Third China International Import Expo opens at crucial time
Andrew Korybko

Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The third China International Import Expo (CIIE) opened on November 5 in Shanghai. The major commercial event brings together around 2,600 businesses from over 120 countries and regions, including 196 U.S. firms, and has already registered at least 400,000 professional buyers. Strict COVID-19 safeguards are in place to ensure the well-being of all participants. Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the opening ceremony on November 4 via video.

The Chinese leader emphasized the CIIE's importance as a global trade event that has become so significant over the past three years that he described it as a global public good. 

He confirmed that China has met all the goals from last year's CIIE, including the creation of more free trade zones and ports as well as the Shenzhen development plan that was recently announced. President Xi remarked that while the global economic environment is difficult because of COVID-19, China's recent growth provides hope for the future.

The global trend towards openness and cooperation remains unchanged, he confidently declared, which is greatly boosted by China's commitment to mutual opening-up and shared benefits. By joining hands instead of throwing punches and consulting one another instead of slandering each other, he wisely advised, the world will recover from its current crisis. President Xi also condemned the unilateral and protectionist policies of some irresponsible international actors.

On that point, it's relevant to discuss what the Chinese leader referenced with respect to last week's fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. 

China's third International Import Expo, November 4, 2020, Shanghai. /VCG

China's third International Import Expo, November 4, 2020, Shanghai. /VCG

China's new development paradigm is one of dual circulation, which refers to reinforcing domestic and international circulation through expanding China's domestic market potential. This, President Xi predicted during his opening speech, will make China the world's most promising economy worth more than $22 trillion by the end of the decade.

The steady recovery of the Chinese economy since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis at the beginning of the year will assist with the global economic recovery. President Xi said that it'll support more foreign direct investment and free trade deals such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and other related economic agreements that it is exploring with the BRI and BRICS countries for example.

At this point, observers should take a step back and consider the context in which President Xi shared his very important remarks during the opening of the third CIIE. China's rapid economic recovery will truly enable the country to promote the growth of global economy. Its opening-up, reforms, and new dual circulation paradigm of development are the recipe for global success. There's a perfect complementarity at play between China's growing market and other countries' growing export needs.

The relationship between China and its partners, which overlaps with the dual circulation strategy, will provide the impetus for global economic growth and recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic finally ends. Investment in China will help expand the domestic economic, while China's parallel BRI investment abroad will improve its partners' export capacities. 

This will in turn create the synergy needed to strengthen the community of shared destiny that President Xi referenced several times in his speech, thus helping save the system of globalization.

The third CIIE couldn't have opened at a more crucial time. The world needs China just as much as China needs the world. President Xi made this very clear during his speech. Nothing can stop the historically irreversible process of globalization which is forging a community of shared destiny. 

With China at the helm of the world's economic recovery, the setbacks of the past months will soon be rectified and the global economic system will emerge from this current crisis much stronger and more closely integrated than ever before.

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