3. Project Design and Argumentation
Table 4. Research status and topic value (within 5000 words)
The report of the 20th CPC National Congress clearly proposed to promote high-level opening up, build an open world economy, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Promoting high-level opening up in the new era is not only a need for China to adhere to the basic national policy of opening up and achieve high-quality development; it is also a need to deal with the relationship between China’s development and the world’s development, domestic rules and international rules, and the current international system and the innovative international system in the face of changes in the domestic and international environment, and to actively participate in the reform and construction of the global economic governance system, promote economic globalization in a more open, inclusive, equitable, balanced and win-win direction, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
Based on a comprehensive analysis of the problems of the domestic development stage and the complex issues of changes in the international environment in the new era, this project will systematically define the new goals and tasks for promoting high-level opening-up from the economic and strategic latitudes and the short-term and long-term longitudes, compare and summarize the experiences and inspirations of several major economies in the world in integrating into, shaping and leading the process of economic globalization. From the three aspects of accurately spreading Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and enhancing China’s international communication power and voice; coordinating international and domestic rules and leading the reconstruction and innovation of international economic and trade rules; promoting international regulatory cooperation and steadily expanding institutional opening-up such as rules, regulations, management standards, etc., this study proposes a strategic path for China to promote high-level opening-up, build an open world economy, participate in the reform and construction of the global economic governance system, and build a community with a shared future for mankind in the new era.
A. Academic History and Overview of Related Research at Home and Abroad
The new requirements for high-level opening up are “larger scope, wider fields and deeper levels”, among which the deeper level is the key, and its inherent requirement is institutional opening up, which shows that institutional opening up is the core and essence of China’s promotion of high-level opening up in the new era . Although the academic circles at home and abroad are also conducting research on institutional opening up , most of them focus on institutional “bringing in” such as ” connecting with high-standard international rules ” , but not enough research on the urgent need for institutional ” going out ” in the new era ; focus on serving conventional economic development issues, but not enough attention to grasping the historical opportunities under the century-old changes ; focus on the economic needs and short-term significance of promoting high-level opening up , but not enough research on its huge strategic value and world connotation . Based on the inspirations of related research and areas for improvement, this project analyzes high-level opening-up in the context of three important relationships : ” China’s development and world development ” , ” existing international institutions and innovative international institutions “, and ” domestic rules and international rules “. It divides the new goals and tasks of high-level opening-up in the new era into short-term tasks and long-term tasks, economic tasks and strategic tasks for analysis. By originally comparing the historical experiences of several important economies in the world in promoting opening-up, this project explores the strategic path for China to promote high-level opening-up in the new era .
1. Historical background for promoting high-level opening-up
(1) China’s reform and opening up has entered a new historical stage .
China has implemented a gradual opening-up strategy (Pei Changhong, 2022). Between 1978 and 2001, China exported labor-intensive products, which enabled China to give full play to its comparative advantages (Jiang Xiaojuan, 2019; Yu Miaojie, 2018) . After joining the WTO in 2001, the goals and tasks of opening up to the outside world have focused more on benchmarking international rules and achieving alignment with international rules (Wei Hao et al., 2022) . Since 2009, the world has been hit by the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in turn. China’s goal of opening up to the outside world is no longer to participate in or passively integrate into economic globalization (Sang Baichuan, 2021). Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China , China’s opening up to the outside world has entered a new stage, from passive opening to more active opening, from learning international rules to participating in the formulation of international rules. China has become an advocate, promoter and leader of a new round of economic globalization (Zhao Longyue, 2020 ) . In general, regarding the historical experience of high-level opening-up, existing research focuses on summarizing China’s experience, models and achievements of reform and opening up. However, there are few studies on my country’s opening-up from the macro perspective of the evolution of the historical stages of economic globalization, and comparative studies with the experience of other major countries in the world in promoting in-depth opening-up.
(2) Economic globalization has shifted to a period of deep reconstruction .
The two early globalizations were achieved by countries such as Spain and the United Kingdom through the use of force to achieve the global expansion of capitalism (Li Xiao, 2022) . The United States led the economic globalization after World War II with the help of “institutional hegemony” . After the Cold War, the United States used neoliberal ideas to build the world economic order and governance rules (Sheng Bin, 2022) . However, the injustice of ” American rules ” directly led to economic, ecological and political crises around the world (Li Baogeng, 2020). The current globalization is still dominated by developed countries , and the frustrated globalization people in developed countries still focus on attacking them, and globalization is facing division (Liu Hongzhong and Yang Gongyan, 2020) . The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected the development of the world economy and disrupted the global supply chain, but it cannot change the historical trend of economic globalization (Zhao Longyue, 2020 , 2022 ). At present, domestic scholars’ research on the historical experience of economic globalization is still more focused on looking at the world from China’s perspective, and there are relatively few studies summarizing the world’s experience. This project will use the historical evolution of globalization as a clue, systematically compare the experiences and inspirations of developed countries in the United States and Europe and some emerging economies in promoting opening up to the outside world, and conduct in-depth research on the impact of the deep reconstruction of economic globalization on China’s opening up to the outside world. It will also analyze from the two dimensions of “institutional opening up” and “factor opening up”, and study and draw on relevant laws.
(3) The transformation of the relationship between China’s development and the world’s development .
Regarding the relationship between China’s development and the world’s development , there are more studies focusing on the achievements of China’s development in integrating into the world’s development , and fewer studies on the changes in the relationship between China’s development and the world’s development under the new era of globalization . China has created the ” Chinese miracle ” by using international resources and international markets (Zhou Yu, 2019), and is committed to making global economic governance more in line with the objective trend of world economic development, promoting the development of the world market and world productivity (Zhang Yansheng et al., 2022), and making great contributions to world peace (Tuij i l and Dorp , 2016) . Now that China has “stood up and become rich “, it has begun to change from a recipient of world capital to an investor in world capital (Brandt, 2012; Shao , 2019), and the spillover effect of the Chinese economy is increasing day by day (Liu Hongzhong and Yang Gongyan, 2020) . The transformation of the relationship between China’s development and the world’s development is a new condition for China to promote high-level opening-up in the new era. This topic analyzes the latest developments and trends in the changes in the relationship between China’s development and the world’s development in the new era, and explores the strategic significance of promoting high-level opening-up for coordinating the two major situations of China’s development and world development.
2. Real challenges in promoting high-level opening-up
(1) The connotation and extension of high-level opening up to the outside world .
Regarding the research on the connotation and extension of high-level opening up to the outside world, current research focuses on how the scope, method and intensity of opening up serve the domestic economy, and few studies are carried out from the perspective of regulatory background and strategic background. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to implement high-level opening up under the high-quality development strategy. Experts and scholars may compare ” quality ” to ” quantity ” ( Wang Yuesheng et al ., 2021 ), and ” latitude ” to ” longitude ” (Shen Guobing) , 2022), ” level ” versus ” scope ” (Weighing, 2018) and other institutional opening perspectives emphasize further connecting with high-standard international rules , or enhancing the status of the value chain (Liu Zhibiao, 2015) and enhancing the stability of openness (Quan Yi, 2022), transforming government functions (Sheng Bin and Li Feng, 2022) and other specific perspectives to emphasize the different characteristics of ” high level ” . From the perspective of practical challenges in the era of great global changes, this topic analyzes the three pairs of relationships between China’s development and world development, current international systems and innovative international systems, and domestic rules and international rules, to further enrich the connotation of high-level opening up to the outside world. , highlighting the strategic significance of high-level opening up in the new era.
(2) New goals and tasks for high-level opening up.
Regarding the new goals and tasks for high-level opening up, existing studies believe that it is necessary to promote the establishment of a market economy system with a higher level of opening up (Li Xiao, 2021), smooth the dual circulation with high-level opening up, promote domestic technological progress and industrial upgrading (Sang Baichuan, 2021), create a fair and competitive business environment (Quanheng, 2018), and climb to the high end of the global value chain and promote the internationalization of the RMB (Dong Zhiyong and Li Chengming. 2020). These studies have systematically discussed policy priorities or short-term goals. On this basis, this topic will further distinguish between the short-term and long-term, economic and strategic new goals and tasks for promoting high-level opening up, and will focus on long-term goals and strategic goals.
(3) The practical challenges of promoting high-level opening up .
Regarding the research on the practical challenges of high-level opening up , existing research focuses on existing domestic and foreign development challenges, and few studies focus on the external institutional challenges facing China . The international environment has entered an ” era of uncertainty ” , characterized by prominent diversity and complexity (Evelyn Goh, 2022), the prevalence of trade protectionism and anti-globalization in developed countries, unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism pose a threat to world development (Feng Delian, 2021), the global economic inflation and deflation risks coexist, and the monetary policy instability of developed economies may affect emerging markets and developing countries (Zhang Yuyan, 2022). The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has made the strategic competition among major powers more intense and complex, and strategic coordination and cooperation will be more difficult (Feng Yujun, 2022). In addition , domestic economic development is also facing tremendous pressures, such as the ” three-phase superposition ” , the realization of the ” dual carbon ” goals, the acceleration of population aging, and the widening income gap between urban and rural areas (Yao Shujie et al., 2022). This project will conduct in-depth research on the various domestic and international structural and institutional challenges China faces during its rise, systematically evaluate the impact of the rapidly changing external environment on China’s high level of opening up, and propose targeted response plans.
(4) Real opportunities for promoting high-level opening-up .
Regarding the research on real opportunities for promoting high-level opening-up , existing research focuses on the opportunities in emerging fields themselves . China is in a ” window period ” of opportunity ( Xu Kangning , 2019), and the deep adjustment of the world economy has created a historical opportunity for China’s economic transformation and upgrading (Yang Peng et al., 2020). The carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals provide a new wave of development opportunities for the development of green finance (Yin Zhentao and Xia Shiyuan, 2022). Under the new development pattern of dual circulation, China’s digital trade has ushered in a rare development opportunity (Zhao Xinquan et al., 2022). At the same time, the lag and innovation needs of international rules in emerging fields also provide opportunities for China to enhance its institutional power in global economic governance (Zhao Longyue, 2022 ) . This topic focuses on the real opportunities to lead rule innovation in emerging fields such as global digital economic and trade rules, international fair competition rules, global green finance standards, and global multilateral investment rules.
3. Strategic path to promote high-level opening- up
Opening up to the outside world in the new era is no longer just “opening up to the world”, but has higher requirements. It is necessary to tackle the difficulties in the process of opening up to a wider range and wider fields, coordinate the relationship between domestic governance and global governance to promote deeper opening up, and actively lead economic globalization to create a good external environment for China’s high-level opening up. Regarding the research on the strategic path of high-level opening up, the current path research is relatively scattered and has not yet formed a unified research framework. Under the new goals and new tasks of high-level opening up, this project innovatively places the path research of China’s high-level opening up under a unified theoretical framework, and systematically analyzes the composite realization path of forming innovative international governance ideas and systems, leading the reconstruction and innovation of international rules, and promoting cooperation and communication in international regulations .
(1) Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’s discourse and ideas on opening up and international governance .
Regarding the theoretical research on Xi Jinping Thought , existing research focuses on explaining the guiding significance of Xi Jinping Thought, and few studies focus on how to accurately spread Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era around the world . The idea of a community with a shared future for mankind is a rich ideological system that promotes the construction of a new paradigm of universal communication in the era of globalization and promotes the development of the world pattern and global governance system in a more just and reasonable direction (Li Baogeng and Geng Kexin, 2022). China actively advocates and leads new concepts of global governance, promotes new developments in global governance practices, and achieves a transcendence of Western global governance theories and practical experience (Wu Zhicheng and Wu Yu, 2018). The new development concept is an important idea for unblocking internal and external circulation, enhancing development momentum and achieving sustainable development, and provides new opportunities for global common development (Wang Binglin, 2022). This topic focuses on exploring how to accurately spread Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and enhance China’s international communication power and discourse power, thereby providing theoretical support for China to coordinate the relationship between domestic governance and international governance and enhance the institutional power of global economic governance.
(2) Coordinate the study of international and domestic rules.
Regarding the study of coordinating international and domestic rules, existing studies focus on the linkage between domestic rules and international rules through high-level opening up. The construction of a new development pattern must achieve high-level opening up (Jian Xinhua and Cheng Yangyang, 2021), and the implementation of high-level opening up is the key to solving the internal and external linkage of the new development pattern (Xu Zhenghuan and Li Zhengjun, 2022). Under the new development pattern of “dual circulation”, the important path for China to further improve institutional opening up will follow the development mode of internal-external, internal-external linkage, and internal-external coordination, so as to achieve the mutual promotion of domestic and international dual circulation with the domestic circulation as the theme (Zhao Beiwen, 2022). Breaking the ” center-periphery ” pattern of unbalanced and unfair world development (Chen Xu and Liu Xing, 2022) also urgently requires China’s high-level opening up. Coordinating international and domestic rules has important practical significance. On this basis, it is also necessary to further clarify the mutual conversion relationship between international rules and domestic rules (Zhao Longyue, 2016 ; 2017 ; 2019 ) . This topic focuses on the mutual conversion relationship between international rules and domestic rules, exploring the driving force and adaptation mechanism of the domestication of international rules in the new era, and especially analyzing the paths and conditions for promoting the internationalization of domestic rules .
(3) Promote research on international regulatory cooperation .
International regulatory cooperation is the focus of deeper opening up to the outside world and the key entry point for institutional opening up. Especially with the improvement of China’s competitiveness in service trade and the expansion of the scale of the digital economy, international regulatory cooperation has become more important. Regarding the promotion of international regulatory cooperation research, there are relatively few domestic studies, which are mainly concentrated in the specific areas of some regional trade agreements. The United States and European countries attach more importance to the issue of international regulatory cooperation (Hoekman and Sabel, 2019). China actively promotes international regulatory cooperation among countries in the world through the ” Belt and Road ” initiative ( Jiang Zhida, 2016), actively promotes digital trade regulatory cooperation (Shao Jun and Yang Danhui, 2021) and cross-border data factor flow regulatory cooperation (Chen Yongmei and Zhang Jiao, 2017), and strives to create a fair institutional environment (Dai Xiang, 2019). Through regulatory cooperation, international rules that are not written but generally accepted by the international community can also be established (Xu Kangning, 2019). This topic systematically and in-depth studies the historical origins, current situation analysis, main paths and realistic paths of promoting international regulatory cooperation in various fields.
(4) Research on the path to promote high-level opening-up .
Regarding the research on the path to promote high-level opening-up , existing research emphasizes docking with high – standard international economic and trade rules and strengthening multilateral and regional cooperation . As the mainstay of maintaining multilateralism, China has demonstrated its responsibility as a major country in practicing multilateralism with practical actions (Wu Zhicheng and Liu Peidong, 2020). It should actively promote docking with high-standard international economic and trade rules such as BITs and DEPA (Sheng Bin and Li Feng, 2022) and strengthen bilateral cooperation with emerging economies such as Russia and Africa. Actively promote the China-EU Investment Agreement (Yao Shujie, 2022) and promote the “Belt and Road” to become a public product provided by China to Asia and even the world (Li Xiangyang, 2018). Promote joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) and expand the network of high-standard free trade zones (Zhang Yansheng, 2022). At the same time, based on the strategic requirements of institutional opening-up, further research should be conducted on how to achieve the reconstruction and innovation of leading international rules in this process. This topic focuses on the reconstruction and innovation of leading international rules through the coordination of international and domestic rules.
B. The Academic Value of This Topic
1. This topic is different from the previous practice of limiting the promotion of high-level opening-up to a practical measure of building a new development pattern and promoting high-quality development.
It clearly expands it to an overall strategy that serves the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the great changes in the world that have not been seen in a century. It enriches and enriches the contemporary and global connotations of promoting high-level opening-up, and better responds to the strategic needs of studying and promoting high-level opening-up in the new era.
2. This topic examines China’s high-level opening-up strategy in the new era under the four -fold relationship between high-quality development and high-level opening-up, China’s development and world development, China’s rules and international rules, and current international institutions and innovative international institutions , so as to provide a comprehensive theoretical analysis framework of development, rules and institutions for the study and analysis of the new goals and tasks of promoting the high-level opening-up strategy .
3. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the domestic development stage issues and the complex issues of international environmental changes in the new era, this topic systematically defines the new goals and tasks for promoting high-level opening-up from the economic and strategic latitudes and the short-term and long-term longitudes, and deeply explores the internal connections and interactive effects between the short-term and long-term, economic and strategic goals and tasks, with long-term strategic goals as the core of the strategy for promoting high-level opening-up.
4. This topic summarizes the historical experiences of the four major economies, namely the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India, in integrating into and shaping an open economy, promoting and leading the process of economic globalization from an in-depth and multi-dimensional comparative perspective. It not only analyzes their traditional trade and investment openness, but also includes their institutional openness in the scope of investigation. By studying the mutual conversion relationship between the domestic rules and international rules of these countries , it serves as a reference for China to promote high-level opening up .
5. Innovating the international governance thought system, leading the reconstruction and innovation of international rules , and promoting international regulatory cooperation are not only the strategic path for China to promote high-level opening up in the new era , but also a major theoretical issue for building an open world economy, creating a good external institutional environment, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation . They have important academic value.
C. Application value of this topic
1. This topic clarifies the challenges and opportunities faced in promoting a high-level opening-up strategy in the new era through an analysis of the four-fold relationship between high-quality development and high-level opening-up, China’s development and the world’s development, China’s rules and international rules, and the current international system and innovative international system, so as to provide a reference for scientific decision-making and top-level design for China’s comprehensive participation in the reform and construction of the global governance system .
2. Based on the historical experience of the four major economies of the world, namely the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India, in integrating into and shaping an open economy and promoting and leading the process of economic globalization, this topic proposes strategic measures for China to innovate its international governance thought system, lead the reconstruction of international rules and promote international regulatory cooperation, so as to guide China’s actions and practices in promoting high-level opening-up in the new era.
3. Starting from the strategic need of China to promote high-level opening-up in the new era, this project studies and constructs an overall evaluation system, including the evaluation of the effectiveness of the dissemination of international governance ideas with Chinese characteristics, the evaluation of leading the reconstruction and innovation of international rules, and the evaluation system of promoting international regulatory cooperation. It scientifically evaluates and quantitatively analyzes the problems faced at different stages and the effects achieved by taking different policy measures, which not only provides a basis for domestic scientific decision-making, but also contributes Chinese solutions and Chinese strength to the international community.
D. Social Significance of This Topic
1. This topic comprehensively explains the Chinese characteristics and world value of Xi Jinping’s international governance thought system, and explores the path to accurately spread Xi Jinping’s new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics and enhance China’s international communication power and discourse power. It will help the international community understand the common values of all mankind and Chinese characteristics contained in Xi Jinping’s new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics; it will help the international community form a consensus on the concept and value of global governance.
2. This topic studies the key rules that urgently need to be broken through in emerging issues and cutting-edge fields, and explores the strategic path for China to lead the reconstruction and innovation of international rules in the new era. It will help fill the gaps in international rules and promote the healthier and more orderly development of industries in related fields; it will help ease the North-South conflict and lead a new round of economic globalization that is open, inclusive, equitable, balanced and win-win.
3. This topic compares and summarizes the main paths to promote international regulatory cooperation and exchanges, and explores the strategic paths for China to promote international regulatory cooperation and exchanges in the new era. It will help to lead the new round of economic globalization in depth with Chinese practice, promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment worldwide, and help China better play the role of a responsible major country in the multilateral system, regional trade agreements and bilateral relations.
4. In the process of studying and promoting high-level opening up, this topic has comprehensively applied multiple disciplines and research methods such as applied economics, international economic law, international relations, Marxist political economics, and history. It is not only inspiring in academic research, but also conducive to the cultivation and use of comprehensive, compound, high-end international governance talents with a global vision and multidisciplinary theoretical foundation, and is conducive to the implementation of the strategy of strengthening the country with talents.