Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 2, 2025

Technical Standard Leadership and the Development of China’s New Trade Advantages

(Abstract)

Sun Puyang

As a fundamental institutional framework, standards are central to China’s efforts to promote institutional openness, with technical standards playing a crucial role in shaping new trade advantages. By utilizing text analysis and keyword matching techniques, a database for aligning China-led technical standards has been established. Within a theoretical framework incorporating consumption externalities and trade rule alignment, a multi-period difference-in-differences model is employed to empirically examine the mechanisms through which China’s leadership in technical standards unlocks trade potential. The study finds that China’s leadership in technical standards significantly expands the export scale of domestic enterprises by facilitating demand shifts and reducing technical coordination costs. This effect is particularly pronounced in high-tech industries within the manufacturing sector and industries positioned higher in the value chain. Additionally, overall export intensity, quantity, and quality have also improved significantly. To further advance technical standard leadership under open trade conditions, China must enhance its independent standard development capabilities, enabling more Chinese standards to “go global.”