China’s Role in Global Governance by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811666872
Publisher: Springer Singapore

The establishment of the G20, the most important platform for international economic cooperation in the post-crisis era, mirrors the efforts of developed countries and emerging market countries to seek a dynamic balance between supply and demand in the global governance order. Compared with the above three levels of public goods (especially in relation to formal international organisations), although less formal and less binding, the G20 offers a solution of compromise for governance deficit caused by the ‘supply–demand differences’ of public goods with unique superiority, especially under global changes.

First, the G20’s unique superiority lies in its functional positioning under global changes. Rather than getting bogged down in discussions of specific issues and minutiae of governance rules and standards, the G20 is concerned with the overall coordination of the global governance system.21 Specifically, the G20 can air its opinion on issues such as China-US economic and trade friction and WTO reform, aiming to maintain the global governance system and the international economic and trade order. Unlike formal international institutional arrangements such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the WTO, the G20 features flexible institutional settings, allowing representative developed, developing, and emerging market countries to provide insight into the international economic order and seek consensus and direction for solving worldwide problems. Therefore, the G20 is more concerned with directional issues than solving technical issues. Only when the general direction is grasped, can the implementation plan be more feasible and effective. Thus, the G20 plays a crucial and irreplaceable role in leading global economic governance and maintaining multilateralism.

Second, the G20 furnishes a platform for communication and coordination among major countries and creates opportunities for dialogue and communication among major economies. There are 164 WTO members, but a consensus on the direction of some major issues related to WTO reform cannot be reached among them. Mediating among major economies is a unique role and advantage of the G20.22 In particular, the G20 Osaka Summit provided an opportunity for dialogue and played a positive role in easing economic and trade frictions between China and the United States and coordinating the improvement of China–US relations. Under efforts from both countries, China and the United States have reached a phase-one economic and trade agreement, marking the entry of China–US economic and trade friction into a stage of mitigation; the Trump administration has accepted the China–US relations based on coordination, cooperation, and stability as proposed by President Xi Jinping at the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires Summit and the United States has replaced ‘strategic rival’ with ‘strategic partner’ to define China and China–US relations. As the US election approaches, candidates are likely to mention China–US relations, so the potential risk of continued volatility in bilateral relations remains. However, it is still optimal to place China–US relations within the framework of established international rules through multilateral platforms, where the G20 functions as a predictable and important platform and the core mechanism of global economic governance.

Nevertheless, as an informal dialogue mechanism, the G20 is subject to poor enforcement, the lack of a punishment mechanism, and limited binding.

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