The Key Driver of China’s New Economic Development Pattern: A Major Power’s Flying Geese Paradigm

Su Qingyi1* and Wang Fenglong2

1 University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS); Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of

Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, China

2 School of International Relations, UCASS, Beijing, China

Abstract: This paper examines China’s flying geese paradigm that serves as a keydriver of a new pattern of the country’s economic development. Our results suggest thatsuch a major power’s flying geese paradigm has taken shape in the aftermath of the globalfinancial crisis in 2008. However, this paradigm has provincial heterogeneity in thatindustrial relocation varies across provinces. For instance, China’s central and westernregions have shown differences while serving as destinations for labor-intensive industriesand processing trade. This flying geese paradigm evolves in a slow and nonlinear manner,and may be subject to stagnation and even reversal.

Keywords: new economic development pattern, flying geese paradigm, industrialrelocation, labor-intensive industries, processing trade

JEL Classification Code: F10; O10; O18

DOI: 10.19602/j.chinaeconomist.2021.09.04