Opinion | Capitalism with US and Chinese characteristics can peacefully coexist – if we give up on ‘hyper-globalism’
- The idea that countries must fully open their economies to foreign companies, regardless of the consequences for their own growth strategies or societies, is flawed. The US and China should give each other greater policy space
The term “peaceful coexistence” evokes the cold war between the US and the Soviet Union. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev understood that the communist doctrine of eternal conflict between socialist and capitalist systems had outlived its usefulness. The US and other Western countries would not be ripe for communist revolutions any time soon, and they were unlikely to dislodge the communist regimes in the Soviet bloc.
Peaceful coexistence during the cold war was successful in preventing direct military conflict between two superpowers armed to the hilt with nuclear weapons. Similarly, peaceful economic coexistence between the US and China is the only way to prevent costly trade wars between the world’s two economic giants.
Today’s China-US impasse is rooted in the faulty economic paradigm I have called “hyper-globalism”, under which countries must open their economies to foreign companies maximally, regardless of the consequences for their growth strategies or social models.
This requires that the domestic rules governing markets converge considerably. Without such convergence, national regulations and standards will appear to impede market access.
