By Niu Ruifei, Luo Aihua, Jiang Xiaodan, People’s Daily
While acknowledging China’s contribution to globalization, foreign guests expect that the country will continue injecting impetus to an open world economy, at the fourth Understanding China Conference that opened on October 26 in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province.
Themed “New Globalization and China’s New Round of Reform and Opening-Up”， the two-day event gathered nearly 600 attendees, including over 30 world-famous politicians, strategists, scholars and entrepreneurs. It serves as an important platform for the world to understand China’s development strategies.
It is generally agreed by the participants that the new round of globalization nowadays calls for shared responsibilities.
China’s commitment and contribution to economic globalization can be seen from many respects, said Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico as well as chairman of the 21st Century Council, at the opening ceremony.
Zedillo thinks that globalization is now faced with serious challenges and the foundation of the international trading system has been harmed.
As he pointed out, the trade war and unprecedented tariff increases have undermined the WTO rules and the international law, hindered the stable growth of world economy, and caused harm to countries concerned and the international community.
He suggested countries around the world solve their problems under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism instead of trying to disable the mechanism.
Economic globalization is an irreversible trend, stressed Martin Jacques, a senior fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University.
He added that China has contributed a lot to globalization and actively integrated into the world economy, which is clearly evident in its cooperation with Africa and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
While economic globalization is being seriously threatened and impacted by unilateralism and protectionism, the world is more eager to understand China and hopes that China, a pillar of globalization, will play a more active and important role in the process.
To understand China, the first thing needed is to understand the Chinese path.
To understand China and its development path and strategies will help many countries save twists and turns in their own development, said Li Yong, director-general of the UN Industrial Development Organization.
Li’s view was echoed by Amr Mahmoud Moussa, former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, who thinks that China provides a good example for other developing countries and its experience in development will help them boost economy and shake off poverty.
China has achieved a stable performance while at the same time securing progress in its economic development this year.
As both a contributor and beneficiary of economic globalization, China has shown strong economic resilience and potential in the face of de-globalization challenges, as pointed out by the participants.
Yves Leterme, former Prime Minister of Belgium, said China’s steady economic growth has brought many opportunities for Belgium.
Leterme will lead an economic and trade delegation to conduct investigation in China next month. He said investment and orders from China have generated a lot of jobs in his own country.
The China-Europe freight train routes have greatly contributed to consolidating China-Belgium economic and trade cooperation, Leterme said, believing that more trains will run along the routes in the future.
Zheng Yongnian, a professor with the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, hailed China’s achievement of lifting more than 800 million people out of poverty since its reform and opening-up in 1978 as a miracle and huge contribution to the world.
At present, China has shifted from quantitative expansion to high-quality development. As a role model of high-quality development, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will give new impetus to China’s economic growth and the new round of globalization, he pointed out.
Yvonne Zhou, managing director and partner of Boston Consulting Group, considers China an engine for world economy since the country witnesses the greatest increase of consumption market and an increasing number of new technologies and business models have originated from here.
Zhou said China’s further opening-up will not only benefit the country itself, but also bring great opportunities for the rest of the world. It is a subject of great concern for many multinational companies to make good use of the new opportunities brought about by China and actively cultivate and adapt to new industries and economic patterns.
