Bridging the digital divide and actively promoting globalization, Chinese philosophy becomes a ‘stabilizer’: senior Chinese economist

By Xue Lingqiao

(ECNS) — 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal of jointly building a community with a shared future in cyberspace. Over the past decade, digital technologies have profoundly reshaped the global economic landscape.

Under this new framework, how significant is China’s internet governance practice in bridging the global digital divide? Amid the headwinds of deglobalization, how can China’s economy forge ahead against the wind?

Addressing these concerns, Liang Guoyong, a senior economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, provided corresponding insights in an exclusive interview with China News Network during the 2025 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit in Wuzhen, East China’s Zhejiang Province.

Bridging the digital divide: China’s vision serves as stabilizer

“China’s digital economy scale is already among the largest in the world, setting an example for the digitalization and sustainable development of other developing economies in this regard. The digital economy has become a key driver of technological progress and economic growth, as well as an important means to advance the sustainable development goals. This is my interpretation of China’s digital economy development.” In Liang Guoyong’s view, emphasizing capacity building in the field of artificial intelligence in developing countries is an important initiative put forward by China.

He observed that global cyberspace governance still requires improvement, particularly as there is a governance gap concerning new technologies represented by artificial intelligence. Therefore, China’s proposal to promote global AI governance is crucial in the new technological revolution led by AI.

Liang pointed out that the world today faces a high degree of imbalance in development, mainly reflected in the disparities between the Global South and the Global North, and the differences in development levels between developed and developing countries. Simultaneously, it is also evident in the uneven development performance among various developing regions and countries in the post-war era.

Adding that this imbalance and disparity are also reflected in the digital economy and cyberspace, he said that this huge digital divide is primarily manifested in the significant differences in digital infrastructure and digital skills between developed and developing countries.

Therefore, advocating for capacity building in the field of the digital economy and artificial intelligence is very necessary. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of cyberspace imbalance, proposing the building of a community with a shared future in cyberspace is equally essential,” said Liang.

Foreign investment market wins unique advantages, with quality foreign investment promising

Although the Chinese market has faced some challenges in attracting foreign investment over the past year or so, China’s foreign investment market has still demonstrated certain resilience and unique advantages,” as Liang expressed his firm confidence in China’s foreign investment market. 

Explaining the challenges and advantages of China’s foreign investment market, Liang stated that as the Chinese market is undergoing a new round of industrial transformation and upgrading, it has seen a reduction in foreign capital inflow in areas like low-end manufacturing.

However, he views these short-term, domestic problem in the Chinese foreign capital market as an inevitable result of market transformation and upgrading. Conversely, in the past few years, foreign investment attracted by China’s high-tech manufacturing sector has shown a growing trend. This is because China’s foreign investment market is embarking on a development path shifting from “quantity” to “quality.” 

He further pointed out that China’s manufacturing industry possesses strong international competitiveness and continues to attract foreign investment. This is underpinned by several factors: first, China’s well-developed infrastructure systems and industrial ecosystem; second, China’s super-sized market; and third, the further unleashing of consumption potential in the Chinese market as the economy recovers.

Recently, Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao published an article noting that the performance of European and American companies in China is showing an upward trend. Interpreting this phenomenon, Liang stated that from an academic analytical perspective on foreign investment, from the viewpoint of market-seeking foreign investment, China’s attractiveness to foreign capital continues to increase, supported by its super-large market and consumption potential.

Globalization and its counter forces: developed world’s reindustrialization game 

Against the backdrop of countries worldwide actively embracing global governance, Liang pointed out that some nations are emitting overtones of deglobalization. In his view, this phenomenon can be interpreted as a reverse adjustment of certain institutional factors.

Recently, the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting was held in South Korea. During the meeting, Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Jae-myung respectively pledged to invest in key US industries such as shipbuilding and artificial intelligence, aiding US industrial revival, in exchange for lower US tariff rates on Japanese and Korean goods.

In this regard, Liang analyzed that the early wave of globalization essentially represented a large-scale transfer of global capital and production capacity from developed countries to emerging markets and developing countries. On one hand, this transfer of global capital and production capacity enhanced production capacity building in emerging markets, boosted their manufacturing strength, and expanded industrial exports. On the other hand, from the perspective of the source countries, this transfer led to a certain degree of industrial hollowing-out. Consequently, some major developed countries hope to see a reshoring of manufacturing and have put forward demands for reindustrialization.

He noted that as major emerging economies continue to expand their industrial production capacity and enhance their export capabilities, this demand from major developed countries will further intensify, as they face widening trade deficits and relatively persistent industrial hollowing-out and some other problems. 

During the original globalization process, we should have witnessed tariff reductions and improved market access. However, we are now seeing scenarios such as arbitrary tariff hikes and trade wars. While countries worldwide were continuously opening up to foreign investment, we now observe the emergence of certain constraints and restrictive measures, alongside tendencies toward unilateralism and protectionism in a few developed countries. Therefore, at the institutional level, we are witnessing some negative impacts on globalization,” said Liang.

Despite increasing challenges, Liang believes that the trend of anti-globalization is confined to the policies of certain countries, while a series of new technological revolutions continue to propel globalization forward. Although the process of globalization has shown signs of weakening, the combined force of technological advancements and the resilience of existing institutional frameworks has prevented the overall process of globalization from coming to an end.