WTO accession produces wide-ranging dividends

Global engine

Dollar, a former World Bank chief in China and US Treasury Department emissary in Beijing, stressed that China's opening-up to foreign trade and investment since it joined the WTO had significantly increased growth and reduced poverty.

Since 1978, the country has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty, including many since its WTO accession.

"Exports mostly come from the private sector, so opening to trade enabled the private sector to expand, creating tens of millions of jobs for people coming from the countryside to the cities. That was a key driver of poverty reduction," said Dollar, who traveled the country extensively during his time with the World Bank in China from 2004 to 2009.

"China has become the largest trading nation, so it provides trading opportunities to rich and poor countries, leading to faster growth for them and for the world economy," he said.

According to the white paper, China has become a major engine for global economic growth, and since 2002, its contribution to such expansion has been nearly 30 percent on average.

Meanwhile, the country's FDI has grown from $46.88 billion in 2001 to $135 billion last year. According to the 2019 China Business Climate Survey Report by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, the nation continues to be a priority for all sectors in terms of their near-term global investment plans.

Half of the companies surveyed are optimistic that markets will open further for foreign companies in China-the highest rate of confidence since 2016.

Many observers have also voiced optimism for business opportunities arising from domestic consumption. In January, New York research company eMarketer forecast that China's retail sales would exceed $5.63 trillion this year, topping those of the US by more than $100 billion.

In recent years, China has also become the world's largest source of outbound tourists.

Han Lu, a young Shanghai woman who traveled with her mother and 6-year-old son to Switzerland and several other European countries last month, said she goes abroad with her son for leisure every year.

"It's relaxing and eye-opening," said Han, who runs a small refrigeration sales and service business.

China has also become the largest source of international students. The Ministry of Education said some 608,000 Chinese students were studying abroad in 2017, and according to the Institute of International Education in New York, 360,000 of them attended US universities and colleges during the 2017-18 academic year.

Long, China's former chief WTO negotiator, believes that the country's accession to the organization has produced "more than a boom" in foreign trade and economic development. In a conversation with Caijing magazine editor Wang Boming last year, Long said it had changed mindsets in seeking win-win cooperation, rather than a zero-sum game.