Editor's note: Xu Qinduo is China Radio International's former chief correspondent to Washington and a senior fellow of the Pangoal Institution. The article first appeared on the website China Plus on March 25. It reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN. 

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions is part of the World Economic Forum, themed "Leadership 4.0: Succeeding in a New Era of Globalization," will be held from July 1 to 3 in China's coastal city Dalian. More than 1,800 leaders from government, business, civil society and academia will gather in Dalian for this year's meeting and discuss fundamental changes that are reshaping the global economy.  

Alibaba has just launched a new website, Tmall Global, which is in English and aims at speeding up the process of bringing more overseas brands to Chinese consumers. Before this, Tmall.com did the job of selling the "world" to the Chinese market. The latest effort is a case in point that globalization is continuing and China is playing a prominent role in the process. 

Globalization evolves from phase to phase along with the progress of humankind. The Industrial Revolution started in late 1700s. Powered by the steam engine, the textile and iron industries boomed. As a result, people, materials and goods moved from one place to another in an unprecedented global scale.  

The Second Industrial Revolution saw rapid production of steel, chemicals and electricity, which in turn led to mass production of consumer goods, including trains, automobiles and bicycles.  Germany's industrial output began to surpass that of Britain in late 19th century and the United States became a strong competitor of Europe. The Third Industrial Revolution was characterized by mass production going digital, during which the world saw the rise of the rest, in particular China and other emerging economies.  

We're now in the process of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – the complete digitization of the social, political, and economic systems, as argued by Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum. Globalization has entered a new era in the age of Industrialization 4.0.  

There are some distinctive features of the current round of globalization. For the first time, developing countries are playing a major role in shaping the process of globalization. Secondly, technologies – artificial intelligence, robotics, Internet of Things, autonomous driving, 3D printing and so on, are changing our way of life dramatically.  

The contribution of emerging economies and developing countries to global economic growth has reached some 80 percent, with their total output accounting for 40 percent of the world's GDP. Never in human history has globalization been led by developing countries.  

China, as the second largest economy and the largest developing country, has been playing an outstanding part in reforming globalization in the new era, with a theme calling for openness and inclusiveness. For example, China is the largest trading nation of goods, and thus one of the strongest voices for globalization, in contrast to the rise of protectionism in some high-income countries.  

Over the past six years, China's foreign policy has to a large extent focused on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is about connectivity to facilitate trade and investment. Up to now, some 126 countries have signed up to the initiative. Why is it so attractive? It deals with building infrastructure, growing the economy, aligning developing strategies and bringing people together, a goal completely different from the threats and tariffs by Washington against other economies.  

If there's any lesson we can learn from the previous round of globalization, it's the emphasis on inclusiveness to ensure most people will benefit from the process of globalization. The consensus is that the lack of fair distribution of wealth has led to the rise of anti-globalization sentiment, protectionism and populism. 

The BRI calls for open but inclusive development. For example, according to a recent report by the World Bank, the BRI could lift 32 million people out of moderate poverty if implemented fully. It says BRI transport infrastructure can reduce travel times for economies along transport corridors by up to 12 percent, reducing trade costs. At the same time, increased trade is expected to raise global real income by up to 2.9 percent.  

Forty years of almost double-digit economic growth has also transformed China into a global leader in technology and manufacturing, including AI, robotics, big data, etc. All these technologies, as a matter of fact, are based on 5G technologies.  

Chinese company Huawei has been in a leading position of 5G technology, with its 5G patent counts accounting for over 15 percent of the world's total, larger than that of all U.S. companies combined. Similarly, Chinese companies filed 473 of the 608 AI patents lodged with the World Intellectual Property Organization last year. On blockchain patents, Chinese registration stands at one-third of world's total.  

Yet, the U.S. has been handling its lagging behind by accusing China that it has engaged in IPR violation and forced transfer of technologies, but it has failed to provide any solid and convincing evidence, in particular in their charges against Huawei. In an ostensible attempt to contain the rise of China as a technology power, Washington has carried out an all-out approach to block Huawei not only from its own domestic market but also other markets, for example, in European countries. It has gone so far that many are worried of a possible bifurcation of the Internet. As former U.S. treasury secretary Henry Paulson points out, "Balkanizing technology could harm global innovation, hurting the competitiveness not just of Chinese firms but also of U.S. companies around the world." 

By creating the new website of Tmall Global, Alibaba is increasingly making connections between Chinese consumers and the rest of the world through e-commerce. China, in a similar manner, remains a strong force in shaping globalization in the new era. 

Despite the U.S. provocation, China has kept unfazed and continued with the reform and opening-up. One example is the recent launch of the Shanghai-London Stock Connect program, which marks a crucial step in China's capital market opening-up. A shorter version of the negative list is expected soon, making it easier for foreign investment. 

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