Xi: Door Will Open Still Wider

China President X1 Jinping highlighted the importance of the Chinese consumer to the global economy with China’s "goods imports" expected to exceed $30 trillion and "services" $10 trillion over the next 15 years.

Story by Wall St. Journal
Written by Andrew Moody

Globalization cannot be reversed, big trade show told

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President Xi Jinping reaffirmed China’s commitment to opening up its economy in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the China International Import Expo on November 5, one of the biggest events in China this year.

“China’s economic growth over the past 40 years has been achieved with a commitment to opening-up. In the same vein, high-quality development of China’s economy in the future can only be guaranteed with greater openness. I have made it clear once and again that China’s door will never be closed. It will only open still wider.”

The six-day expo in Shanghai is believed to be the biggest import exhibition ever held with 3,600 companies from around 130 countries and regions in attendance. Also present were leaders from 18 countries.

In his speech Xi once again made a strong defense of globalization as he did in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2017 as well as at the Boao Forum in Hainan in April.

“People with vision in the world would agree that economic globalization, as an irreversible trend of history, has greatly boosted global growth. This is an overarching trend, something that is independent of people’s will. What we mankind can do is to understand, adapt to, and apply the law of history instead of trying to prevent it from happening. The wheel of history, indeed, will keep rolling forward no matter what.”

Xi’s speech was welcomed by many commentators. Martin Jacques, the British journalist and author of When China Rules the World, said it clearly demonstrated the resolve of a strong leader.

“It was a strong statement of steady as you go. China is not going to be deflected from its basic strategy and position. Xi was saying that the Chinese economy is basically in a sound position and that it is more than capable of handling its current challenges, despite what the speculation might be in the West,” he said.

In his speech Xi highlighted the importance of the Chinese consumer to the global economy with China’s goods imports expected to exceed $30 trillion and services $10 trillion over the next 15 years.

“We will stimulate the potential for increased imports. China’s initiative to expand imports is not a choice of expediency. It is a future-oriented step taken to embrace the world and promote common development.”

Xi also pledged to continue opening up the China economy, building on the measures to open up the finance, including insurance, and the automotive sector to foreign companies that he announced at Boao.

Since that announcement German carmaker BMW has announced that it is taking majority control of its China joint venture with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings.

He said China would continue to steadily increase the openness of the financial sector, services as well as agriculture, mining and manufacturing, telecommunications, education, medical services and culture.

He also pledged that the foreign ownership limits in both education and medical services would be eased.

Xi’s message on openness was welcomed also by company executives.

Vladimir Makatsaria, chairman of Johnson & Johnson China, said Xi sent exactly the right signals to business.

“His messages on the deepening of China’s reform and opening up, promoting trade liberalization and optimizing the business environment certainly give us great confidence in continuing to grow our business in China,” he said.

Christian Hartel, a member of the executive board member of Wacker Chemie, the German chemicals company, said the projections for China’s imports contained in Xi’s speech were encouraging.

“We will surely benefit from the increasing consumption power in China. And we will continue our investment in expanding production capacity in China.”

Toshihiro Ueda, chief representative in China for AGC Co., the Tokyo-based manufacturers of glass, chemicals and other products, welcomed Xi’s message on further opening up.

“[This] has really boosted our morale. China has turned from global manufacturing powerhouse into an international open market. With it being more open, China will gradually become the hub of innovation.”

Xi in his speech placed considerable emphasis on innovation, which he said was now the “premier engine for development.”

China is aiming to make major advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced manufacturing and the country also has a national goal to become a global technology leader by 2035.

“Only with bold innovation and reform can we break the bottlenecks in global growth. The world economy has just emerged from the shadow of the international financial crisis and recovery is still unstable. There is an urgent need for concerted efforts of countries in the world to promote scientific innovation and foster new growth drivers,” he said.

Edward Tse, chief executive officer and founder of Gao Feng Advisory, a management consultancy, said innovation was vital for foreign companies wanting to operate and sell into the China market.

“Companies complain a lot about market access in China but that essentially is the old game. The new game is technology. To be successful in China in the future companies will have to be engaged in all different types of partnerships centering around technology to be successful.”