OPINION / COLUMNISTS
Which country is more promising in China-US economic competition?
Published: Aug 12, 2020 06:08 PM

Photo: VCG

The strategic game between China and the US still primarily takes place on the field of economics. Whichever of the two countries can create a better environment for the growth of enterprises, and give them greater and freer space for competition, will take the lead in the future.

The conventional wisdom is that the US does it much better than China in this regard, but that is not necessarily the case. I have noticed that in the most dynamic information industry, corporate landscape in China keeps changing with new star companies emerging. Landscape in the US is more "stable" than in China, making it harder for new businesses to grow.

For example, in the past years, three giants of BAT (short for Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) dominated China's internet sector, but this pattern has obviously been broken now. Besides JD.com, Bytedance, Meituan and Pinduoduo have become heavyweights in different directions. They are clearly helping to shape the future of China's internet giants, with results that no one can predict.

In the field of mobile phones, China-made smart phones have made great strides, and on the whole, they have outperformed foreign competitors. Huawei has moved steadily into the field with extraordinary momentum. Companies such as Xiaomi have quickly become the top mobile phone producer, entering the world's top 500 companies within 10 years. It is fair to say that the Chinese market created such a miracle.

In other words, the Chinese market is now like a big incubator. It has formed quite complete conditions for entrepreneurship, as well as a relatively fair competition mechanism, so that talented entrepreneurs can bring their vision, wisdom and innovative will to stand out in the market.

In this sense, I think the Chinese economy is very promising. The US economy has its unique advantages, especially its technological leadership and high level of consumption, which provide the best conditions for the emergence of high-tech leading companies in the world. However, we should not deify the US, and in particular, we should not belittle ourselves. We should see the strong internal driving force of China's economy.

China's market is very large, and the deep development of the internet in particular has helped to form some magical comprehensive conditions for this market, helping some new enterprises to suddenly rise up in seemingly unlikely circumstances. Let's encourage new startups, new market ambitions, and keep exploring markets that seem already fragmented. I believe that if China's list of top-tier companies keeps changing because of new entrants, then our country can continue to move faster and remain competitive against the US. 

The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn