Advertisement
Opinion | To forge a ‘one-China market’, Beijing must overcome local resistance
- Despite years of efforts, it remains challenging to get local players to cooperate, rather than compete, with one another as Beijing tries to shape an integrated, unified market
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
3
With tensions growing at home and abroad ahead of China’s third plenum, a key economic planning session, the government faces the dual challenge of managing its relations with the local authorities and, more critically, of fostering cooperation between the local governments in the national pursuit for greater economic integration.
The challenge is that the local authorities have a strong tendency to prioritise local economic development. They do collaborate, notably in the Yangtze River Delta between Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, as well as in economic clusters such as the Greater Bay Area. But cooperation rarely goes beyond relatively small areas.
In 2021, China released its 14th five-year plan, vowing to “accelerate the development of a unified domestic market” and “optimise the market environment according to internationally advanced rules and best practices”. Since then, the central government has ramped up its focus on the domestic economy under its “dual circulation” strategy.
Advertisement
Last December, the State Council unveiled a host of measures to accelerate the integrated development of domestic and international trade. In pushing for a dual circulation economy, the central authorities have introduced pilot programmes across nine regions to integrate local and foreign trade, encouraging enterprises, industry clusters and brands to support the effort.
Implementation, however, is proving more challenging than conceptualisation. A critical question is whether economic unification is feasible in a country as diverse as China. Also, to what extent are incentives necessary for the local authorities to embrace the concept of a “one-China market”?
Advertisement
Despite the difficulties, some progress has been made, most prominently in the cooperation between the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x