Shanghai will host the finance ministers' and central bank governors' meeting  © Getty Images

As they prepare to host this weekend’s gathering of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, Chinese officials are putting the final touches to draft statements that will probably command unanimous backing — even if, to achieve that, substance has to be replaced with words whose policy follow-through will disappoint.

The complexity of today’s world does not yield to simple, substantive and action-oriented unifying statements. Instead, difficult policy trade-offs at the national level are compounded by insufficient global policy co-ordination; and both face the persistent problem of inadequate political follow-up. The risk is that no matter what the G20 communicates in terms of collective assessments and joint approaches, countries’ pursuit of national objectives increasingly conflict with their global responsibilities and commitments.

China has now joined Europe and the US in facing this dilemma in a way that is systemically important for the rest of the world. But, unlike its western counterparts, and like many other emerging economies, Beijing’s policy challenges have been aggravated by the extent to which the global system is increasingly malfunctioning. Read more