China’s Global Economic Interactions

Since 2009–2010, China has developed a distinctive set of international economic policies that were by no means inevitable. These policies grew out of the unusual economic events that marked the first part of the twenty-first century—including the Global Financial Crisis (GFC)—and from the determination the Chinese leaders displayed thereafter to exert worldwide global economic influence. The broad policy orientation that grew from these forces can be best considered by examining two complex policy initiatives: renminbi internationalization and the Belt and Road Initiative. Each can be seen as a response to the surplus of domestic saving that emerged in the wake of sustained rapid economic growth, and they are to a certain extent competing strategies. The chapter also assesses China’s overall international economic position as of 2018. It concludes with some prognostications about the future of China’s position in the global economy.