{"id":7719,"date":"2021-05-14T07:00:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T07:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=7719"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:53:11","slug":"china-global-value-chains-decoding-export-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/china-global-value-chains-decoding-export-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Understanding China’s global value chains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using case studies including Apple, Uniqlo and Dyson, among others, Yuqing Xing’s new book explores how global value chains have offered an alternative path for China to achieve industrialisation, turbocharging the economic learning curve. Paul French finds out more.<\/span><\/h2>\n

On a surface level, it\u2019s a well-known story: over the last quarter century, China has emerged as the world’s largest exporting nation with more than \u00a31.4 trillion GBP of exports annually. But now we have enough case studies and data to dig deeper. In his new book, Decoding China’s Export Miracle, Yuqing Xing, of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, uses China\u2019s involvement with global value chains (GVCs) to analyse this export miracle. <\/span><\/p>\n

The book explains how China\u2019s deep integration with GVCs has been a decisive factor in the country\u2019s emergence as the world’s number one exporting nation and the champion of high-technology exports. It uses a range of case studies including Apple, Uniqlo, Dyson, Samsung and others that use China to become \u2018factoryless manufacturers.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

In this interview, Paul French catches up with Yuxing Qing to find out why China and GVCs are so important.<\/span><\/p>\n

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To understand your book and its arguments we need to first talk about global value chains (GVCs). What are they and why have they been so important to China\u2019s rise as the world\u2019s major exporter nation?<\/span><\/h4>\n

Global value chains are a new model of manufacturing and trading goods internationally. A typical GVC involves firms from various nations. Those firms coordinately perform a series of tasks necessary for the delivery of products to end-users in the global market. These tasks include research and development, product design, the manufacture of parts and components, assembly, distribution and retailing. Chinese firms participating in GVCs mainly perform manufacturing tasks, such as assembly. Most manufactured goods exported by China, which account for more than 90% of total Chinese exports, are, in fact, produced and traded along GVCs, which have systematically eliminated conventional entry barriers to international markets for made\/assembled in China products. This has greatly facilitated the massive penetration of Chinese goods into the markets of both developed and developing countries \u2013 powering China\u2019s export miracle.<\/span><\/p>\n