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KUALA LUMPUR: President Xi Jinping placed China as the pivot point for global free trade on Thursday (November 19), vowing to keep its “large” economy open and warning against protectionism in a global economy ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 technological restrictions. .
“We will further reduce tariffs and institutional costs … and expand imports of high-quality products and services from all countries,” Xi said in a keynote speech delivered by video.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, held online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, brings together 21 countries from the Pacific Basin, including the world’s two largest economies, accounting for about 60 percent of world GDP.
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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 touting China’s economic “resilience and vitality” in returning from the coronavirus, which first emerged in the central city of Wuhan, Xi warned that countries that insist on trade barriers will suffer self-inflicted injuries.
“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 hold the flag of openness and cooperation high.”
Xi also called for greater policy coordination among international communities, saying that globalization is “irreversible.”
China will pursue higher-quality growth through its “dual circulation” development model, driven by technological innovation, he said.
“Our new development pattern is not a closed national single circulation, but an open and mutually promoting dual national and international circulation,” Xi said.
The “dual circulation” strategy envisions that China’s next phase of development will depend primarily on “national circulation” or an internal cycle of production, distribution and consumption, supported by domestic technological innovation.
Xi also said that China will sign free trade pacts with more countries and promote a high-quality Belt and Road initiative.
At a key meeting last month, Xi and other leaders laid out a plan for China’s five-year plan and key goals for the next 15 years. They include the goal of making China a “high-income” nation by 2025 and advancing to a “moderately developed” nation by 2035.
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High rhetoric may draw attention in 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 spies hammer the relationships between them.
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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 US President 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, while still clouded by Trump’s refusal to admit defeat, will likely see a more nuanced 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.
While it will have a more subdued presence on the world stage, analysts say it will seek deeper alliances to surround Chinese technology, which the United States says provides a back door to Beijing, and trade imbalances.
