The Group of Twenty (G20) is one of the principal forums focusing on global economic cooperation and it turned out to be an important platform for emerging economies in participating in global economic governance. As an important member of G20, China is not only a participant, constructor and beneficiary of the current international system, but also the largest contributor to the comprehensive growth strategy of G20. Since the founding of G20, by taking advantage of this platform, China worked actively in terms of global economic governance, system construction, coordinated development and concept innovation, and made significant contributions to global economic development. On the summits of G20 held in Washington, London, Pittsburg, Toronto, Seoul, China proposed a series of suggestions and measures on the directions and principles of reform of international financial system. On the St. Petersburg Summit, for the maintenance and development of an open global economy, China proposed the new concepts of development and innovation, growth linkage, and converging interests. On the Brisbane Summit, China raised a series of recommendations such as innovate development pattern, build an open global economy, and optimize global economic governance. On the Antalya Summit, China proposed 10 promises including shifting economic growth pattern, financial system reform, free trade area development, and public service improvement. The above efforts and contributions greatly contributed to the development of G20 and the playing of the role of China as a great power. Major contributions of China to G20 can be summed up in the following points.

 

First, China provided a series of public goods for the international community via the platform of G20. The Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China stipulated that international institutions such as G20, the United Nations and Shanghai Cooperation Organization are important platforms for the participation of China in multilateral affairs. In the G20 Summit held in Australia in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the 2016 G20 Summit would be held in Hangzhou of China. China will take this opportunity to demonstrate the wisdom of the Chinese people, provide the international community with more global public products, and improve the influence and discourse power of China in global economic governance. In recent years, under the circumstance of extensive depression of global economy, Chinese economy still maintained a relatively high development rate and has become one of the major forces driving global economic growth and recovery. Between 2008 and 2013, China accounted for 37.6 percent of global GDP growth, and in the year of 2014 and 2015, the contribution of China to global economic growth was as high as 27.8 percent and 30 percent respectively. Since the establishment of G20, the financial support of China to international economic organizations has also surged. In 2012, the International Monetary Fund sought loans from different national governments and won the support of G20—China contributed one tenth of the total loans. Between 2014 and 2016, China promised to donate $ 300 million for International Development Association—an organization affiliated to the World Bank. To actively promote infrastructure development is another major means of China in offering public goods to the international community. With its rich experience in domestic infrastructure development, China facilitated G20’s concerted efforts in the field of infrastructure development. By the end of 2010, China had helped some developing countries to build 632 infrastructure projects; between 2010 and 2012, China offered a total sum of $ 10 billion concessional loans to African countries for infrastructure construction; and since 2011, China has aided the construction of 200 infrastructure projects in the sectors of clean energy and environmental protection. Upon actively promoting the infrastructure construction of developing countries, China, with other developing countries such as Indonesia and India, jointly called on G20 to strengthen financial support to the infrastructure development of developing countries. As a result, the G20 established the “working group of investment and infrastructure” and “global infrastructure center” in its 2014 Brisbane Summit, for resolving the problem of information asymmetries in the field of infrastructure projects.

 

Second, China strove to promote the reform of global economic governance mechanism with the platform of G20 summits. China has always been advocating gradually reforming the existing international system, and reforming global economic and financial mechanisms has been one of the major core propositions of China in G20 summits. As there are many distinctive defects in the current international economic and financial systems, China has been trying to, taking advantage of the regulatory function of G20 to International Monetary Fund and World Bank, promote the reform of these two institutions. In the process of participating in international monetary system reform, taking advantage of its sufficient foreign exchange reserve, China and other emerging economies worked together to promote the diversification of international currency. Emerging economies with China taking the lead debated many times with western countries on reform of international financial system, proposed to improve the share of BRICS capital in International Monetary Fund, and criticized that the excessive delaying of reform on International Monetary Fund went against the joint commitment made by G20 leaders in 2009. In 2010, the G20 Seoul Summit reached consensus on the reform of voting rights in International Monetary Fund: developed countries transfer at least 6 percent of total shares and two council member seats to emerging countries, and the voting rights of developing countries as a whole was raised by 3.13% in the World Bank, among which the voting right of China was improved to 4.42%. The existing international economic mechanism will no longer enjoy monopoly rights on global economic and financial affairs, and a new model of global economic and financial governance was undergoing exploration. China has also strove to promote the establishment of complementary relations between G20 mechanism and International Monetary Fund as well as World Bank. That is to say, with G20 taking the lead and international organizations such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank focusing on implementation, the agreements and consensus reached on the summits of G20 will be carried out to the largest extent.

 

Third, China worked to promote the effective connection between G20 and new international mechanisms initiated by emerging countries. Emerging countries not only demand reform on existing international mechanism, but also request the establishment of new international mechanisms which can better express the demands of developing countries. The proposal of the initiative of “Belt and Road”, as well as the establishment of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and BRICS New Development Bank, made the influence of emerging countries especially China on global economic governance surged. New international mechanisms initiated by emerging countries were aimed at offering financial support, advanced model and persistent impetus for the economic development of developing countries, which was in accordance with the strategic objective of G20 in driving the economic growth of developing countries. Bringing the strategy of “Belt and Road” into the framework of G20 was helpful for G20 members in carrying out energy cooperation with resourceful countries along the “Belt and Road”, and jointly explore the third-party market and expand the scale of international trade. The foundation of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Silk Road Fund, BRICS New Development Bank not only coordinated with the implementation of “Belt and Road” strategy, but also injected new vitality into international financial system, which were in line with the objective of G20 of “enhancing economic stability and sustainable growth”. In the numerous international mechanisms, international organizations such as G20 and APEC which China took part in was the “existing part”, and China will continue to actively involve in these organizations and play its due role in global governance and regional cooperation. Institutions proposed by China such as the “Belt and Road”, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Silk Road Fund belonged to the “incremental part”. China should not only revitalize and take advantage of the “existing part”, but also actively take part in and build the “incremental part”, so as to enhance the effective connection between the “existing part” and the “incremental part” with its own efforts and contributions.

 

Fourth, coordinate the relationship between developed countries and developing countries inside G20. G20 serves as an important platform for developed and developing countries to consult with each other on international economic affairs. It is conducive for them to bridge differences, enhance mutual understanding and then reach extensive consensus among different countries. As the world’s second largest economy and the largest developing country, China needs to seek balance between maintaining the status of a developing country and playing a leading role in global affairs, and has therefore become a bridge and natural nexus coordinating the relationship between the developed and developing countries in G20. It is the important responsibility of China to enhance the communication between both sides and maintain and strengthen the multilateral cooperation within G20. The rich experience of domestic reform and rising global influence of China brought hope and confidence for other emerging economies in terms of development, and also made China a representative of interests of the 12 emerging economies in G20. Developed countries also need the support and coordination from China in terms of global topics such as international financial order, climate change, counter-terrorism. Therefore, on each G20 summit, the views of China on global issues can always drew close attention from developed countries. Currently, due to their different economic development stages and different economic governance structures, there are divergences of opinions between developed and developing countries. The economic governance mechanism reform of China during the process of its transformation can not only offer experience for the future development of emerging countries, but also strengthen its mutual exchange and understanding with developed countries in terms of economic governance practice. Therefore, it is helpful to narrow the cognitive differences between developed and developing countries and further promote the cooperation between the two sides.

 

Fifth, promote G20 development agenda depending on and with the aid of BRICS mechanism. China, in cooperation with other emerging countries, played a constructive balancing role within G20. The competition and cooperation between large and small groups within G20 were both based on common interests. “Small groups” with common interests will hold meetings before the G20 summits, and this method is helpful for each sub-coordination-mechanism to take part in G20 summits as a whole and express concerted views on major international issues. China and other BRICS members have realized that exchanging ideas is conducive to coordinating stances and expand negotiation leverage, and strive to promote G20 development agenda with a concerted identity. BRICS promoted the upgrading of “financial stability forum” to “council of financial stability” in the G20 Summit held in London; promoted the launching of Report on Lowering Moral Risk of Financial Institutions with Global Systematic Significance and enhanced the strengthening of financial regulation; promoted for twice the G20 mechanism in reaching policy promises of refraining from taking trade protectionism measures respectively in the 2008 Washington Summit and the 2013 St. Petersburg Summit; promoted G20 in forming new development concepts and policy plans such as Seoul development consensus, inter-annual action plan and St. Petersburg development prospect. As an important member of BRICS, China and other emerging countries not only strengthen interaction within and beyond G20, held BRICS summit and G20 summit in parallel, advocate the diversification of G20 mechanism, but also strengthen coordination with other emerging countries in the framework of G20, jointly promote the “small multilateral” mechanism so as to drive “large multilateral” with “small multilateral” and eventually realize the reaching of G20 multilateral agreements.

 

Sixth, integrate and share the global governance concepts of China with G20. As a globally responsible major power, China is attaching more and more importance to providing the whole world with global governance concepts. Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to promote the innovative development of global governance concepts, and carry forward the global governance concepts featuring joint discussion, joint construction and sharing. In the global governance system conceived by China, no single country could dominate or control the discourse power of global governance; the establishment of any rule and order should be consulted and constructed by all the participants of governance; the fruits of governance should be equally shared by all participants, so as to strive to create a future featuring all-out contribution, win-win cooperation, rule of law, fair and justice, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and common development. Cooperation and win-win concepts with Chinese characteristics advocated taking common interests as the foundation of international cooperation, and countries should get rid of the conventional thinking of zero-sum game and refrain from being confined by calculation and allocation of absolute gains. In their addresses on G20 summits, Chinese leaders also mentioned for many times content such as “work together” “act with united strength” and “jointly promote development”, in an effort to establish more close partnership relations in G20. With its continuous development, China attached great importance to integrate its successful domestic governance experience and concepts with global governance concepts so as to offer new theoretical foundations for the sustainable development of global governance. The development concepts of “innovation, coordination, green, open, sharing” proposed in the 13th Five-Year Plan of China was in accordance with the ideas of openness, innovativeness and inclusiveness initiated by G20. On the one hand, the injection of China’s global governance concepts is conducive to enriching the connotations of G20 governance concepts, and enhance the transnational cooperation among its member countries; on the other hand, it is helpful for China to improve its international discourse power and influence.

 

(Yang Na, Doctor and Associate Professor of Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University; Wu Zhicheng, Dean and Professor of Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University)