China as a Listian Trading State: Interest, Power, and Economie Ideology

Before Deng Xiaoping’s open-door policy and economic reforms in 1978, China was an insignificant player in world economy. Its foreign trade volume in 1977 was less than US$15 billion, the 30th largest trading state with a share of 0.6 percent in world trade. Due to economic autarky, this world trade share was even considerably less than in 1927–1929, when China accounted for more than 2 percent of world trade. 1 Yet, in just over 35 years China’s role in world economy has completely changed. It is now the largest exporter and the second largest importer in world trade. As a fastest growing major economy, China’s GDP is the second largest in the world, surpassing that of Japan in 2010 and on the way to overtake the United States in the next 15 to 20 years. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.