Home China’s Economy as Xi’s Means of Power Or Why the Chinese Economy is Not yet Bigger than That of the USA
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

China’s Economy as Xi’s Means of Power Or Why the Chinese Economy is Not yet Bigger than That of the USA

  • Norbert F. Tofall EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 25, 2023
The Economists’ Voice
From the journal The Economists’ Voice Volume 20 Issue 2

Abstract

Contrary to optimistic predictions from the financial industry in 2011, China’s economy will not have overtaken that of the USA by 2025. Since 2012, Xi Jinping has largely brought the market, private property and the capitalist mode of production back under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. Xi has curtailed the success factor of decentralization and continued to expand the failure factors of interventionism and state control. Capital is now flowing out of China, putting the renminbi under devaluation pressure. Even a relocation of production capacities from China primarily to other Asian countries can already be observed. In its policy of hegemony, China is steering the economy to achieve political and geopolitical ends and is practising geoeconomics. What remains unclear is how the geoeconomics pursued by Xi is intended to enable long-term growth in China.

Keywords: geopolitics; geoeconomics; international relations
JEL Classification: A; A1
Corresponding author: Norbert F. Tofall, Flossbach von Storch Research Institute, Flossbach von Storch AG, Ottoplatz 1, D-50679 Köln, Germany, E-mail:

References

Blackwill, Robert D., and Harris, Jennifer M. 2017. War by Other Means. Geoeconomics and Statecraft. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674545960Search in Google Scholar

Eucken, Walter. 1952. Grundsätze der Wirtschaftspolitik, herausgegeben von Edith Eucken und K. Paul Hensel, 1952, 7. Auflage mit einem Gespräch zwischen Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker und Walter Oswalt. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004.Search in Google Scholar

Gehringer, Agnieszka, and Norbert F. Tofall. 2016. “Modernisierung in der Volksrepublik China. Strukturwandel und Wirtschaftswachstum ohne politisch-gesellschaftliche Freiheit?” In Makroanalyse des Flossbach von Storch Research Institute vom 15. September 2016.Search in Google Scholar

Heilmann, Sebastian. 2013. “Chinas Fragiles Zentralnervensystem: Die KP Als Organismus Neuen Typs.” In Internationale Politik, Januar/Februar 2013.Search in Google Scholar

Jenglein, Max J., and Jacob Gunter. 2023. The Party Knows Best: Aligning Economic Actors with China’s Strategic Goals. MERICS Report, October 2023, online. https://merics.org/de/report/party-knows-best-aligning-economic-actors-chinas-strategic-goals.Search in Google Scholar

Kant, Immanuel (1797/1798): Die Metaphysik der Sitten, 1797/1798, Werkausgabe Band VIII, herausgegeben von Wilhelm Weischedel, 5. Auflage. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1982.Search in Google Scholar

Lepage, Henri. 1979. Der Kapitalismus von morgen, mit einem Vorwort von Wolfram Engels. Frankfurt a. M. und New York: Campus.Search in Google Scholar

Olson, Mancur (2002): Macht und Wohlstand. Kommunistischen und kapitalistischen Diktaturen entwachsen, übersetzt von Gerd Fleischmann. Tübingen: Mohr.Search in Google Scholar

Schnabl, Gunther. 2017. “Exchange Rate Regime, Financial Market Bubbles and Long-Term Growth in China: Lessons from Japan.” China & Word Economy 25 (1): 32–57.10.1111/cwe.12185Search in Google Scholar

Sharma, Ruchir. 2023. “China’s Rise Is Reversing. The Past Two Years Have Seen the Largest Drop in the Nation’s Share of Global GDP since the Mao Era.” In The Financial Times, November 19, 2023. online edition.Search in Google Scholar

The Economist. 2023. “The Altasian Option. Global Firms Are Eyeing Asian Alternatives to Chinese Manufacturing. Can “Altasia” Steal China’s Thunder?” The Economist. Feb. 20th 2023, online. https://www.economist.com/business/2023/02/20/global-firms-are-eyeing-asian-alternatives-to-chinese-manufacturing?giftId=78fbf914-7346-4e24-82a0-813be2e3e7da.Search in Google Scholar

Tofall, Norbert F. 2023. De-Risking und Altasia. Die „asiatische Alternative“ zu China wird für den Westen immer wichtiger, Kommentar des Flossbach von Storch Research Institute vom 26. Mai 2023, online. https://www.flossbachvonstorch-researchinstitute.com/de/kommentare/de-risking-und-altasia-die-asiatische-alternative-zu-china-wird-fuer-den-westen-immer-wichtiger/.Search in Google Scholar

Xi, Jinping. 2014. China Regieren, Erste Auflage, Beijing: Verlag für fremdsprachige Literatur.Search in Google Scholar
Received: 2023-12-01
Accepted: 2023-12-11
Published Online: 2023-12-25

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. The Economists’ Voice, December Issue 2023, Geopolitical Tensions and Economic Policy Making
  4. Policy Papers
  5. European Public Policies and Sovereign Risk in the Eurozone: How State-Contingent Governance Hampers Fiscal Discipline
  6. The Reform of the European Fiscal Rules: In Search of Mechanisms Ensuring Sustainable Debt Levels
  7. How Brexit Damaged the United Kingdom and the City of London
  8. Understanding Economic Sanctions on Iran: A Survey
  9. A Soufflé only Rises Once: China’s Grim Economic Prospects
  10. Policy Forum: Geopolitical Tensions and Deglobalization
  11. Deglobalization: Reasons and Effects
  12. Geopolitical Tensions and Global Monetary (Dis)Order
  13. From BRICS to BRICS+: Sheer More Members is not a Challenge to G7
  14. The Rise and Fall of the Eurasian Regionalism
  15. Caught up by Geopolitics: Sanctions and the EU’s Response to Russia’s War Against Ukraine
  16. China’s Central Role in the Globalization and Slowbalization Trends
  17. German Chinese Economic Relations: Necessary Reassessment
  18. China’s Economy as Xi’s Means of Power Or Why the Chinese Economy is Not yet Bigger than That of the USA
  19. Systemic Rivalry of China and the West in Climate Policy
https://doi.org/10.1515/ev-2023-0068
Keywords for this article
geopolitics; geoeconomics; international relations

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. The Economists’ Voice, December Issue 2023, Geopolitical Tensions and Economic Policy Making
  4. Policy Papers
  5. European Public Policies and Sovereign Risk in the Eurozone: How State-Contingent Governance Hampers Fiscal Discipline
  6. The Reform of the European Fiscal Rules: In Search of Mechanisms Ensuring Sustainable Debt Levels
  7. How Brexit Damaged the United Kingdom and the City of London
  8. Understanding Economic Sanctions on Iran: A Survey
  9. A Soufflé only Rises Once: China’s Grim Economic Prospects
  10. Policy Forum: Geopolitical Tensions and Deglobalization
  11. Deglobalization: Reasons and Effects
  12. Geopolitical Tensions and Global Monetary (Dis)Order
  13. From BRICS to BRICS+: Sheer More Members is not a Challenge to G7
  14. The Rise and Fall of the Eurasian Regionalism
  15. Caught up by Geopolitics: Sanctions and the EU’s Response to Russia’s War Against Ukraine
  16. China’s Central Role in the Globalization and Slowbalization Trends
  17. German Chinese Economic Relations: Necessary Reassessment
  18. China’s Economy as Xi’s Means of Power Or Why the Chinese Economy is Not yet Bigger than That of the USA
  19. Systemic Rivalry of China and the West in Climate Policy
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 7.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ev-2023-0068/pdf
Scroll to top button