CHINA'S SERVICE TRADE

Abstract This paper assesses the performance of China's service trade over recent decades by summarizing and presenting data on its size, growth rate, sectoral composition, comparative advantage, and degree of openness. The evidence based on comparative analysis suggests that despite China's high growth rate, the development of China's service trade lags behind its merchandise trade. With a policy environment adjusted in China's 12th 5‐Year Plan, a growing significance of China's service trade to both China and the global economy is likely under the prospective development strategy. China's service trade has already had large impacts on China's economic growth, employment, and technology diffusion. We suggest that even more major impacts will follow in the years to come and that there are implications for global trade, FDI, and labor migration.