Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

THE term “dual circulation” has become a catchphrase recently in China as the central authorities are stressing the new model of development.

The phrase was first used at a meeting presided over by President Xi Jinping on May 14 this year. At the meeting, China was urged to “fully bring out the advantages of its super-large market scale and the potentials of domestic demand to establish a new development pattern featuring domestic and international circulations that complement one another.”

With such a concept as the guiding principle, China aims to mainly depend on domestic circulation for its economic development with the external circulation playing a supportive role. Laying greater emphasis on domestic circulation means that China needs to handle well its internal affairs and give full play to its gigantic domestic market.

State leaders should advance with the times. Frankly speaking, this is not a decision the Chinese authorities made in a hurry, but one that was made after carefully judging the circumstances both at home and abroad. China is now facing a drastically changing international environment, as the global economy is hit by a recession, international trade and investment are shrinking, international financial markets are fluctuating, and global exchanges have almost come to halt. Moreover, some Western countries have gone back to protectionism and unilateralism. The previously dominant pro-globalization trend is also being battered by anti-globalization sentiment. To make things worse, the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic has further reduced global business activities, withered foreign trade worldwide and catalyzed the restructuring of global production and supply chains, especially amid intensified efforts by the United States to push for a technological decoupling with China.

Despite the fact that the domestic and external environments have changed greatly for China, what remains unchanged is the government’s top policy priority to continuously improve the country’s growth quality and raise the living standard of its people. Given these facts, China has no choice but to boost domestic demand in order to maintain a healthy economic growth rate and meet the increasing needs of its people. Meanwhile, facing a global economic slowdown, as the most populous country with 1.4 billion people, the biggest contribution that China can give to the world is to maintain stable, resilient and positive growth.

Some Western countries may show concern as to whether China will gradually close its door to the outside world by implementing the new dual circulation mode. However, a review of China’s development during the past 40 years tells us that such worries are unfounded. Top Chinese leaders have reiterated that self-isolation will only widen a country’s gap with advanced nations and complete dependence on domestic circulation will actually lead the Chinese economy to a dead end. While addressing a grand celebration marking the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on Oct. 14, President Xi reaffirmed China’s commitment to forging ahead with reform and opening up.

In fact, China has deeply integrated with the world thanks to the international division of labor. The country’s efforts to expand domestic demand are inseparable from its cooperation with the international production and supply chains. During the process of pushing forward domestic circulation, the world’s second-largest economy can further improve the level of opening up of all its primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, thus making the domestic and international circulations mutually reinforced and mutually beneficial.

Moreover, the dual circulation development pattern will not only give a boost to the Chinese economy, but also help revive the global economy. With the expansion of the Chinese market, it will naturally require more imports, facilities, natural resources, raw materials and new technologies from other countries.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)