Internationalization of China’s Economy: Outlines of a New ICT-industrial Core of the World System

The purpose of the article is to reveal how the new stage of reforming the Chinese economy will affect its place in the hierarchy of the global economy and the very architecture of the economic world order. To this end, we analyze the features of the implementation of modern Chinese strategies for the development of “new-quality productive forces,†“dual circulation,†“Artificial Intelligence +†(AI), and “newtype industrialization,†as well as trends in globalization, the transnationalization of Chinese companies, and the development of international production chains. It is shown that in China, AI is becoming the most important factor in production and competitiveness, one that is not available to foreign businesses either for organizing production or for sales in the domestic market. In addition, Chinese companies are creating a global-scale production network abroad, invisible in direct investment statistics, with control based on technological dependence on product development in China. Western MNCs are moving production out of China, but at the same time becoming even more dependent on it, since only China can provide the supply of all the necessary materials and equipment, which are compatible only with Chinese R&D and AI. Thus, while Western MNCs compete with each other in goods, China gains monopoly power by providing them with the opportunity to develop and produce these goods quickly, cheaply, and efficiently. The United States remains the world leader in AI and its infrastructure, but unlike China, which has six million factories, American AI is limited in its application. Thus, a transformation of the World System is already taking place, in which the outlines of a more advanced Core are emerging above the post-industrial Center. The countries that enter it will be considered developed. It is proposed to call this new, fourth tier of the world economy “ICT-industrial,†since it is based on ICT infrastructure but generates a synergistic effect only under conditions of industrial sovereignty.