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BEIJING (AP) – President Xi Jinping placed China as the pivot point for global free trade on Thursday, vowing to keep its “large” economy open and warning against protectionism in a global economy devastated by the Covid pandemic. 19.
Encouraged by the signing of the world’s largest trade pact over the weekend, Xi said Asia-Pacific is the “harbinger of global growth” in a world hit by “multiple challenges,” including the coronavirus.
He promised “openness” to trade and refuted any possibility of “decoupling” of the Chinese economy, in his only comments nodding at the hostile trade policy of the US administration of Donald Trump, which has hit China with tariffs and restrictions. technological.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, held online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, brings together 21 Pacific Rim countries, including the world’s two largest economies, accounting for about 60 percent of world GDP.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump, hurt by his electoral loss to Joe Biden, would participate in the summit or send a high-level delegate in his place.
In a speech that swung to triumphalism over China’s economic “resilience and vitality” to return from the virus, which first emerged in the central city of Wuhan, Xi warned that countries that insist on trade barriers will suffer self-inflicted wounds.
“Openness allows a country to move forward, while isolation stops it,” he said.
“China will actively cooperate with all countries, regions and companies that want to do so. We will continue to raise the flag of openness and cooperation ”.
The lofty rhetoric may surprise capitals where China has restricted trade, imposed sudden lockdowns, or used its giant economy as a bargaining chip in broader geopolitical plays.
In the APEC region, Australian exports, including beef, wine and barley, have been disrupted in its largest market, as diplomatic rumors about the origins of the pandemic and alleged antics by the Spies for others hammer relationships.
The APEC meeting comes a week after China and 14 other Asia-Pacific countries signed the world’s largest free trade agreement.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which excludes the US, is seen as a major blow to China and further proof that Beijing is setting the agenda for global trade as Washington withdraws.
RCEP’s rival was the Trans-Pacific Partnership, championed by former Barack Obama, but Trump withdrew and the pact has been replaced by a watered-down alternative that the United States has not joined.
Xi had no direct words for President-elect Biden, whose rise to office next year, though still clouded by Trump’s refusal to admit defeat, will likely see a more naive extension of Washington’s current policy toward China.
Biden has been strident in China’s human rights record, from Uighur Muslims in his Xinjiang region to the Hong Kong democracy movement.
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