China in the Global Economic Structural Transformation and Upgrading

The chapters thus far have presented China’s pivotal role in the global economic structural transformation, elucidating instances such as the North–South cooperation with the United States and the South-South cooperation with Africa, discussed in Chap. 7 , and China’s participation in the global economy, exploring lessons learned from missed opportunities before reform and opening-up and the subsequent leverage of opportunities presented by globalization for development, discussed in Chap. 6 . In 1953, China held a 1.5% share in the global trade volume, a figure that decreased to 0.6% by 1977. In 1960, the proportion of China’s goods and service imports and exports was 4.43% and 4.31%, respectively, of its GDP. However, by 1977, these proportions remained relatively stable, hovering around 4% (in particular, 4.09% and 4.3%, respectively).