中文
By Hussein Askary
Lead: Record participation at this year's China International Import Expo underscores global confidence in Beijing's strategy of high-standard opening-up amid trade turmoil.
The China International Import Expo (CIIE), the world's largest dedicated import exhibition, has grown since its first event in 2018 from a window for the world to peer into the potential of the Chinese market into a major golden gateway creating export opportunities for businesses worldwide.
China's super-sized market of over 1.4 billion people, including over 500 million representing a modern middle-income group projected to reach 800 million or more within the next decade, is a major boon for other nations. This year's participation in CIIE by 4,100 overseas exhibitors from 155 countries, regions and international organizations attests to this fact.
This level of participation reflects unprecedented confidence in the Chinese market among international businesses, especially given that the global economy has been hit by three consecutive earth-shaking crises— starting with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, followed by the Ukraine crisis, and this year by the trade and tariff wars imposed on the world by the Trump administration.
The Chinese market, although extremely competitive, is a dream for innovative entrepreneurs worldwide seeking a share of its lucrative growth potential. The market offers producers across the world a stable, growing, and sustainable platform with a great appetite for new and high-quality products. China has grown from a mere “world factory” producing consumer goods for others into the largest manufacturing power, with a market encompassing not only essential and discretionary consumption but also critical industrial technologies such as intelligent manufacturing, robotics, IT and AI, automation, smart mobility, and low-altitude economy equipment. This reflects China's position as a modern and high-quality productive force in the world.
The emergence of the Chinese market is not accidental or a mechanical result of economic growth, but rather the outcome of carefully designed policies for high-quality reform and opening-up. Multiple factors contribute to this, but the most important is the strategic planning and management of the Chinese economy and its global outreach. For example, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has enabled farmers in remote areas of Peru to export fruit to major cities across China through Chancay Port. The same applies to flower growers in Kenya and mango producers in Pakistan. The seamless connectivity and logistics created by the BRI made this possible.
It is important to remember that Chinese President Xi Jinping first announced the CIIE in 2017, one year before its first event, at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Its purpose is to promote global economic development through expanded trade relations while opening the Chinese market for other nations to benefit from China's economic growth. For example, China extended tariff-free access this year for a total of 53 African countries to bring their products to the Chinese market. This move builds on previous policies to address trade imbalances, boost African exports to China, and strengthen economic development across the continent.
It is evident that this policy of high-standard opening-up of the Chinese market is part of China's long-term modernization strategy. The recent recommendations by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan made clear that "a strong domestic market provides strategic support for Chinese modernization." It encourages domestic demand within a broader context of "improving living standards while increasing consumer spending and combining investment in physical assets with investment in human capital."
This is therefore not a question of consumption for its own sake or boosting GDP figures, but about improving the overall economic and social well-being of the Chinese people, which naturally increases the supply and demand cycle of the productive economy as a whole. This process, according to the CPC, "will help enhance the dynamism and reliability of the domestic economy."
Boosting the spending power of the Chinese people does not happen by merely encouraging people to consume more, but through a dynamic and natural process that relies on, as the 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations argue, "coordinated moves to boost employment, increase incomes, and keep expectations stable, and appropriately increase the share of fiscal expenditure that goes toward public services." This naturally leads to an increased supply of high-quality consumer goods and services to the people and within the economy. The recommendations also aim to support local businesses in providing high-quality consumer goods and services to the population. Additionally, China intends to make it easier for households to purchase motor vehicles and housing by abolishing unreasonable restrictions.
The 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations also pledge to make high-standard opening-up a vehicle for enhancing the multilateral global trade system and win-win cooperation to achieve mutually beneficial development for China and its partners. Safeguarding the flow of goods and services globally will both accelerate China's own reform and development process and make sure that China "shares opportunities with the rest of the world and promotes common development." By sharing the fruits of its progress and prosperity, China is setting a new and higher standard for international relations and global governance than the outdated and dangerous zero-sum geopolitical system.
According to the recommendations, the way forward involves opening the Chinese market further to foreign actors, particularly in the service sector, while advancing technological innovation and industrial development. Another step is to facilitate regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements, as well as expand existing free trade areas. The Hainan Free Trade Port and the Kashgar Area of China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone are bright examples of this policy. In the next five-year period, foreign investments will be attracted through easy market access, accommodating business environments for foreign investors, a shortened negative list for foreign investment, and facilitation of reinvestments by foreign-funded enterprises in China.
This year's CIIE comes at the end of a year marked by dramatic disruptions to global trade and crucial supply chains. Fortunately, leader-level diplomacy involving China, the U.S., and other nations has recently brought some normalcy to the situation, showing that economic and trade cooperation are ideal means to reduce strategic and geopolitical tensions, paving the way for better diplomatic relations.
Finally, it is important for the rest of the world to understand the main principles China has been acting upon. Putting the people first and ensuring their well-being and prosperity is the primary goal. From this foundation flow sound strategies for improving economic productivity and people's lives. However, no nation can live and prosper in isolation. Common development requires openness and the sharing of human progress benefits, which include both material and immaterial goods. By opening its gigantic market to other nations, China shares the fruits of its progress for the benefit of its own population and the people of the world. As the saying goes: shared joy is double joy.
Hussein Askary is vice-chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden and a distinguished research fellow at the Guangdong Institute of International Strategies.
