In a recent episode of CGTN’s show Global South Voices, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of Pakistan's Senate Defense Committee, addressed the widespread narrative concerning China's purported economic overcapacity.
"There's a lot of hype in certain countries, especially the US, and even certain Western countries about China's so-called overcapacity," Sayed commented, shedding light on the underlying protectionist attitudes fueling these claims.
The show’s fourth installment brought together voices from Malaysia, Pakistan, China, and Norway to dismantle the myth of "China overcapacity", highlighting how recent American political and media portrayal, especially amidst an election year, sensationalizes China’s expansion in burgeoning industries such as electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and solar panels.
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Aqdas Afzal, Associate Professor of Economics at Habib University in Karachi, elaborated on the motives behind the American rhetoric: "I think there is concern that certain Western nations have about China's stellar and exponential, amazing economic growth and how to make sense of that. And I think the second reason is political because this is an election year... So I think we cannot really dissociate or decouple what is going on in terms of the policy utterances that are coming from the US and domestic politics in the US."
Amid geopolitical tensions, the US has leveraged legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act to curb China’s technological ascent.
Chen Xi, founder of Harbor Overseas, suggested a collaborative approach. The US should join the market competition in China and use the Chinese supply chain to collaborate, to provide a better option to getting to a green economy and adapt to climate change globally rather than fabricating excuses to hinder China's development, he said.
Echoing this sentiment, Koh King Kee, president of the Center of New Inclusive Asia, praised China’s initiatives in green technology that have significantly aided underdeveloped regions worldwide. "We are from the Global South, and we welcome China producing (more) cheap goods," he stated, further noting that the real overcapacity now in the world is the US debt and US military.
The US cannot accept China's rise as peers, because the US was the sole superpower since the end of the Cold War, but China's rise is unstoppable, Koh added.
Norwegian diplomat Erik Solheim called for Europe to forge its path rather than align blindly with the US, emphasizing cooperation between Europe and China: "With the good will in Europe and in China, we can go a long way to make a better world together." He also commended China for reducing prices in developing countries through the adoption of green technology.
This collective stance from international experts underscores a crucial dialogue about the misconceptions surrounding China's economic policies and their global implications.