Is China A ‘Developing Country’? The US. Passes A Bill Against, Why Many Nations Are Raising Concerns Over China’s Tag Of A ‘Developing Country’?

China is finding itself in increasingly shallow waters as several countries, including the United States, are intent on China being stripped of the tag of a ‘develping country’.

But why is there an increasing momentum of several countries intent on China not being regarded as a developing country anymore?

Let’s see – China is already touted as the world’s second largest economy because of certain factors; for one, it is home to almost as many companies as the United States when it comes to the Forbes list of the 500 largest companies in the world.

China has also become the largest producer of electric vehicles and is a global leader in artificial intelligence, electronic payment systems, space exploration and facial recognition technology. It has a global lead in important technologies such as 5G.

To further add to the mix, China is also the official creditor to other developing nations; however, despite all the feats that China has achieved, it still continues to label itself as a developing nation both in the World Trade Organization and is also classified as such based on the per income criterion by the World Bank.

Hence if this is how successful China is, the fact that it still manages the tag of ‘developing nation’ enables China to avoid many of the responsibilities and disciplines applied to rich countries in international organizations while at the same time qualifying for preferential treatment in some instances.

Therefore and understandably so, China’s continued self-designation as a developing country has become a principal source of tension between China and the United States and its allies.

America Leads The Way, Passes A Bill On China
Hence, it comes as no surprise that the United States has taken the lead and has done so to prompt other countries as well by passing a bill titled The People’s Republic of China is not a developing country act.

So the pertinent question and then wonder what to make of this? Is China, in actuality, a developing nation or not?

Despite its many achievements in the varied global field, China is exceptional since it is probably the first time that a moderately poor country has managed to play a dominant role in the global economy, perhaps the very first one at that.

The Major Bone Of Contention
By passing the bill on China, the US lawmakers have clearly shown that they do not put China in the ‘developing nations’ category and do not want China to continue to use this terms either. At the same time, the US is also hellbent on drawing other countries into following its example.

Hence, by passing the bill in the lower House of the US Congress, there is no doubt left about what the US intends to do with China in this regard; the bill is addressed to the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.
The bill says Blinken should launch a diplomatic campaign at international organizations, and he should ensure that China is stripped of the label of a developing country.

The bill, which was passed unanimously by 415 to zero votes, depicts how strong the sentiment against China is as every lawmaker in the American House voted in favour of the bill; it now moves to the Senate for a vote.

And it’s not just the US pushing for this event; Europe also believes that China should be categorized as a developed nation.

In October 2021, the European Union published a review, and this is what they said in regards to China – “one way for China to show leadership would be by refraining from claiming benefits that would correspond to a developing country in ongoing negotiations”.

Australia, too, is in consensus regarding this viewpoint for China; in 2021, Australia asked China to give up its access to special and differential treatment as a developing country.

Hence, it is easy to note that this idea has much global support, and the categorization for China is important – as of today, all leading international organizations bracket China as a developing country. We’re talking about the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, or WTO; all of them categorize China as a developing nation.

However, what is the basis on which a country is called a developing nation and a developed nation – well, each organization, as mentioned above, has its own criteria.

The World Bank, for instance, classifies countries on the basis of gross national income.

But the WTO does not accept this definition, and in fact, it has no benchmarks whatsoever.
In the WTO, each member can allocate itself into the group it wants to, and hence each member decides how it wants to be categorized. The WTO has 164 members, and 2/3 of these members call themselves developing countries which comes to a figure of around 109 countries.

Now India is categorized as developing in this list, and so does China. As per the rules, if China wants to call itself developing, it will be labelled as a developing country by the World Trade Organization.

China Developing Or Developed Country And The Importance Of The Tag
China most likely does not want to change its tag because the tag translates into significant gains for Beijing as developing countries get some benefits.

They can take longer to implement a deal, get trade benefits, and get preferential treatment.

The idea is to help developing countries improve their playing field, but China has been accused of misusing these privileges. There’s a long list of charges against China, like preferential treatment for state enterprises, data restrictions, and lack of enforcement of intellectual property rules.

It seems China rigs the global system in its favour, and that’s the charge that China has been put to, but of course, China denies it.

In a nutshell –
China is the world’s second-largest economy, and it accounts for 18.6% of the global economy.
It has the most billionaires in the world, which is the highest number.
Out of the world’s top 100 companies, 14 are Chinese.

And yet, China wants to be called developing because it wants to enjoy special benefits; it is, in reality, taking the pie meant for countries such as Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea.

Conclusion: China is the world’s second-largest economy, and it has taken a global lead in technology and manufacturing, yet when it comes to enjoying the perks, it wants to do so under the ‘developing nation’ tag.

Understandably, the developed countries are now up in arms as they seek this tag to be slipped off China, as it continues to use the same to get the perks and spin the wheel in its favour.

With the passing of the bill aptly titled The People’s Republic of China is not a developing country act, can the American influence trip China of this title?