China's Socialist Market Economy: How and Why it Became a Systemic Rival to the Liberal Trade Order

China’s leaders repeatedly talk about China as a socialist market economy. The country’s national constitution states that China is a socialist market economy. What exactly does this mean? Perhaps surprisingly this question is frequently left unanswered by commentators and analysts, who instead view China as a capitalist economy, even if a state-heavy one, and argue for using trade deals to drive further free market reforms in China. This view misses a crucial qualitative fact about China’s economic evolution, namely that its leaders mean what they say about building a socialist market economy. The latter is more than simply state-heavy capitalism, rather it represents a unique Leninist system of institutionalized control across all aspects of economic life in China. The degree of Party control in China’s economy has major ramifications for international trade, market competition, and investment in national security-related sectors, as outlined in this presentation.

Speaker: Dr Naoise McDonagh, Lecturer in Political Economy, Institute for International Trade, University of Adelaide and President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs South Australia

Dr. Naoise McDonagh researches international political economy, geopolitical risks of trade and the evolution of economic systems and how this impacts trade relations. He has researched and worked in Universities in Europe, New Zealand and Australia (current). Naoise served two years in the Irish Defence Forces (2002-2004), and worked for many years in the private sector prior to academia. Naoise is the current President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs South Australia. He regularly publishes his research with international academic journals and book collections, in leading policy forums such as the G20’s annual Think 20 policy event, and frequently contributes to Australian and international media coverage of international political economy issues.

Please note on signing up for the event you will be first issued a ticket acknowledging sign-up, then on the day of the event you will receive the webinar link separately. Ticket sales close at 3pm on Wed 16 March (ACDT time).

Image credit:  Photo by Alejo Meza on Unsplash