Opening up appears so hard to do in China. For the second time in three months, the International Monetary Fund has called on the world’s second-largest economy to push through plans to “ensure a level playing field” for overseas companies.
By rolling out a concrete timetable, President Xi Jinping’s administration would help thaw out Cold War-style trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, the IMF pointed out.
“We are looking at China and comparing it with other G20 countries … in terms of service trade and investment, the Chinese economy is still very restrictive,” Alfred Schipke, the chief China representative for the IMF, said at a symposium in Beijing.
His comments came after an annual report in May by the Washington-based institution recommended that reforms be accelerated to further open up the economy through modernizing the country’s policy framework.
“Promise fatigue” has set in among China’s key trading partners, such as the United States and the European Union, fueling concerns that Beijing is stalling.
Restrictive practices
This, in turn, has resulted in the country being cited for restrictive practices at the World Trade Organization in Geneva and in part for the tit-for-tat tariffs conflict with the US.
“To be an effective and credible leader of better globalization, China should continue to address the distortions that still beset its economy and affect cross-border trade and investment,” David Lipton, the first deputy managing director at the IMF, said in May.
“China would benefit from exposing sheltered sectors and firms to more domestic and foreign competition, ensuring a level playing field, and better protecting intellectual property rights,” he added.
Beijing has stressed it is pressing ahead with moves to cut red tape, address intellectual property rights violations, which have improved in the past two years, and end restrictive practices in certain sectors.
But more needs to be done, according to a research group at the China Institute for Reform and Development in Hainan.
As Xi’s government realigns the economy from lower level factory production to high-tech manufacturing in new industries and services, as well as rising consumer demand, finding the right balance will be crucial.
“China should pay greater attention to protect intellectual property rights of entrepreneurs and individuals,” the group said in an opinion piece for the state-owned China Daily earlier this month.
“[The country] should also deepen supply-side structural reform in the service sector and further open [it] up to attract more capital and improve the supply of services. The authorities should break down administrative and market monopolies and open it up all-round,” they added.
Signs of cooling
In reality, this has proved excruciatingly slow with the economy showing signs of cooling.
Last month, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker reiterated that Beijing had to show more urgency in fulfilling promises it had already made during the past few years.
Protectionist policies are still widely in place with Washington and Brussels demanding greater access during a review of China’s WTO membership in July.
“If China wishes to open up it can do so,” Juncker said at a news conference in the Great Hall of the People following the annual summit between China and the EU in Beijing. “It knows how to open up.”
The big question, of course, is when will that happen?
The rules and regulations of IMF, WTO, and their ilk were set in days when Corporate Capitalist West was the only superpower.
These laws help sustain and extend CCW hegemony on globe by exploiting the weak who have lesser knowledge and experience of the sinister ways Capitalists milk the poor.
If China ever accepts these rules, she will never attain supremacy, or even equality with the West.
It would be fair if China applied 19th century mercantilist rules to the West in return of their past looting. However, there is no moral or even practical reason for pushing opium on the West as it is committing suicide anyway by over consmption of alcohol and opiods.
China watch out for the likes of this writer. Under the guise of "well meaning" or "advising" China, all they want is return to their past hegemony which is never coming back. The party is over.
EU taxes a sports bicycle fully assembled in China at 50 % import duty.
EU imposes horrendous import duties on imports from China. EU needs to open up.
I still get a kick out of how all western media utilize two pieces of propaganda to make China’s economy seem sluggish. First, back in 2014, the World Bank and the IMF both declared China to be the world’s largest economy by purchasing power parity (the gold standard for comparing economies which is unquestioned when comparing the sizes of other economies). The second is that China’s economy is "cooling" because the world’s largest economy, which is now the size of the U.S. economy plus about two Indian economies, isn’t growing at 10% anymore. It truly sounds moronic when the world’s largest economy by far is growing at about 6.8% and people describe it as "cooling" because western propagandists want to somehow convince China that they’re doing something wrong.
I oftentimes see as well as read comments from both Yuri Ariefiadhi and Joeseph Stalin on YouTube. Excellent analysts and knowledgeable individuals. Keep up keeping up. Be well and be strong.
HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THE ""IMF"" BUTTING IN TELLING A NATION HOW TO OPERATE. IF YOU DONT LIKE DOING BUSINESS WITH CHINA THEN DON’T . CHINA WLL DO AS CHINA WILL DO. AND TO HELL WITH THE ZIONIST ROTHCHILD AGENDA. AND FAST!!!
China prospers because it is independent as is not being reliant to imf and others. China don’t need imf.
LoL, when will arrogant eu grant China market status as promised so long ago? Look at yourself in the mirror before lecturing others, eu!