【13】sustainability of globalization

In the past three decades, in the wake of economic globalization, income inequality in the world – both within and between countries – has increased considerably. In that time, a series of cross-border problems have also become more urgent, problems that cry out for a resolute response from the ‘international community’. They relate to environment and climate, the scarcity of resources, energy and food, migration flows, transnational crime and terror, distribution issues, and a global financial system that is eroding itself from within.

We have to be aware that we are in a global political and economic vacuum, a transition period in which no one knows exactly where it will end. We should start to think profoundly about where we have come from: what are the causes of the problems we are now facing? On the basis of what promises have we signed up for the current architecture of globalization, and is it not time to acknowledge that important promises have not been kept?

We also need to find a convincing answer to the question of how China should relate to the current architecture of globalization, to persistent need and scarcity. In the search for a new, comprehensive political program, a number of trends in current Chinese development policy can offer points of entry, such as a more economic approach to poverty and inequality, increasing attention for the political dimensions of development.