China’s International Division Status of Labor under the Initiative of the “One Belt and One Road”: An Input-Output Analysis Based on the View of Value Chain

Wang Shuli; Wu Chuhao

doi:doi:10.16538/j.cnki.jfe.2018.08.002

Summary

Can China use the " One Belt and One Road” open system to promote the leap in the " One Belt and One Road” regional division of labor, then leap into high value-added links that cannot be involved in the global value chain dominated by Europe and the United States, and achieve a higher status in the global division of labor? At present, research on the status of the international division of labor for China and the " One Belt and One Road” countries under the " One Belt and One Road” initiative is still extremely scarce. Analyzing the position of China and the " One Belt and One Road” countries in the global value chain can give us an intuitive understanding of whether the implementation of the " One Belt and One Road” initiative has directly boosted both China and the " One Belt and One Road” countries’ industrial competitiveness and the international division of labor, and provided suggestions for the steady progress of the " One Belt and One Road” initiative and the improvement of China’s international division of labor cooperation efficiency. 　　This paper builds an index of the status of the international division of labor and takes 15 countries along the " One Belt and One Road” as the main research object, and calculates the upstreamness indicators for 15 " One Belt and One Road” countries and 9 developed countries for the period 2011−2014, trying to analyze the status of China and the " One Belt and One Road” countries international division status of labor from the industrial level. Taking the proposal of the " One Belt and One Road” initiative in 2013 as a node, this paper discusses the status quo and trends of the international division of labor in China and the " One Belt and One Road” countries before and after the implementation of the " One Belt and One Road” initiative.It comes to the following conclusions: First, under the " One Belt and One Road” context, China has played a role in linking up with others. In the " One Belt and One Road” linear value chain, China has greater access to high-end links that cannot be addressed in GVCs dominated by developed countries and helps to break the long-term " locked-in” situation. Second, the industries associated with the " One Belt and One Road” countries are relatively strong, and the complementarities among the industries are greater than the competitiveness, and both sides can achieve better strategic docking and industrial coupling in all areas. The region of the " One Belt and One Road” has achieved a leap in the status of the division of labor. Third, China plays a leading role in the " One Belt and One Road” cooperation platform. Its industry and trade structure is generally better than countries along the " One Belt and One Road” and has absolute technical reserve support in the manufacturing industry, which is possible to help the countries along the " One Belt and One Road” upgrade their own value chain through the industrial transfer and technology output, and promote the regional division status of labors. Fourth, in recent years, the position of China’s international division of labor has improved somewhat, but the way it is promoted is still dominated by the traditional advantages of low-tech manufacturing.The conclusions of this paper provide the enlightenment for the steady progress of the " One Belt and One Road” initiative and the promotion of China’s international division of labor cooperation efficiency. The enlightenments include continuing to improve the " One Belt and One Road” cooperation mechanism, changing the mode of manufacturing development, promoting the development of high-end manufacturing, and increasing the support for high-value-added high-tech industries. The above enlightenments have been highly concerned by the Chinese government and a corresponding strategy has been formulated. 　　In short, this paper mainly expands the existing research from the following three aspects. First, taking China and the " One Belt and One Road” countries as research subjects, it analyzes its position in the global value chain and expands the research on the status of China’s division of labor under the " One Belt and One Road” initiative. Second, based on the industry relevance and complementarity between China and the " One Belt and One Road” countries, it describes the necessity and inevitability of the " One Belt and One Road” initiative, supplements the theoretical basis for China’s role in the division of labor before and after the implementation of the " One Belt and One Road” initiative. Third, previous studies have used the GVC participate index and the GVC position index , but this paper uses the index of non-equidistant export upstreamness to measure the country’s international division of labor status. Starting from the industrial level, it considers the trade structure and the added value, and the calculation results are more convincing.