Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed several important issues during his State Visit to the U.S.. [Special coverage]
He affirmed that China's economy would stay on a steady course with fairly fast growth, that China is a staunch defender of cyber security, and that the right direction of a new model of major country relationship between China and the U.S. should be maintained. Both sides across the Pacific welcomed these remarks.
China has been a participant, builder and contributor to the international system. China is now the world's largest exporter and second largest importer; its foreign direct investment tops the world, and its overseas investment ranks the third. China's foreign exchange reserve leads all countries, ranking the first in the world.
The world eyes China in every single advancement it makes. When China's economy steps into a new normal in a volatile world, will China stay opened-up? How will China advance its reform and opening-up program in a transitioning period?
"China will never close its open door to the outside world," answered President Xi with distinctive attitude. "Opening-up is a basic state policy of China." The reassured answers from President Xi tell the world where China stands, while unveiling the inherent logic of China's development. The remarkable achievement China has obtained in the past 36 years is the fruit of opening-up. The opening-up will thus be continued and broadened in China's new economic normal. To construct an opened and balanced new economic system is embedded in China's development needs.
The reform China undergoes is currently being comprehensively deepened. "Without reform, there will be no driving force; without opening up, there will be no progress," Xi said in his speech on China-U.S. relations in Seattle. To bring China's economy up forward, division of labor on global market should be emphasized. To achieve the goals set on the 3rd Plenary Session of 18th CPC Central Committee, "opening-up" as impetus will still need to be strengthened.
Opening up helps to deepen reform, and deepened reform in turn propels opening up: this is how China injects new incentives and explore new space for its economic development. The guideline to promote opening-up released by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council lists 50 detailed moves to ensure a secured financial system and better international law services.
"Attracting foreign investment is our long-term policy. Such policy will not change. Nor will our protection of the lawful rights and interests of foreign companies in China, and our commitment to better services in favor of foreign companies in China, " said President Xi in his interview with the Wall Street Journal. China's pursuit of its own goals and missions backs up such commitments, starting from expanding the Free Trade Zone to innovating the policy to attract more foreign investment, from promoting the "The Belt and Road Initiative" for win-win achievement to improve the global cooperation on production capacity system.
Different from the past, today's China enjoys both high level of "bring-in" and large scale of "go-global". In other words, we create a comprehensively updated version of opening-up. On one hand, China makes effort to construct an environment in which legal polices are transparent, administrations are efficient, and competitions are fair. China treats all entities of the market justifiably, including foreign enterprises, and it welcomes all forms of cooperation between international and Chinese companies. On the other hand, we hope that the international market can improve its openness to investments from China. We oppose any kind of protectionism or discriminative policy. China is willing to resolve all disputes appropriately through negotiation with reference to economy and trade, and is willing to take the initiative to build a balanced and win-win multilateral economic and trade system.
"Like Ali Baba says 'Open Sesame', China will not close the door once it has been opened," President Xi Jinping used this metaphor in the U.S.-China CEO roundtable in Seattle.
In 2014, China became the biggest foreign investment recipient in the world with $128.5 billion, and topped the developing countries for a consecutive 23 years. In the first eight months of this year, although global economy sees a slack in investment, China maintained a 9 percent year-on-year increase of foreign investment. These are evidence that China's opening-up is a long-term task, rather than expedient measure, and that it is multilaterally beneficial, rather than empowering itself alone.
"The state policy of opening-up will not change; China will take the initiative to participate in the world economy. The determination to level up open economy will not change. The policy of attracting foreign investment will not change. The resoluteness on perfecting mechanism of opening-up will not change," said President Xi. China will continue developing at a rapid pace for its opening-up, and the world will benefit from China's opening-up to advance.
