Measuring the Intermediate Goods’ External Dependency on the Global Value Chain: A Case Study of China

In the face of the anti-globalization trend and the shrinking of the global value chain, ensuring the safety of the global layout of the industrial chain and the sustainability of each country’s internal intermediate product production cycle has become an important new development strategy for all countries. The sustainability of the internal and external cycles of production systems is closely related to global value chains. Based on the world input-output model, we define the trade pattern of intermediate goods in various countries from the perspective of trade intermediary attributes, and propose two indicators by which to measure the dependence of China on the global value chain in the process of “dual circulation” development: the degree of vertical specialization (VSD) and the import share of domestic total consumption (IMS); China’s super-large market leads to low values of both VSD and IMS. China’s high-tech industry has the highest degree of external dependence in the process of participating in dual circulation, and there has been a fluctuation cycle since 2009. The external dependence of different industries shows heterogeneity.