15 September 2024

The Coming Clash Between China and the Global South

James Crabtree

Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to open his country’s vast economy to the world’s emerging nations, pledging on Sept. 5 to introduce a regime of zero tariffs for the world’s least developed countries. The move, unveiled as dozens of leaders gathered at the China-Africa summit in Beijing, seemed deliberately designed to contrast China with the United States, which has largely abandoned its role as a champion of free trade as it drifts toward protectionism. But Xi’s promise also aimed to counter growing alarm among emerging countries that major shifts in global trade flows—as China’s export-heavy economic model meets Western resistance—now risk swamping much of the global south with cheap Chinese goods and undermining their fragile progress in economic development.

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