"Retreat" and "Advance": Where is Globalization Going?

On the cover of a recent issue of the British "Economist" magazine, the symbol of globalization was labeled "closed".

But in the eyes of Ian Golding, a professor of globalization and development at Oxford University, the epidemic may become a "factor" that changes globalization, but it will not end the globalization.

The outbreak is the latest test of globalization. All countries are in crisis and the economy is declining synchronously. International production and trade, which are the core of globalization, have been seriously damaged. People are worried that the tendency for "decoupling" will increase in the future, and globalization may be reversed.

The epidemic has indeed allowed some countries to protect themselves in the short term, but in the long run, the benefits of global division of labor and resource allocation are obvious, and the powerful logic of globalization will not be easily rewritten because of this epidemic. It is unrealistic and unwise to return to the isolated island.

What's more, the global crisis requires a global response. From the treatment of patients, to the development of drugs and vaccines, to the information sharing and material scheduling required by the international joint prevention and control ... Unity and cooperation, global action are the most powerful weapons to fight back the epidemic.

Multinational companies work together to create a Bluetooth early warning system against the new coronavirus; medical equipment manufacturers share data that can improve efficacy; when goods and people are stuck, information and data are flowing at a high speed, cross-border finance is developing rapidly, and new forces of globalization are emerging Is accelerating growth.

Golding believes that in the future globalization will show more features of digitization, financialization, and de-productization. After the epidemic test, globalization is expected to enter a new stage of more multidimensional tolerance.