Spatio-temporal Evolution of China’s Economic Power Based on Asymmetric Theory

In the 21st century, economic interdependence between countries has gradually become an important source of state power. Globalization and the rise of China’s economy have had a significant impact on other economies around the world. China’s economic influence is becoming more and more important. On the basis of the sensitivity dependence and vulnerability dependence of asymmetric interdependence theory, the economic spillover between countries is selected to construct a quantitative model to measure economic power. This paper analyzes the evolution of China’s economic power both in time and space from 2000 to 2014. Four conclusions were drawn from the study: 1) The spatial spillover effect of China’s economy on other countries has been continuously growing since the beginning of the 21st century, which has brought about the rapid increase in China’s economic power; 2) China’s economic power has been significantly strengthened both in intensity and scope, having expanded from the surrounding countries to the whole world. In 2014, China had a high amount of economic power over 18 countries from the 41 main countries in the world, compared to 2 in 2000; 3) China’s power in terms of sensitivity dependence takes on an evolutionary trend from point distribution to flaky growth, and it shows a process ‘from point to line’ from the aspect of spatial diffusion. Furthermore, China’s power in terms of vulnerability dependence shows a trend that extends from the surrounding countries to European and South American countries; 4) comprehensively, China’s power in terms of vulnerability dependence is higher than that of sensitivity dependence, and the spatial distribution pattern demonstrates a process from centralization to decentralization from 2000 to 2014.