to a considerable extent on the trade policy stance taken in high-income countries that are opposed to GMOs, and/or on the liberalization of China's trade in textiles and apparel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an interpretation of China's nexus of foreign trade and economic growth that centres around technological development. Evidence, mainly related to the performance of the machinery sector, is presented indicating that the phenomenal export expansion is not reducible to a market-centred trade regime, and that the standard thesis of export-led growth would not apply—the contribution of trade to growth realises rather through imports. With an emphasis on the central importance of the production side, we present further evidence to substantiate the argument that the relatively successful aspects of the trade–growth nexus have been largely underpinned by a mix of the market mechanism and various non-market institutions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since generating sustained economic growth in Africa remains one of the most pressing challenges to development, it is imperative that Africa-specific determinants of economic growth are investigated. At the same time, in spite of recent slight slowdown, China's economic growth and its capacity to move in thirty years from underdevelopment and extreme poverty to an emerging global economic power had attracted the attention of many developing countries, including those in Africa. Some key questions arise: Can China serve as a growth model for Africa? And what lessons can we draw from the Chinese experience of soaring economic growth? We therefore investigate the determinants of economic growth in Africa (North and sub-Saharan Africa), using an Africa-only sample with five non-overlapping three-year averages of cross-sectional data between 1996 and 2010. We also do the same for China for the period, 1980 to 2010, while discussing recent trade, investment and aid/debt relations between Africa and China. Our results suggest that domestic investment, net ODA inflows, education, government effectiveness, urban population, and metal prices positively and significantly affect Africa's economic growth. For China, the key factors driving its economic growth are domestic investment, trade openness, initial income, and rural share of the population. Factors driving down China's growth include inflation rate, domestic credit to the private sector, net ODA inflows, population growth, telephone density, and oil and agricultural/raw materials prices. One key finding is that while Africa is almost twice as open as China, openness does not positively and significantly affect Africa's growth, unlike in China. A principal source is that Africa imports (mainly consumer goods) more than it exports while the reverse is true for China. Moreover, the structure of Africa's exports is biased towards traditional primary commodity exports unlike China that has rapidly shifted towards manufactures. In addition, Chinese domestic investment is about double that of Africa. The key lessons for Africa from the soaring Dragon's experience are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international role of China has risen steadily for two decades – and has become even more important in the current global recession. The growing supply of labour-intensive manufactured exports from China has been accompanied by a huge expansion in its imports both of raw materials and of skill-intensive manufactured parts and components. This ‘offshoring’ of intermediates production by a large, labour-abundant economy has economic and environmental implications for other developing economies. More recently, the rapid expansion of the Indian economy and trade indicates that it too will soon exert similar effects on global markets. We sketch a model showing how the growth of these developing-country ‘giants’ generates adjustment pressures on other developing economies. We discuss in particular how differences in relative factor endowments of resource-rich economies can produce quite different outcomes in the context of product fragmentation and expanding commodity trade. We also explore the effects on production, trade, environment and prospects for future growth in resource-rich economies, particularly in the context of weak institutions and other market failures. We illustrate these different impacts by considering the cases of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and highlight implications for growth, development and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analytically examines the structure and characteristics of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and African trade networks by applying network analysis techniques through a critical and in‐depth description of the international trade of Eastern African countries as part of the world trade network. Sixty‐four countries' trade flow data between 2000 and 2018 from the International Monetary Fund, was used, and the network indices indicate that the BRI significantly enhances the trade network's connectivity. The empirical results indicate that density, the degree of centralization, and average node intensity are typically growing, and China is in the central position of the network. Furthermore, East African intra‐regional trade tends to be more densely connected under the BRI. This, in effect, demonstrates that the BRI countries have experienced a rise in intra‐regional trade at different levels of economic development. Therefore, this study recommends that policymakers should consider the BRI's critical role in reforming trade policies to build a resilient and sustainable African economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid economic growth and urbanization poses great challenges to urban transportation planners. Although most municipal governments have, since the mid-1980s, substantially increased their spending on urban transportation, the resulting infrastructure and service expansions have generally been outpaced by an explosive increase in travel demand. The problem is further complicated by the Chinese government's recent decision to adopt the automobile industry as a driving force for national economic development. This important new policy will dramatically increase the level of motorization and the demand for transportation facilities in China, especially in the urban areas of the coastal region. Unless appropriate policy actions are taken, the gap between supply arid demand in urban transportation will grow and eventually become a major obstacle to economic growth and improvement of quality of life. This paper discusses urban transportation problems and their planning implications in the case of Shanghai, China' s largest metropolis. As part of its national economic development strategy, the Chinese government is determined to develop Shanghai into a leading international center of finance and trade.

The North Korean government has tried to promote export and attract foreign direct investment (FDI) since the 1990s. Sino‐North Korea trade values jumped during the 2000s, and China became North Korea's largest trade partner. China's FDI in North Korea began to increase abruptly since the late 2000s. The mining sector led China's investment in and import from North Korea. Although China has dominated any other country in FDI inflows and international trade with North Korea, the former's contribution to the economic development of the latter has not been so substantial in the light of the composition of international trade and FDI inflows. To materialise the potential of Sino‐North Korea trade and Chinese firms' investment in North Korea further, it is essential to improve North Korea's diplomatic relationship with China. In addition, the North Korean government needs to pay attention to upgrading the structure and composition of bilateral trade and FDI inflows from China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

▀ World trade has picked up in recent months, expanding at the fastest pace in six years in the first quarter, with the rise fairly evenly split between advanced and emerging markets. Stronger activity in China and a broader upturn in global investment have been key factors. But there are still reasons for caution. Although the 'cyclical' element in world trade is improving, the 'trend' element is not thanks to changes in supply chains and a lack of trade liberalisation., ▀ World trade growth looks set to reach about a 4% annual rate in Q1 2017, the fastest pace since 2011. Alternative freight-based indicators confirm the upturn. This suggests some modest near-term upside risk to our world growth forecasts., ▀ Recent growth has been evenly split between advanced countries and emerging markets (EM). In EM, the end of deep recessions in Russia and Brazil and an upturn in China have been key factors. China directly added 0.5 percentage points to annual world trade growth over recent months and firmer growth there has also pushed up commodity prices and the spending power and imports of commodity exporters., ▀ Another important positive factor is an improvement in investment, which is a trade-intensive element of world GDP. Rising capital goods imports across a range of countries suggest the drag on world trade from weak investment is fading., ▀ The decline in the ratio of world trade growth to world GDP growth over recent years has both cyclical and structural elements. But while the cyclical component now seems to be improving, there is little evidence that the structural part - responsible for between a half and two-thirds of the recent decline - is doing likewise., ▀ Key factors behind the structural decline in world trade growth are changes in supply chains and a lack of trade liberalisation/protectionism. Both are likely to remain a drag over the coming years. Meanwhile, a levelling-off of growth in China and drop back in commodity prices could curb the recent cyclical uptick. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade disputes have become more prevalent and acute in recent years. Almost all center on bilateral trade balance and/or market access of certain merchandise or services. However, since at least the mid 1980s, affiliate sales have become a more direct and more powerful form of market access than the traditional cross-border commercial transactions for developed countries, whereas developing countries still rely predominantly on traditional trade. The importance of the international production supply chain is increasing with a bias against downstream producers. The current data collection and compilation system of trade balance can not reflect these changes in the world economic environment. It overstates exports of developing countries and understates their imports. None of the countries in the world can illustrate the weakness of the conventional system better than China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of increasing openness on real output growth in China is examined. The framework of analysis is a regression model that uses time-series data for each province. For east coastal provinces, increasing openness is found to have positive effects on real output growth, and some of the effects are statistically significant. The results appear to be broadly consistent with the new growth theories that openness enhances long-run growth through its impact on technological improvement. However, inland provinces in China have been isolated from world trade for several decades and their economies devastated. An increased openness in these provinces is found to have, in most cases, negative effects on real output growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of economic development in the Republic of China on Taiwan cannot be adequately recognized without a concomitant assessment of the social changes that have taken place over the last 30 years. The concept of social indicators as measures of such changes is explored and their applicability to the island determined. Levels of the quality of life from different periods are studied and their advances analyzed. Taiwan's levels are compared with those of developed countries and of the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). Taiwan's show evidence of remarkable progress. The impacts of energy developments and of the recession `s deterioration of foreign trade have threatened the rate as well as the absolute level of this progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China and Pakistan have initiated a mega project with the name of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This study examines how local residence support of CPEC is shaped in Pakistan. This study employs a social exchange theory to explain how perceived impacts affect an individual's level of support for CPEC development. Findings reveal that social exchange theory fits the data well by confirming that the more residents perceive impacts positively, the more they are likely to support CPEC. Data were collected online using the Google platform from 280 citizens, residing in all provinces of Pakistan. Findings of this study validate most of the hypothesis. Positive impact shows significant effect on personal benefit and support for CPEC development. Similarly, personal benefit also shows significant effect on support for CPEC development. However, negative impact shows insignificant effect on personal benefit and support for CPEC development. Findings of this study will guide the government officials and policymakers of CPEC about the perception of local people residence, both positive and negative impact. Policymakers can use the findings of this study to gain local citizen's support for the CPEC development projects and designs policies accordingly for the future projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the aid and trade relation between European Union (EU) and Africa to counter China in the quest for energy and other resources. It aims to position Europe more favorably than China in terms of economic growth. The comment from the European Commission on EU's partnership with Africa is stated. In relation, it also offers information on the EU-Africa summit to be held in December in Lisbon, Portugal, wherein efforts to improve control of African migration to Europe and human trafficking will be discussed.