China as Exemplar: Justin Lin, New Structural Economics, and the Unorthodox Orthodoxy of the China Model

Abstract

Despite vociferous disagreement by scholars and ambivalence by China over a "China Model" of development, China is still held up as an exemplar of development. Nowhere is this clearer than in the theory of New Structural Economics (NSE) promulgated by the former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Justin Lin. We seek to critically engage Lin's theory apropos of China and China's geopolitical and economic interests in Africa. Lin argues that developing countries can learn from China's development experience, and his theory, NSE, fills this experience with theoretical content. China, though often dismissive of a "China Model," gains a soft power advantage from its association with NSE as an exemplar and from Lin's own role in rationalizing China-Africa economic interests in purely analytical and intellectual terms. In Ethiopia, the regime actively heeded Lin's policy advice and implemented development policies in line with his theoretical model. Justin Lin's "China Model" is not an antagonistic model, but part of mainstream economic theorizing. It does not represent a competing counter-hegemonic model. It is complementary to the global capitalist system. This is the unorthodox orthodoxy of Justin Lin's "China Model."

China engages the Global South: From Bandung to the Belt and Road Initiative

“…Investigations of China’s international development finance show that China’s attitude to global economic governance is one of ‘Business as Usual’ and that ‘the China model is not so revolutionary as many analysts suppose’, and that the World Bank has emulated the Chinese approach (Babones et al, 2020; Zeitz, 2021). Similarly, Justin Lin Yifu’s ‘China Model’ is regarded as part of mainstream economic theorizing and ‘complementary to the global capitalist system’ (Åberg & Becker, 2020).…”