BEIJING, March 18 -- As the COVID-19 pandemic fuels a wave of "slowbalization" across the world, China has pledged to further open its market in the next five years to tide over the virus-induced slowdown and promote international cooperation.
China has sent a clear message of pushing forward "a higher-level open economy" in its recently released Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, a master plan that sets the main goals and tasks for the country over the next five years and beyond.
INSTITUTIONAL OPENNESS
Four decades after its introduction, the policy of opening-up has remained in a crucial position in the country's new roadmap. Yet the latest outline highlighted the importance of "institutional openness," which stresses rule-based, transparent regulatory models and business environment that better align with international norms.
First put forward during China's Central Economic Work Conference in 2018 and reiterated in the new five-year plan, institutional openness is widely regarded as a big leap forward, prioritizing internationally-accepted rules and standards on top of more free flows of goods and economic factors such as capital, land and labor.
"Such a shift signals that China's opening-up efforts have become more comprehensive and systematic," said Steven Zhang, chief economist at Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities.
Institutional openness not only strengthens interconnection between China and other countries, but also helps the country foster institutional advantages to participate in international cooperation and competition, Zhang said.
The year 2021 is set to be another fruitful year for China in establishing new heights of institutional openness.
The country will further shorten its list of sectors that are off-limits for foreign investment, launch more comprehensive pilot programs to open up the services sector, and formulate a negative list for cross-border services trade this year, according to the government work report.
China will also push for the development of the Hainan free trade port and strengthen innovations in reform and opening-up at its pilot free trade zones, the report read.
In another way of promoting institutional openness, China aims to engage more deeply in global trade and economic cooperation.
After signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and completing investment agreement negotiations with the European Union in late 2020, China now plans to accelerate negotiations for the China-Japan-Republic Of Korea free trade agreement, and is actively considering joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, as listed by the outline.
These moves will provide institutional guarantees for foreign enterprises' legitimate rights and interests and significantly enhance foreign investor confidence in the Chinese market, said Tu Xinquan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL
China has remained a top foreign investment recipient despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Foreign capital flowing into the country logged a 4-percent yearly increase in 2020 while global flows plunged by over 40 percent, according to data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
A recent report from the American Chamber of Commerce in China showed that 75 percent of the enterprises surveyed are optimistic about the market prospects in China for the next two years, and 81 percent said they expect their businesses to grow in China in 2021.
As the world recovers from the COVID-19 shock, China's active engagement in free trade pacts is expected to achieve win-win results for the country and the rest of the world, according to Zhang.
By reducing tariffs, removing barriers and promoting investment, trade pacts can leverage regional economic advantages such as shorter distances and lower transport costs, said Zhang, adding that the spillover effects of China's economic growth will also boost the recovery of other economies.
Experts predict that the expanding Chinese market will offer new opportunities for foreign investors in areas such as carbon neutrality and the digital economy, as China now attaches more importance to green, smart and innovation-driven development.
The outline reaffirmed China's promise of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. It also set boosting digital industries as a major task for the next five years, aiming to raise the GDP proportion of the added value of core digital economy industries from 7.8 percent in 2020 to 10 percent in 2025.
China's pursuit of carbon neutrality and its development of the digital economy will lead to higher productivity, which will hopefully accelerate the transition between old and new growth drivers worldwide, Zhang said.
Hong Kong's electoral reforms to bring more effective governance, official says
Hong Kong's electoral improvements will bring about a "new vista" in the city's legislature, with patriotism binding everyone together "with one heart, one mind and one purpose", said Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung.
"That's really Hong Kong's future," Cheung told China Daily in an exclusive interview on Monday, as work began to improve the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and to institute safeguards for the "patriots administering Hong Kong "principle.
The new landscape Cheung envisaged will see more effective governance, under which there will be a more harmonious environment, and greater room for constructive debate over policies concerning people's livelihoods and the city's development.
But Cheung said this will not shut the door on different views from the opposition. Instead, more voices will be heard, particularly those of the grassroots and ordinary people, he added.
The size and composition of the city's Election Committee and Legislative Council constituencies will undergo adjustments, according to a decision by the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, on March 11 on electoral improvements. The number of Election Committee members will rise from 1,200 to 1,500, while the number of seats in the legislature will increase from 70 to 90.
All people who meet the minimum requirements－patriotism, love of Hong Kong and abiding by the law－will be eligible to run for election, Cheung said.
Cheung refuted the "unfair "comments by some countries that are trying to demonize the city's electoral changes, including members of the Group of Seven. He said these countries are wrong in seeing China as a threat, as China believes in peaceful development and cooperation, not confrontation. A good case in point, he said, is the country's efforts to provide African nations with COVID-19 vaccines.
In Cheung's view, the National Security Law for Hong Kong, which took effect on June 30, the electoral revamp and the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), which has a chapter dedicated to the development of Hong Kong and Macao, are the "three pillars" that will stabilize Hong Kong and take the global financial hub forward.
The SAR government is considering a campaign to tell the local community and the world about the significance of the electoral revamp and to dispel rumors, Cheung said.
With three elections set to take place in the next 12 months, the government is facing a tight schedule to complete local legislation after the Standing Committee of the NPC amends Annex I and Annex II to the HKSAR's Basic Law, which will clarify the method of selection of the chief executive and the formation of Legislative Council.
The legislative polls, which were postponed last year due to the pandemic, are scheduled for Sept 5, but there is fresh speculation that there may be another delay. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has said that the Election Committee subsector elections will take place before the Legislative Council elections, and the chief executive election is expected to be held in March of next year.
Tight time frame
The time frame is very tight, Cheung said. But the Hong Kong SAR government will draft the bill on local legislation, work with the Legislative Council and prepare for the forthcoming elections once the details of the electoral improvements are ironed out by the Standing Committee of the NPC, he said.
The scrutiny and deliberation of the bill in the Legislative Council was expected to take at least several weeks, with a few weeks for drafting the bill, he said.
The chief executive will head a cross-sector task force on the electoral changes. "We must make it a success in the next 12 months," Cheung said.
Xinhua Commentary: Dialogue, win-win are right choices for China-U.S. relations
BEIJING, March 20 -- With all the world's eyes upon them, China and the United State have wrapped up their high-level strategic dialogue held in Anchorage, Alaska.
Undoubtedly, the China-U.S. relationship is one of the most important bilateral ties in today's world. Therefore, for the two sides, dialogue is always better than confrontation.
During this round of dialogue, the two sides conducted candid, in-depth and constructive communication on their respective domestic and foreign policies, China-U.S. relations, and major international and regional issues of common concern.
They expressed their willingness to enhance cooperation or coordination in some specific areas. For instance, the two sides are committed to strengthening dialogue and cooperation in the field of climate change and will establish a joint working group on that subject. In the spirit of reciprocity and mutual benefit, the two sides will hold talks on facilitating activities of each other's diplomatic and consular missions and personnel, as well as on issues related to media reporters.
The talks in Anchorage once again proved that communication and dialogue based on mutual respect can help the two sides increase trust, reduce misperceptions, properly manage differences and promote mutually beneficial cooperation.
What needs to be clarified is that the fundamental purpose of China's development is to ensure that the Chinese people can live a better life and to benefit all humankind. Win-win cooperation is an important principle of China's development and a golden rule in China's external relations. China has no intention to interfere in the political system of the United States, nor challenge or replace its status and influence.
The U.S. side should take a right approach to China's political system and development path, its influence on the world as well as its major policies.
Meanwhile, the U.S. side should also respect China's core concerns such as sovereignty and security, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs on Taiwan and issues related to Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
In Anchorage, the United States reiterated its adherence to the one-China policy on the Taiwan question, which sent a right signal to the rest of the world.
After all, the essence of China-U.S. relations is of mutual benefit and win-win results, rather than a zero-sum game. The two countries will gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Neither side can afford the consequences of conflict and confrontation.
They should trust rather than suspect each other, understand rather than blame each other, and cooperate rather than obstruct each other.
In the past few years, due to Washington's irrational suppression of China's legitimate rights and interests, China-U.S. relations have encountered unprecedented difficulties. This situation should not continue any longer. The only right way is to follow the principles of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
Moreover, enhancing coordination and cooperation between China and the United States, the two major players with global influence, is to follow the global trend of peace and development, which will also meet the expectations of the international community.
Forming cliques, turning back the wheel of history, inciting ideological divisions, or instigating confrontation will lead to nowhere.
China is ready to work with the United States to uphold true multilateralism, and provide more public goods with better quality for the international community.
The two countries can cooperate on three most pressing tasks facing the international community -- fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling climate change and promoting world economic recovery -- and strengthen communication and coordination on major international and regional issues, so as to expand their cooperation on a bigger scale.
During the dialogue, the two sides said they will step up coordination and consultation on activities within such multilateral frameworks as the Group of 20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
They also exchanged views on a series of other topics, including climate change, the Iranian nuclear issue, Afghanistan, the Korean Peninsula and Myanmar, and agreed to maintain and enhance communication and coordination.
In the 1970s, then far-sighted leaders of China and the United States worked together to break the ice in bilateral relations, and charted the course forward for bilateral cooperation.
Today, China-U.S. relations have arrived at a new critical juncture in history. Beijing and Washington have the responsibility, capacity and wisdom to find a way for major countries with different political systems to get along with each other. To that end, it requires an even grander vision and greater political courage.
After all, it is always correct to choose working together instead of decoupling each other, and to choose tearing down barriers rather than building more walls.