Why China Insists on Its Developing Country Status: Exploring the Political and Economic Implications

2023-06-09 20:41:46

After the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the relevant bill at the end of March, the People’s Daily published an article explaining why China insisted on the status of a developing country, emphasizing that “for China, the status of a developing country has special political attributes.” Corresponding to the developed countries, the status of a developing country “contains China’s true feelings of suffering and solid friendship with other developing countries.” China will not join the “rich club” of the West, and will always work with developing countries to strive for common rights and interests. Safeguard common interests.

The “People’s Political Consultative Conference” also published an article in May, arguing that the United States is eager to “buy” China and “join” it in order to remove obstacles for its subsequent suppression of other developing countries; at this stage, China cannot lose its status as a developing country. The country cannot lose China either. Another expert pointed out that even if China were to be labeled as a “developed country”, it would only be in a situation where the Western developed country system would not tolerate it, and the group of developing countries would not recognize it, and China would become isolated in the diplomatic field.

In fact, in July 2021, President Xi Jinping made a speech at the CCP and World Political Party Leaders Summit. When talking about global governance, he clearly stated that “China will always be a member of the big family of developing countries and will be unswervingly committed to improving the State representation and voice in the international governance system”.

At present, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank all regard China as a “developing country”. The reasons include that China’s per capita GDP and Human Development Index (HDI) have not reached the threshold of developed countries. The World Trade Organization (WTO) accepts all countries claiming to be “developing countries”.