While attending the APEC CEO Summit in Bali, Indonesia back
in November 2013, the Chinese president quoted a time-honored saying to express
the country’s firm determination to reform and open up its economy and enhance
cooperation with the rest of the world.
“China will commit itself to building a cross-Pacific
regional cooperation framework that benefits all parties. The vast Pacific is
free of natural barriers, and we should not erect any man-made ones. ‘Boundless
is the ocean where we sail with the wind,’” Xi said, quoting a line from a
Chinese poem written 1,000 years ago.
The remarkable changes that resulted from China’s 1978
reform and opening-up policy testify to the great value of the conviction that
openness is the way to growth and wealth.
Guided by the policy, the country has been transformed from
a largely agricultural nation to the second largest economy in the world.
China’s total imports and exports of goods expanded 1.9
percent year on year to 32.16 trillion yuan (about 4.97 trillion U.S. dollars)
in 2020.
China also joined the ranks of the world’s top 10 most
improved economies for ease of doing business for the second year in a row
thanks to a robust reform agenda, according to a World Bank study report for
2020.
Meanwhile, China has signed cooperation agreements with 140
countries and 31 international organizations under the Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI), since it was initiated in 2013.
As China embarks on a new journey toward socialist
modernization via the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), opening up remains
crucial to the country’s new roadmap.
China now has 21 pilot free trade zones (FTZs), after
unveiling three new FTZs last year. It also signed the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership agreement, which is set to be the world’s biggest free
trade bloc.
President Xi has previously pledged that “China’s door of
opening-up will not be closed and will only open even wider,” signaling the
clear intent for greater global cooperation.