Zhang Huxiang, Institute of Sociology, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

As early as May 14, 2017, President Xi Jinping announced in his keynote speech on the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that China would hold the China International Import Expo starting from 2018. "It is not just another expo in an ordinary sense, but a major policy initiative and commitment taken of our own accord to open up the Chinese market." This is not only a response to the reversal of globalization in recent years, that is, the international economic order characterized by the promotion of free trade and the policy paradigm of governments to revert to protectionism. It also means that China’s four decades of reform and opening-up will start all over again. The inevitable requirement of high-quality development is an important measure to promote the upgrading of national consumption and create a "high-quality life." The changing role of China in the global economy will provide new opportunities for the socioeconomic development of countries around the world. Since the China’s reform and opening-up 40 years ago, especially since the accession to the WTO, China’s economy has gradually integrated into the global economic system, which has catalyzed the production of enormous energy. The average annual economic growth rate of 9.8% has made China the second largest economy in the world after the United States in 2016. While the country's economic strength has improved, people's income and living standards have continued to rise. In the past 40 years, China’s national income per capita has exceeded 8,000 US dollars, giving rise to an increasingly large middle class. In 2016, Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report showed that China’s middle class reached 109 million, surpassing the United States (92 million), and ranking first in the world. The Economist think tank predicts that by 2030, the proportion of the middle class in the Chinese mainland will exceed 1/3. An emerging market country with such a large and rapidly growing middle-class has never been seen in the history of human society. A continuously expanding middle class who seeks to pursue a better life is going to spur consumption expenditure for high-quality life, and the largest consumer market in the world is ready to emerge. This is a historical economic social leap that has never existed in human history, which will definitely have a positive impact on the global economy. In the meanwhile, China's economic and social development, which has experienced 40 years of rapid growth, is also undergoing a transformation. Since entering the new era, a series of reform measures such as supply-side reform has continued to deepen. China is moving from a traditional investment-driven production economy to a consumption-driven one. The transformation of the country's economic form, the rise of the huge middle class and the overall consumption escalation will provide an impetus for global economic development. According to Mizuho Corporate Bank of Japan, China's retail sales in 2018 are expected to exceed 5.8 trillion US dollars (approx. 3.65 billion yuan). American scholar Carl Gert believes that the rapid rise of Chinese consumerism will dominate the taste of the world. Davos Forum experts predicted that by 2030, Chinese consumers would contribute more to global consumer spending than any other country. It can be said that the world's most cutting-edge, high quality, high-tech consumer lifestyle will become the most sought-after upgrade pursuit of the Chinese population. According to McKinsey's survey, 50% of Chinese consumers claim to pursue the highest quality and most expensive products, and the growth rate of high-end products exceeds the categories of popular products and value products. In the meanwhile, the penetration of local brands into the high-end product market is still extremely limited as the international brands still dominate the high-end product market. The import consumption of Chinese people has shown four major trends, namely normalization, refinement, quality-intensiveness, and content-intensiveness. It can be said that a growing and open global biggest consumer market is waiting for hubs and platforms to connect with high-quality consumer goods and services around the world. As the former British Commercial Secretary to the Treasury Jim O'Neill said, the rise of Chinese consumers might be the most important economic event of this era, which will be a catalyst for both global economic growth and globalization. The China International Import Expo in 2018 will serve as a hub, platform, and intermediary for communicating Chinese consumers with foreign high-quality consumer goods and high-quality services, thus providing the most powerful support for upgrading China's consumption into global development opportunities. If we were to say that global economic development has provided opportunities for China's development for the past 40 years, then 40 years later, China who is entering a new era will be able to provide new opportunities and surprises for the development of the global economy. (The author is a research associate at the Institute of Sociology, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)