China & World Economy / 68–93, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2018

The Great Opening up and the Roadmap for the Future:
The Story of China’s International Trade

Yan Du, Yi Lu*

Abstract

The astonishing surge in China’s international trade is the result of comprehensive economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. Trade was further bolstered by China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. We examine several aspects of China’s international trade that might help to explain its surprisingly fast growth and its ever-growing role in the global economy. A large number of studies have analyzed how trade liberalization, the WTO accession in particular, has profoundly changed the Chinese economy. We survey notable contributions to this literature that analyze the effects of trade liberalization on Chinese firms, individuals and households. Meanwhile, China’s exports have had various effects on importing countries and the enormous growth of China’s exports is seen by some observers as posing a threat to China’s trading partners. Therefore, we discuss the emerging literature on the effects of China’s spectacular export growth on consumers, labor markets, innovation, media and politics in foreign countries. Given the new domestic and external circumstances, the Chinese Government is determined to push for the formation of a new trade structure characterized by broad opening up to transform China into a strong trading powerhouse.

Key words: China, international trade, opening up, reform
JEL codes: F13, O19, P11, P33