Demystifying three myths about the G20
- By Jiang Shixue
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 6, 2013
The G20's official mandate is to promote "open and constructive discussion between industrial and emerging-market economies." It is true that politics and economics are interconnected. However, including political matters into the G20 agenda would cause more problems than it would solve. Political issues, especially national ones, should not be the concern of the G20. The G20 should not interfere in any country's internal affairs. Needless to say, the UN is in a better position to discuss human rights and other political issues. The G20 is only a few years old and it still needs to "learn on the job" in order to confront complicated global economic issues in a more effective way. The G20 can only complement, not replace, the work of other institutions such as the UN and its agencies.
Myth 3: China had taken centre stage at the G20. On the day after the Cannes G20 Summit concluded, an article published in The Guardian (November 6, 2011) stated that Cannes "showed how power has shifted to Beijing." It said that it should not surprise us if China asks for some changes in how the G20 approaches its core task of setting the conditions for strong, sustainable, and balanced growth. An article titled "The photograph said it all" published in Economist (April 8, 2009) said that President Hu Jintao of China took the most prominent position in the summit's photograph, next to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. At a think-tank conference on the G20 held in Beijing's Renmin University of China not long ago, a scholar from a developing country suggested that China should play a leadership role for all the emerging economies in the G20.
My view is that, although China does play an active, constructive and important role in the G20, its position has been exaggerated. Although it supports multilateralism, China is still a developing country.
China's unwillingness to play a leadership role for all the emerging economies in the G20 is closely related to one of its foreign policy principles; "keeping a low profile." This does not mean that the world's second largest economy is not capable of making greater contributions to the G20.
The following points could inform China's strategy towards the G20. First of all, China needs to apply to chair the 2016 summit after Australia in 2014 and Turkey in 2015. Secondly, as a developing country, China stress the importance of the IMF reform program. Thirdly, in order to promote growth in less developed countries, China could propose an investment fund to pool capital from G20 members. Fourthly, China could become more engaged with the non-G20 nations so as to make the G20 more legitimate. Finally, China must try to gain more influence in steering the agenda for each summit.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/jiangshixue.htm
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