“The Beijing Consensus”

Ariana Eunjung Cha, writing in the Washington Post, reports on economic policy’s emerging “Beijing Consensus.” British economist John Williamson 20 years ago coined the term "Washington Consensus": a standard set of policies including privatization of state enterprises, free trade, deregulation and restraint in public spending . The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury pushed the “Washington Consensus” on debt-ridden nations, espeicially in Latin America.

The current U.S.-origin economic disaster brings the “Washington Consensus” into question. With the help of Chinese academics such as Tsinghua University’s Cui Zhiyuan, who recently published a book on the “Beijing Consensus,” China’s leading economic role is now drawing increased attention. South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance, for example, just published a report warning of the dangers of Beijing’s “Consensus.”

Cheng Enfu, an economics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, defines the “Beijing Consensus” as promotion of economies in which public ownership remains dominant; preferring gradual reform over "shock therapy"; being open to foreign trade but largely self-reliant; and pushing large-scale market reform first, political and cultural change later.

In other words, the “Washington Consensus” enforces a free market agenda on developing countries, while the “Beijing Consensus” leaves more power in the hands of the recipient nations, with China standing by as their champion.

In Cheng’s view, the global economic crisis "displays the advantages of the Chinese model" and has already expanded China's influence. "Some mainstream economists are saying that India should learn from China; Latin American countries are trying to learn from China. When foreign countries send delegations to China, they show interest in the Chinese way of developing.”

Barry Sautman of Hong Kong’s University of Science and Technology argues the “Beijing Consensus” takes seriously developing states’ aspirations “often ignored” by the West, such as "a more equitable international distribution of wealth and power."

The "Beijing Consensus"--another sign the current economic crisis will shift the global economic center from North America to Asia.