Editor's note: The article is based on an interview with Wang Yuzhu, a research fellow at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

At the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in May last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that, starting from 2018, China would host China International Import Expo (CIIE).

Today, as President Xi Jinping welcomed participants from over 170 countries and regions to the expo in Shanghai and gave a keynote speech at the opening ceremony, he reiterated that China's door will never be closed. He emphasized five major ways for China to be more open, including stimulating its import potential, further opening up the Chinese market, creating a more favorable business environment, further developing the free trade zones, and promoting bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

Xi's speech at the opening ceremony sends a strong sign that against the background of rising protectionism and unilateralism, China's determination to open up will not be shaken, that it will create more opportunities for shared prosperity. The CIIE itself is a concrete action for this process.

The CIIE is the world's first trade event devoted to imports, reflecting the country's pragmatic policies in launching a new round of reform and taking the initiative in opening its market. The expo aims to push economic globalization in the direction of becoming more open, inclusive, balanced, and beneficial to all. The CIIE is an important landmark project in China's new round of opening up and therefore serves as a key platform to achieve the goal.

The core function of the CIIE is to promote balanced trade and benefit the world through China's development. The history of the world's development has shown that export-oriented models are mostly applicable to small and medium-sized economies.

Since China is the world's second largest economy and the largest exporter, its advocacy of balanced trade and willingness to allow some trade deficit will play a positive role in improving the balance of trade and encouraging sustainable development in the world.

In late December 2017, China's Central Economic Work Conference proposed for the first time to encourage balanced trade, which was regarded as an important indicator of the strategic adjustment of China's foreign trade, suggesting that the country was making a strategic change in its long-term export-oriented trade policy.

As Xi mentioned, China has always been a strong supporter of multilateralism. He also urged all countries to guard free trade for wider cooperation in an ever more interconnected economic world. In addition to giving preferential policies such as tariff reductions to developing countries, China has also launched the Aid for Trade initiative to enhance the trade capacity building of developing countries. 

The CIIE helps to demonstrate a new round of reform and opening up in China. The event does not only serve as a goods trading platform, but also as an important mechanism for the country to promote trade cooperation and policy coordination with the rest of the world, and a major approach to safeguard the global multilateral trade process.

As Xi mentioned, China increasing its imports and further opening up its market is necessary, as it is in a critical stage moving from quantity development to high-quality development. China's opening up is not a matter of expediency but rather a long-term consideration for China's own development as well.   

High-quality imports are an important component of supply-side reform. The report of the 19th CPC National Congress pointed out that in order to build a modernized economy, the country must focus on the real economy. One important long-term mechanism of the CIIE is to promote the inflow of high-end quality resources to serve China's high-quality development.

Studies have shown that the optimization of the structure and types of imported goods play a significant role in facilitating the adjustment of the domestic industrial structure. In particular, importing high-end capital goods will improve the quality of economic development.

China's experience of development also demonstrates that the technological spillovers generated by the growth of imports have become a key external mechanism driving the optimization of China's economic structure.

Expanding imports is conducive to optimizing the composition of intermediate goods and supports Chinese companies' deeper integration with the global industrial chain. Trade in intermediate goods is the result of further development of international production and optimized division of labor, which contributes to the improved international competitiveness of products and therefore becomes the main path to increase the competitiveness of enterprises.

China's 40 years of reform and opening up have proved that China's development could only be achieved through furthering the policy. Perhaps the most important takeaway from Xi's speech is that China has opened its door and intends to keep it open, wider and wider.

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