China GDP

According to prozipcodes.com, the development of relationships based on the principles of respect for sovereignty (non-interference in the affairs of other countries) and common interest (financing and development aid granted without conditions but only on the basis of mutual benefits) has consolidated the affirmation of the Beijing consensus (see above) among the leaders of many African, South American and Asian states, who saw the Chinese model as a more appropriate reference for identifying development paths applicable to their own economic, political and social contexts than structural adjustment policies imposed by the Washington consensus. The cooperative approach and the development of mutually beneficial relationships have thus favored a massive presence of Chinese investments and companies in numerous developing countries (see also agriculture: Land grabbing), which was followed by a significant growth in trade. In just over ten years, the total value of imports and exports between China and all African countries has increased tenfold, going from 20 billion dollars in 2003 to over 200 billion in 2014, while that with Countries of Latin America reached 250 billion dollars in the same year. The change in scale of Chinese participation in the dynamics of the world economy was also accompanied by the affirmation of a new protagonism of China in terms of a challenge to US financial hegemony, adding new elements to the strategy of the Beijing consensus.. In July 2014 the China promoted, on the occasion of the sixth BRICS summit (v.), Of the creation of the New developing bank and in November of the same year it established the Asian Investment Bank to infrastructure (AIIB, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), which was founded by 37 countries (including 16 Europeans, including Italy), with an initial endowment of 50 billion dollars to finance infrastructure projects in developing Asian countries. The creation of these new economic institutions, in direct competition with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, is connected to an investment strategy which combines the need for security in the supply of raw materials and food products, with the aim of competing with the US for areas of geo-economic influence in Asia. Among the initiatives aimed at containing or replacing the US influence in the region, there is also the allocation of 40 billion dollars, through the financial intermediation of the AIIB, The new silk routes), which flanks and integrates the ‘string of pearls strategy’ aimed at controlling the sea routes towards the South China Sea.

China looking for a new development model. – The process of expansion of the Chinese economy has undergone a turning point after the crisis that hit the main industrialized countries in 2008-09: in order to compensate for the collapse in exports in 2009 (−10.2%), the political authorities Chinese have adopted a set of measures to support domestic consumption and investments, especially in the infrastructure sector, which made it possible to contain the decline in growth (between 2009 and 2011 which remained around 9-10%), but which at the same time it also led to the formation of a considerable amount of local government debt (estimated at around 60% of GDP), fearing the risk of a speculative bubble in the real estate market.

In the two-year period 2012-14, economic growth slowed further, falling (first time in 20 years) to below 8% as a result of the combined effect of the decline in world demand and the planned deflation policies adopted by the government authorities to counter the expansion of new speculative bubbles. Despite these interventions, and also as a result of a further slowdown in economic growth (which fell to 7% in the first six months of 2015), starting from 12 June 2015, the main Chinese financial centers have registered heavy decreases which in little more than a month resulted in the loss of more than 30% of the market capitalization. Furthermore, the decision taken in August by the People’s Bank of China to devalue the renminbi three times, just over a month after the start of the crisis, it caused serious repercussions on the international financial markets, causing the fall of the indices of the main world stock exchanges. In any case, the new political leadership, which took office at the end of 2012, has expressed its intention to modify the old model of development of the Chinese economy, excessively biased on investments and exports, in favor of a more contained growth, but more sustainable, centered on the principles of scientific development, environmental protection and the promotion of a more prosperous and fairer society. For China an indispensable step to free oneself from dependence on the international economic cycle and to consolidate its role as a world economic power, but at the same time it also constitutes a challenge whose outcome is not at all obvious. Firstly, in fact, there is awareness that in the short term Chinese domestic consumption will not be able to replace that of industrialized countries (Chinese domestic demand represents only 33% of GDP compared to 71% in the United States). Furthermore, China continues to maintain significant inhomogeneities within it: due to the polarization of economic growth processes due to the difference between the developed coastal areas and the hinterland of the highly backward countryside, and that between rural and urban areas, the gap between the richest and the poorest part of the population still remains very high (less than 1% of families control more than 60% of national wealth and more than 11% of the population suffer from hunger). Finally, the essential reforms to implement the transition to the new development model, starting from the priority objectives of the liberalization of the banking system (placed under strict political control), the reorganization of the welfare system (currently almost non-existent) and the opening of new market spaces in the sectors monopolized by state-owned companies, can generate a potentially risky effect for the executive class itself.

China Figurative Arts 3