Are China's solar PV products competitive in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative?

The recent "Belt and Road Initiative" proposed by the Chinese government has received world-wide attention. This research investigates the international competitiveness of China's solar Photovoltaic (PV) products and measures the long-term trend of the international competitiveness of solar PV products during 2007-2016 in the context of the "Belt and Road Initiative" by adopting constant market share (CMS) model and revealed comparative advantage (RCA) method. The results indicate that: (1) the overall international competitiveness of solar PV products in China has shown an upward trend, and the world demand is the main reason causing the fluctuation of the total export volume; (2) the comparative advantages of the major categories of solar PV products are strong, with evident differences among different categories; (3) the market agglomeration of Chinese solar PV products has been shaped to the regional markets where the demand growth is fast, such as in ASEAN and South Asia and; (4) the irrational structure is an important factor inhibiting the overall international competitiveness of China's export of solar PV products. Finally, we propose corresponding policy implications based on these findings.