The Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 opened on April 10. (XING GUANGLI/XINHUA)

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“China’s door of opening up will not be closed and will only open even wider,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018. “Today, the Chinese people can say with great pride that reform and opening up, China’s second revolution if you like, has not only profoundly changed the country but also greatly influenced the whole world.” 

Reform and opening up is a great course of common development and progress between China and the world. “Over the past 40 years, China’s interaction with the international system has been successful,” said Wei Ling, director of the Research Center of China Foreign Affairs Theory at China Foreign Affairs University. During the past four decades, China’s GDP has grown at an average annual rate of around 9.5 percent, and its foreign trade volume, 14.5 percent. More than 700 million people have successfully been lifted out of poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the total world population raised out of poverty during the same period.

China’s stability and development are a huge contribution to the stability and development of the international system. From “bringing in” to “going global,” and from joining the World Trade Organization to jointly building the “Belt and Road,” China has shouldered responsibilities as a major country in expanding openness to the outside world. It is a true force for world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order.

Xi said in his speech that China will adopt major measures to pursue further opening, including significantly broadening market access, creating a more attractive investment environment, strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, and taking the initiative to expand imports.

Song Hong, a research fellow at the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the anti-globalization trend is currently raging. Some Western countries have adopted protectionism, and once again human beings are faced with the choice of openness or seclusion—advancing or retreating. At this crucial point in history, the declaration of China’s unwavering advancement of reform and opening up in the new era has injected vigor into economic globalization.

“China’s further opening up is not a passive measure under external pressure, but is based on long-term preparations. It is an open and orderly initiative in accordance with its own steps and established plans, and it is China’s strategic choice based on development needs,” said Bai Ming, deputy director of the Institute of International Market at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation at China’s Ministry of Commerce.

China’s measures to further open up its financial industry have demonstrated China’s confidence in managing its own economic operations, said Shen Kaiyan, director of the Institute of Economics at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Strengthening financial supervision while further opening up the financial industry will help improve the competitiveness of China’s financial industry and promote the sustained and healthy development of the capital market. Measures to create a more attractive investment environment will bring more stable psychological expectations for foreign companies to enter the Chinese market, and help Chinese companies grow into global companies in competition with their foreign counterparts.

Shen said that measures to strengthen intellectual property protection are not only a requirement of foreign companies but also a necessity for Chinese enterprises. They are the greatest incentive to improve China’s economic competitiveness, and will help promote the development of new technologies, products, business models and formats in a wider range of fields, she said.

Initiatives to expand imports, such as reducing tariffs on automobile imports and hosting the China International Import Expo, will not only satisfy the growing needs of the Chinese people but also help foreign companies nurture the Chinese market, Shen said.

Bai said that as China’s economy grows in size, its economic spillover effect will continue to get stronger. Whether it be liberalizing the ratio of foreign-capital shares in the banking, securities and insurance industries or reducing the tariffs on automobile imports and some other products, opening up has ensured that the world can share the spillover effects of the Chinese economy. At the same time, China will be able to allocate resources more efficiently globally and facilitate the high-quality growth of the Chinese economy.

 

(edited by JIANG HONG)