Hidden Champions of the Chinese Economy: Implications for Korea

This paper reviews China's policy of nurturing small and medium sized enterprises. The Chinese government is expanding its establishment of national manufacturing innovation centers necessary to promote national strategies. It plays a very important role in the financial support process for these hidden champions. This is because the government certification process to identify hidden champions is linked to direct and indirect financial support using government and private capital. This paper attempted to analyze the management situation and export competitiveness of listed hidden champions. As a result of analyzing the trade statistics of materials, parts, and equipment from 2012 to 2022, when China's policy of cultivating foster hidden champions was fully implemented, the global trade balance of the China's materials, parts, and equipment industry increased significantly from a deficit of $55.6 billion in 2012 to a surplus of $264.1 billion in 2022. The improvement of China's competitiveness in the fields of materials, parts, and equipment can also be seen as a change in the trade specialization index (TSI) of these industries. Looking at China's global trade specialization index for materials, parts, and equipment, it was import-specialized at -0.033 in 2012, but rose to 0.100 in 2022, improving export competitiveness. Korea should recognize the changes in the trade and industrial structure between Korea and China and form a new paradigm of economic cooperation to overcome the limitations of economic exchanges between the two countries. China, which used to be seen as a manufacturing base for other countries, must now be seen as an advanced country in new industries with which the current structure of economic cooperation structure must be modified accordingly.