Almost 20 years ago, when the “Sars” virus started spreading, it caused a sort of an “economical standstill”, mostly for China and its neighboring countries. During that period, Chinas GDP was estimated to be at 4% of the global total. Fast forwarding it 20 years, China’s GDP now stands at a whopping 16%, making it the second largest economy in the world, only behind the United States of America. A major contributor to China’s phenomenal rise was its massive network of factories. China now manufactures everything from consumer goods to industrial use machines and much more. China makes up of 1/3 of the world’s total manufacturing and is the largest exporter in the world!
Decades of globalization in China have created “extensive business connection” but, this has proven to be very damaging at times as whenever, there is a problem in the Chinese economy, its ripples are felt across the globe.
Due to the lockdown of many Chinese factories during the covid-19 pandemic, China was no longer producing essential items, parts, materials etc. that were vital for other international countries and their businesses. This was a major reason why the economies of most of the world’s countries came to a complete standstill. Companies such as Hyundai Motors from South Korea, Apple from U.S.A had to shut down their respective operations momentarily as they were unable to get parts required to continue operations that they imported from China.
At the start of the pandemic, China was seen threatening many nations of dire consequences if they tried to question them regarding the coronavirus, or tried to close their borders to Chinese nationals as a preventive measure to protect their respective countries against the spread of the virus. According to reports, when Australia started questioning China on COVID-19, China hit back saying that “it will wipe out 20 Billion Dollars off of Australia’s economy for daring to question China on the coronavirus”. Beijing reportedly asked its students to avoid perusing their higher education in Australia. The education industry in Australia alone contributes nearly 20+ Billion Dollars to its economy. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison retaliated by saying that Australia was not going to be intimidated by China and had later called for an independent inquiry into the origin and spread of the virus due to which the World Health Assembly voted to back a review into the pandemic.
China was also seen engaging in a tussle with India along its borders with many videos surfacing of Chinese forces engaging in hand to hand combat along the LAC (Line of Actual Control). The Chinese forces clashed with the Indian armed forces for a second time at the Galwan Valley, near Ladakh. India retaliated by banning 59 Chinese apps in their country.
China’s strategy of dominating and bullying other nations by threatening them with “discontinuation of business and strategic ties” used to work in its favor in the past but the recent pandemic has in a way united many nations in raising their voices against the “Red Dragon”. That has in a way, proven to be an effective strategy in reminding China that there is a limit to how much they (other nations) will tolerate.
Many countries were to some extant dependent on China or rather “overly dependent” on them but the recent events have seen a shift in paradigm. As per recent reports, American giant’s- Apple have now decided to manufacture it’s coveted I-phone in India. If nations start becoming “self sufficient”, there might arrive a time in the very near future that global economies won’t be too dependent on China and its manufacturing industries.