Two scholars from Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University — Associate Professor Qin Xiao and Professor Wu Wenfeng — have published an in-depth opinion article on China Daily, China’s flagship global English-language newspaper. The high-profile publication showcases the college’s cutting-edge research achievements in economic development and global economic governance on an international authoritative platform, following Dean Chen’s previous featured article on the same outlet, forming a continuous output of the college’s international academic discourse.

Published under China Daily’s China Watch think tank column, the article focuses on a core global economic issue: China’s breakthrough from the middle-income trap. Based on the latest World Bank fiscal year 2027 income classification standards, China’s per capita gross national income (GNI) stands at $14,230, merely $145 short of the high-income economy threshold, placing China on the verge of crossing the middle-income development bottleneck. Against the backdrop of sluggish global economic growth, intensified geopolitical frictions and fragmented global industrial chains, the two scholars systematically analyzed China’s unique advantages and practical challenges in economic transformation, providing forward-looking insights for China’s march toward high-income status and global shared development.

In the article, Qin and Wu identify three core structural advantages that underpin China’s economic upgrading. First, China has built one of the world’s most robust innovation ecosystems. The country’s R&D expenditure hit 3.93 trillion yuan in 2025, accounting for 2.8 percent of its GDP, with its global innovation ranking climbing to 10th place, leading all upper-middle-income economies. Boasting 24 of the world’s top 100 innovation clusters and dominant global market share in electric vehicles, new energy batteries and other high-end manufacturing fields, China has completed a shift from low-cost assembly to high-value technological innovation and industrial chain empowerment.

Second, China is successfully transforming its demographic dividend into a high-value talent dividend. In 2025, China welcomed 12.22 million university graduates, including over 5 million STEM talents, with the average education years of new workforce entrants reaching 14 years. A large number of world-class AI and technological research talents trained domestically have supported key enterprises to break through technological barriers amid global tech restrictions, laying a solid human capital foundation for sustained industrial upgrading.

Third, China’s super-large domestic market forms a unique iterative innovation advantage. Supported by a 1.4 billion population market scale, Chinese enterprises can rapidly commercialize, iterate and optimize new technologies and products. This distinctive "scale-to-learn" mechanism forms a positive cycle of data accumulation, product upgrading and user expansion, creating an irreplicable competitive edge for technological innovation and industrial iteration.

The scholars also objectively analyzed the unprecedented challenges of China’s economic transformation. Different from the South Korea’s successful "3i strategy" (investment, infusion, innovation) in crossing the middle-income trap, China faces dual constraints of ultra-large-scale developmental complexity and severe geopolitical headwinds. The unbalanced development between leading innovation clusters and underdeveloped inland regions, coupled with global technological blockades and supply chain fragmentation, has made China’s high-income transition far more arduous.

Beyond domestic economic development, the article highlights China’s inclusive development philosophy as a global public good. The country has adhered to open-source innovation, promised to train 5,000 AI professionals for developing countries within five years, and built inclusive global AI governance frameworks, helping the Global South avoid marginalization in the global tech revolution. From quantum computing precision medical technologies to reusable commercial spaceflight breakthroughs, China’s cutting-edge achievements and open sharing concept provide valuable references for developing countries to independently explore modernization paths.

This authoritative international publication fully demonstrates the rigorous academic research capability and global vision of Antai College’s faculty. It effectively disseminates the college’s research achievements in applied economics and global economic governance to global readers, further enhancing the college’s international academic influence and external communication competitiveness. In the future, the college will continue to encourage faculty to focus on major national and global development issues, produce high-level innovative research results, actively participate in international academic exchanges and public discourse construction, and continuously strengthen the college’s international reputation and disciplinary influence.

Read the full commentary A road out of middle-income trap by Associate Professor Qin Xiao and Professor Wu Wenfeng via China Daily: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202607/22/WS6a5fb845a310986e2b466851.html