At the end of September, a new free-trade zone was launched in Shanghai, the aim being to mark the start of a new era not only of openness in investment, trade and finance, but also of deeper Chinese integration into the global value chain.
The zone promises to kick-start a new round of liberalizing reforms and help China's economy adapt to the latest demands of globalization.
Over the next decade, global competition will come to be defined as competition over the global value chain. As the United States and other developed countries pursue "re-industrialization" and the Chinese economy's low-wage comparative advantage diminishes, China must re-establish its competitiveness by positioning itself at the top of the global value chain, which implies the need to promote trade and upgrade its industrial infrastructure.