China and Asian Neighbors: A Crisis Test

Abstract

The beginning of the new decade in 2020 has brought a combination of seemingly dramatic events across the world. We have focused on China and its economic role in Asia under new realities of trade war from Donald Tramp, coronavirus outbreak and de‑globalization, which started after global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008‑09. De‑globalization is understood as a steady decline of the role of exogenous factors in economic development, which has been observed globally and even more clearly in China in 2010‑19. De‑globalization is also understood as a process of regionalization forming more intensive and cooperative links with neighboring countries and territories. The China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may be viewed as a de‑globalization source providing self‑consolidation of national states in Asia – to build a more friendly and productive environment for the future of the continent. In this sense BRI may be assessed as a project opposite to liberal globalization –poor in results both economic and social. Thus, today’s crises are a good test for China’s cooperation with its neighbors, ideas of collective self‑reliance, South‑South consolidation and leading role of national states in economic modernization: ideas which were popular before arrival of liberal globalization in the 1980‑90’s. Globally that may mean restoration of UN documents and projects on economic rights and duties of states, code of behavior for TNC etc.

Keywords

• china
• de‑globalization
• crises
• national consolidation
• collective self-reliance
• economic modernization
• trade war
• bri