Since the 1980s, after decades of globalization, the world has ushered in a strong wave of economic nationalist ideology.(Internet)

Since the 1980s, after decades of globalization, the world has ushered in a strong wave of economic nationalist ideology.Economic nationalism has led to many sovereign state governments to pursue trade protectionism, which has a huge negative impact on the world economy.Although people can condemn the rise of economic nationalism, in historical perspective, economic nationalism is not only inevitable, but also needs to be needed to a certain extent.

Globalization is not necessarily one -way process, but a process of progress and backward.People need to analyze the nature of the backwardness, and sometimes the retrogression is to better improve.From the perspective of all aspects, this wave of anti -globalization, in terms of economic elements alone, may have a correction nature for many countries, not the real backward.

The challenge brought by globalization to various sovereign countries is the contradiction between the creation and distribution of wealth.Globalization has driven the flow of production factors globally and promotes the improvement of labor productivity, so it has created a huge amount of wealth over the past few decades.

However, globalization has caused tremendous changes in society and classes within the country where the country participating in globalization at least two levels.

World economy shows exclusive features

First of all, with the acceleration of capital and technology in the process of globalization, political and economic dislocation has led to the dislocation of politics and economy, that is, capital and technology have lost traditional sovereignty (the governments of various countries have traditionally possess their capital and technology sovereignty)EssenceSimply put, this is the characteristic of the Fortune Factory era.In this era, with a technology, you can set up factories. With factories, employment and taxation can be set up. Employment has led to the evolution of the population from the working class to the middle class, and the taxation government provides more social services.

In the era of globalization, this situation is no longer.Even with technology, technology and capital can flow to places where foreign labor and land are cheap.Once technology and capital flow out, the country will lose employment and taxation; without employment and taxation, there will be problems with society and the government, such as increasing the unemployment population, narrowing the middle class, the unable to provide social services, and social instability.

Secondly, the differences in income have increased, and society is becoming more and more differentiated.Globalization has created a huge amount of wealth, but wealth flows to a few people who dominate the process of globalization.If considering the factors dominated by technology and such as artificial intelligence, robotics, wealth concentration is more severe.From the perspective of which perspective, today's economy has completely lost the sharing characteristics of the Ford's economy, and it is expressed as exclusive.

Trade protectionism is economic nationalism

If governments have the ability to cope with the challenges brought by globalization and technology, globalization can be carried out as usual, and globalization will continue to show acceleration due to factors such as the surge in wealth.But the problem is that until now, the governments of various countries have almost helpless the challenges brought by globalization and technological progress.This not only leads to the resistance and resistance of the social groups of the victims of the globalization, but also causes whether the governments of various countries are excessively globalized?In question, the combination of the two created the wave of globalization that people experienced today.

Although many countries continue to talk about globalization at the discourse level, economic nationalism has been selected in actual policies.The prevalence of trade protectionism led by the United States is the embodiment of economic nationalism.

Under trade protectionism, the world market is becoming more and more fragmented.The trade war is driven by political forces. No economy (regardless of size) can avoid its negative impact.One of the interesting phenomena of the world economy today is that no country (including the United States and China) has the ability to stabilize the world market, but all countries (regardless of size) can inject huge unstable factors into the world market.

Economic nationalism is so popular, not only because governments of various countries have adopted economic nationalism policies, but also because of the unstable international markets, they will start asking their own governments to protect enterprises.This is not much different from the political field: In the case of tight relations between countries, if conflicts are to be avoided, it is required that countries should not be too selfish, but consider the interests of other countries;There is a tension between countries, and the internationalism of the people of various countries has disappeared sharply, and nationalism has risen sharply.

In other words, from an ideal level, when trade protectionism prevails, if every country (especially large powers) can continue to open, it can alleviate the deterioration of the world economy and even help the recovery of the world economy.

The open country is open is public products

Here, the opening of the big power is particularly important, because the opening of the big power itself is the public product of the world economy.People can call this the optimal choice.

In the academic community, many scholars have attributed the economic depression of the 1930s to the great powers (especially the United States) and did not provide such public products.But the premise here is that large powers must have this ability.Because there is no single big country that has the ability to provide such a large number of public products separately, this ability should also include the ability of this great country to coordinate other countries' economic behavior.

However, the problem is that once economic nationalism prevails, countries will tend to protect themselves and become selfish. The coordination between countries will inevitably become more and more difficult, and there is no possibility.Under such circumstances, even if the big country is willing, it will feel powerless.If the great country itself chooses economic nationalism, international economic cooperation will not be able to talk about it.The relationship between China and the United States today is a reflection of this situation.

Without such capabilities, countries will choose a secondary plan, that is, stabilize the internal economic situation, realize the sustainable development of the inside, and consider globalization issues under the premise of stabilizing internal development.

Although this choice is sub -superior, it is realistic, because this choice is more active than the optimal choice that exceeds its own ability.In fact, a huge amount of economies like China and the United States contribute to the world economy lies in internal stability and sustainable development.

After World War II, the reason why the United States was so important to the world economy was that its market was huge and internal stable development, so that people said that the stability of the United States was almost the stability of the world.Conversely, the source of Western trade protectionism today is that there are problems with these economies (especially the United States) and become unsustainable.

Globalization is the essence of capital

In other words, economic nationalism has prevailed and has gathered enough motivation.Although countries still strive to call for the reverse situation, in fact, many countries will choose to focus on internal affairs.From this perspective, it is not difficult to understand today's anti -globalization.

Many people have started to worry about future globalization, and even think that the world economy will be closed from globalization.Although this worry is not unreasonable, pessimism is not necessary.The reason is also very simple, and many factors are continuing to advance globalization.

The first is the second largest economy China.Chinese President ... Repeatedly and again that China will continue to promote globalization.This of course in China meets its own economic development needs.After decades of economic reform and opening up, China has transformed from a capital shortage economy to a capital surplus economy, and China's capital has become unavoidable.

Over the years, China alsoPromote globalization through your own way, including Belt and Road, Asian Infrastructure Investment Banks, BRICS Banks, etc.At the same time, China is becoming the largest consumer country in the world and consumes a large number of foreign products.No country is willing to give up and withdraw from the Chinese market.In addition to China, large economies such as Japan and India also have the need to continue globalization.

Secondly, many small economies of export -oriented are more needed to rely on globalization to survive and develop, and they are also promoting globalization.Although they sometimes feel powerless, they are also a power.

Thirdly, even today, some countries that tend to engage in trade protectionism, including the United States, can understand their actions into their behavior into internal rectification and then start.Globalization is basically capital -promoted. The government can accelerate or slow down globalization, but it is difficult to eliminate globalization.The essence of capital is globalization. As long as the United States and the West are still capitalist countries, globalization will inevitably continue.Globalization is not a problem, but just a problem.

Internal priority is to follow the actual rules of all countries

Therefore, economic nationalism does not mean that globalization will disappear, but the rise of economic nationalism does mean that the changes in national competition between the country or the international competition model, that is, from international competition to the internal system competition, and reinterpret the internal internal internal competitionThe system is re -strengthened to strengthen its external influence.

Globalization has caused a serious impact on the internal systems of various countries, including economic structure, social structure and distribution structure.Regardless of what countries have claimed publicly, internal priority is the actual rules that countries have followed today.

Today, whether it is restricting or encouraging the entry of foreign capital and technology, the return, tax reduction that attracts domestic capital and technology, or the improvement of the distribution system or the re -expansion of the middle class is to strengthen the international competitiveness of the internal system at the international level.

Western countries are doing this, and China's policy is difficult to avoid this trend.In the past few decades, China has obtained huge benefits from the process of globalization, and because of its close correlation between its economy and the world economy, it will inevitably continue to work hard to promote globalization.But at the same time, if China cannot achieve coordination and cooperation with other important economies, China's unilateral efforts will also be unprepared, and it is difficult to produce expected results.From the perspective of experience, this is indeed the same.

In this way, China will naturally focus on internal reforms and sustainable development, and the internal system construction will have a positive impact on the world economy.

In fact, people can also say that internal priority is always the world economic philosophy of Chinese leadership, because Chinese leadership has always emphasized that China's biggest contribution to the world economy is the sustainable development of the world economy.Internal development realizes sustainability, and then contributes to the world economy.

This is the same for any country, especially for big powers.In recent years, although China's economic development has entered a new normal, that is, the medium -speed development stage, its contribution rate to the growth of world economic growth is still above 30%, mainly due to the stable development of the world.

China's structural reforms are difficult

If a new round of competition is the competition of internal systems, the challenge is not small for China.On the one hand, if you focus on internal development, you must strive to improve the internal economy and business environment.For China, this is not a problem that is easy to solve because it involves internal structural reforms.

Although structural reforms have always been the goal of China's economic reform, and at the same time, it has always faced external pressure, especially the pressure of the United States, but structural reform has not made a breakthrough.

This is particularly manifested in the relationship between state -owned enterprises and private enterprises. The two are very symmetrical and unequal relationships between the two.Although private enterprises have obtained legitimacy regardless of national law or ideology, this legitimacy has disappeared in the actual operation process.

In terms of space, state -owned enterprises, especially state -owned enterprises, often occupy a monopoly position. Wherever state -owned enterprises go, private enterprises are difficult to get room for survival and development.Northeast is a typical example.The most important factor in the entire regional economy is that state -owned enterprises are still in a monopoly position, and private enterprises have no room for space. If private enterprises cannot develop, state -owned enterprises will not have competitive pressure, without the motivation to change, and it is difficult to reform.

This is especially true in the financial field.The state is controlled and monopolized finance, and the state banks are large banks.The service target of the State Bank is a large state -owned enterprise.Although the government has adopted administrative and even political methods for state -owned banks to serve private enterprises, there is no good effect.The reason is simple, because the two are completely asymmetric, and state -owned banks have no dynamic private enterprises, especially small and medium -sized private enterprises.This requires structural reforms to establish a large number of small and medium -sized state -owned or private financial institutions to serve small and medium -sized private enterprises.

For private enterprises, the construction of the rule of law is more urgent.Although there are already laws that protect the private economy, including the protection of private property, the law often only stays on paper and it is difficult to execute.

It takes a long time and hard work to transform from the legal system to the rule of law.However, if private enterprises cannot feel the efforts in this direction, they will still feel huge uncertainty. As soon as the wind blows grass, private capital will flow everywhere.

During this period of time, through internal reforms, we strengthen their institutional competitiveness, and develop in the future.

(The author is a professor at the East Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore)

The article only represents personal point of view