« Taiwan Journal of Political Science No.80Publish: 2019/06

China as a Textile Giant Preserving its Leading Position in the World, and What it Means for the EU

Author: Astrid Pepermans

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

    Since the mid 2000’s China has dethroned the EU as the world’s biggest provider of apparel and textiles. China’s low labour costs have without a doubt triggered this evolutions. Less clear however are the reasons why, despite the fact that China is rapidly losing its labour cost advantage, the country successfully maintains its leading position in the industry. This article poses that the Chinesegovernment uses a twofold strategy. First of all, the state tries to maintain its competitive advantage in labour-intensive textile products by supporting the relocation of Chinese textile production bases to poorer Chinese provinces and adjacent LDCs (least developed countries). At the same time, the Chinese government launched several policies, pushing the Chinese textile firms to create capital-intensive textile goods, niche-products and international brands. By revealing China’s pragmatic approach of combining liberalism and economic nationalism in order to cope with the challenges it faces in the textile sector, this case study exemplifies that liberal and mercantilist policy tools are not mutually exclusive; something that has been insufficiently recognized. Moreover, whereas China’s competitiveness was mainly felt in the apparel-producing southern-European countries, China is becoming increasingly competitive in the high-end parts of the sector too.

Keywords:China、Economic Nationalism、European Union、Mercantilism、Textile Industry