China's Share in World Exports: Growth and Factors

This article discusses the growth of China's share in world exports from less than 2% in 1984 to 16% in 2014, and the factors that fueled this growth, including competitive advantage in terms of labor cost, ready infrastructure, and economies of scale.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSS
STUDENT ID:
[Pick the date]

The country chosen for this task is China.
a) The requisite table for China is indicated below.
b) The requisite addition to the above table is indicated below.

c) The representation of share of China in world’s exports and the respective percentage
change every year is represented below.
d) The requisite line graph for China’s export share is indicated below.

From the above graph, it is apparent that the share of China in world exports has risen from
less than 2% in 1984 to 16% in 2014. During a period of three decades, clearly this
highlights a staggering growth and implies that one-sixth of the global exports were
accounted by China. The growth has accelerated post 2000 when globalisation forces became
more potent and hence outsourcing to China increased significantly. This is clearly
astonishing and highlights how China in the last three decades has focused on becoming on
the manufacturing capital of the world. The major exports from China are essentially
manufacturing based (Wearden, 2010).
One of the key pivotal factors which have fuelled the above growth is the competitive
advantage in terms of labour cost which owing to availability of huge manpower was quite
low especially in comparison to the west. Another factor which differentiated China rom
other Asian countries was the presence of ready infrastructure and the reliance on scale.
Besides, an undervalued currency which is pegged to the USD also ensured that despite high
trade surplus, the currency never appreciated to the extent that it should have and thereby the
currency also provided encouragement to the exports. China already had a large domestic
market for the products and services and hence the scale was there but with trade, the size of
these industries became huge which kicked in economies of scale and led to the costs being
even lower than before. As a result, it become next to impossible for any country to meet the
prices offered by the Chinese firms and thus a vicious circle was developed whereby one
enabled the other and the result is captured in the line graph above (Yang, n.d.).

Post 2015, China has witnessed a slowdown after a long time which has resulted in declining
exports from the country and a drop in the share. It is interesting to note that in 2015, the
world exports plummeted by about 20% owing to concerns of global slowdown and tepid
demand especially from the West. Also, it is apparent that owing to the Chinese export
outstripping imports by a huge amount, the trade surplus have been huge in the past which
has been a matter of concern for some of the Western nations particularly USA. Also, the
data is indicative of the fact that while imports for China have also growth over the years, the
export growth has outstripped the import growth which has led to China’s undisputed leader
status in global exports (World Bank, n.d.).

References
Wearden, G. (2010) Chinese economic boom has been 30 years in the making [Online]
Available at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/aug/16/chinese-economic-boom
[Accessed May 30, 2018]
World Bank (n.d.) China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income
Society [Online] Available at
http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/China-2030-overview.pdf
[Accessed May 30, 2018]
Yang, L. (n.d.) China’s Growth Miracle: Past, Present, and Future [Online] Available at
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BD6AB/%28httpAuxPages
%29/2893F14F41998392C1257BC600385B21/$file/China%27s%20growth%20miracle
%200808.pdf [Accessed May 30, 2018]