Full text of Chinese FM Wang Yi's speech at French Institute of International Relations (2)

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, September 1, 2020
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China has all along been a facilitator of globalization, making major contributions to building an open world. Today, China is one of the most open economies in the world. As of 2019, overall tariffs were brought down to less than 7.5 percent, lower than most countries in the world.

We have kept expanding market access. For two years running, China has been among the major economies that have made the biggest improvement in their business environment. We are the number one trading partner for 130-plus countries and regions and one of the most important markets for multinational companies.

In view of the new developments in globalization seven years ago, President Xi Jinping put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for international cooperation. Since then, we have signed cooperation documents with 138 countries. Trade in goods with partner countries has exceeded 7.8 trillion U.S. dollars, and direct investment surpassed 110 billion dollars, providing a strong boost to local employment and social and economic development.

In the first half of this year, China's investment in BRI countries increased by 19.4 percent. China-Europe railway express, dubbed as "steel camel fleets," ran 5,122 cargo trips, up by 36 percent year on year. Bringing hope wherever it goes, the railway express has played an important role in maintaining smooth logistics and stable supplies between China, Europe and other BRI partners under the COVID-19 situation.

China has all along been a contributor to world development, providing sustained driving force for global growth. In the past four decades since reform and opening-up, China has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world, contributing over 30 percent to global growth for the past ten-plus years and over 70 percent to global poverty reduction. In both the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis, China weathered the storms with its well-calibrated policies and solid economic fundamentals and served as a major engine driving regional and global economic recovery.

Over the past few months, in the face of the pandemic, China launched a global campaign of emergency humanitarian assistance at a scale unseen in the history of the People's Republic. China has provided timely medical supplies assistance to over 150 countries and international organizations in response to their needs. We have organized thematic video conferences between Chinese health experts and their counterparts in more than 180 countries. We have sent 33 medical teams to 31 countries badly in need.

These telling facts and figures all serve to show that the development path chosen by the Chinese people meets the aspirations of the 1.4 billion Chinese people and conforms with the trend of peace and development of our times. It is a path that serves the interests of not only China but also the entire world. Since it has been proven right, we have every reason to keep following this path.

Friends,

Despite the serious impact of COVID-19, the Chinese economy has stayed strong and demonstrated a robust momentum of recovery, great resilience and enormous potential. China's GDP expanded by 3.2 percent in the second quarter, back into positive territory, making China the first economy to register positive growth. IMF forecasts put China as one of the few countries that will maintain positive growth in 2020.

According to a latest survey, 99.1 percent of foreign companies in China will continue to invest and operate in China, and 89 percent of the surveyed EU businesses said they are not considering moving their industrial chains out of China. China remains one of the top three investment destinations for most European companies. All of these are, in a sense, a vote of confidence in China's development.

Given the evolving global environment, we have set out the goal of fostering a new, dual-cycle development architecture with the domestic cycle as the mainstay and with domestic and international development reinforcing each other. Such a development structure draws from the strengths of China's mega-sized market and the huge potential of domestic demand.

China will further tap into its domestic demand, expand opening-up and share more of its development dividends with the rest of the world. We hope our recovery and development will fuel common recovery and development of the world.

China will stay committed to peaceful development. China is not the former Soviet Union, still less will it or can it be another United States. No matter how developed China becomes, it will never seek hegemony or expansion. What China pursues is a new model of state-to-state relations featuring dialogue and partnership, not confrontation or alliance. We hope to forge broader partnerships and further expand our circle of friendship in the world.

China will stay committed to open development. China will not shut its door to the outside world, but only open it wider. We will further lower tariffs, shorten the negative list for foreign investment, ease market access, and make market rules more transparent and the business environment more attractive. We will upgrade our open economy and pursue openness and cooperation in all directions, at all levels and in all forms to create more opportunities for the world.

China will stay committed to cooperative development. China's development has benefited from cooperation with other countries. We will continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation with other major countries, increase friendship with our neighbors and enhance solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries. We will work closely with all countries to pursue greater security, better development and meet common challenges together.

China will stay committed to win-win development. China is against the zero-sum or winner-takes-all approach of development. We will never go down the beaten path of grabbing others' resources or sacrificing others' interests. We believe that global governance should be based on consultation, cooperation and shared benefits. By following a win-win strategy of opening-up, we will make the pie of cooperation bigger and pursue common development with all countries.

China is committed to inclusive development. We respect the right of other peoples to choose their own development path. We do not seek to export our system or model of development, nor are we interested in ideological confrontation. We will continue to take concrete actions to protect the diversity of civilizations and promote exchanges and mutual learning between development models.

Friends,

The world is undergoing changes unseen in a century, accelerated by the sudden onslaught of COVID-19. Faced with changes and a pandemic unseen in a century, humanity needs to once again make a crucial choice, a choice between progress and regression, between solidarity and division, and between openness and seclusion. (more)

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