China News Service, Guangzhou, November 14th: Question: How can the "Four Destinations" weave the Chinese Business Network into a "soft infrastructure" for Asia-Pacific cooperation?
——Exclusive interview with Chen Yiping, Professor of School of International Relations/Overseas Chinese Research Institute of Jinan University
China News Service reporter Guo Jun
The 2026 APEC Leaders’ Informal Meeting will be held in Shenzhen in November. When talking about APEC "connectivity", many people do not realize that in the Asia-Pacific, a private network based on kinship, geography, business and cultural ties has long existed. What is the relationship between this centuries-old network woven by overseas Chinese businessmen and modern regional cooperation mechanisms such as APEC? Can it become a "soft infrastructure" for Asia-Pacific cooperation? China News Service's "East-West Question" recently conducted an exclusive interview with Chen Yiping, a professor at the School of International Relations/Overseas Chinese Research Institute of Jinan University.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
China News Service reporter: How do you understand the relationship between the non-governmental networks formed by overseas Chinese businessmen based on kinship, geography, business and cultural ties and the APEC cooperation mechanism?
Chen Yiping: The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Informal Meeting will be held in Shenzhen soon. This is the third time that China has served as the host of APEC, following Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014.
The original intention of APEC is "interdependence, common interests, adhering to an open multilateral trading system and reducing regional trade barriers". Its core spirit is embodied in openness, gradualism, voluntariness, consultation, development and mutual benefit. With the end of the Cold War, globalization, trade and investment liberalization, and regional grouping have become trends, with both state and non-state forces being important driving forces.
While national actors are promoting connectivity, win-win cooperation, and the construction of a community with a shared future, tens of millions of overseas Chinese have built a tough and long-lasting transnational network based on kinship, geographical, business, and cultural ties. With their unique resources and cross-cultural advantages, they have long become participants and beneficiaries of Asia-Pacific regional cooperation.
It can be said that the relationship between the two is mutually reinforcing, mutually reinforcing, and collaborative.
Reporter from China News Service: From the voyages to Nanyang and overseas Chinese merchants in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, to the investment of Chinese businessmen after the reform and opening up, to today's cross-border e-commerce and digital trade, what fundamental changes have taken place in the form of this network?
Chen Yiping: Since modern times, the important driving force of globalization has come from enterprises and businessmen. The recorded history of Chinese people immigrating overseas can be traced back to more than 2,000 years ago. Traveling to Southeast Asia and traveling to other parts of the world are representative migration trends in different historical periods.
The famous Japanese economic historian Hamashita Takeshi once used historical explanation methods to analyze the evolutionary relationship between the East Asian regional system and the world economy since the 16th century, and put "Chinese businessmen" into a trans-oceanic and supranational Asian economic network to understand.
From the voyages to Nanyang and overseas Chinese merchants in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, to the Chinese investment after the reform and opening up, to today's cross-border e-commerce and digital trade, the Chinese business network has indeed experienced tremendous changes, which are reflected in the trust foundation, network structure, time and space scope, and participating subjects.
In terms of the basis of trust, the Chinese business network has transformed from the social trust of individuals, clans and other acquaintances in the Qiaopi era, to the institutionalized trust of contracts, banks, laws and chambers of commerce in the business era, and then to the digital trust of platform algorithms, payment guarantees and blockchain traceability in the digital era.
In terms of network structure, the Chinese business network has developed from a "one line" of overseas Chinese and foreign tourists, to a radiation structure of Chinese business investment with clans and hometown associations as nodes, and then to a multi-directional, flat, self-organized digital ecosystem of cross-border e-commerce.
From the perspective of time and space, the Chinese business network has developed from a local area where overseas Chinese and foreign tourists have invested, to a multi-regional and even global layout of Chinese business investment, and then expanded to the cyberspace and network-entity connections in the digital age.
From the perspective of participants, the Chinese business network has experienced expansion from professional elites to ordinary individuals: in the past, it was mostly participated by laborers who dared to take risks, professional merchants, and big businessmen. Now ordinary people can connect to the world and open online stores to make money.
But we must realize that what changes is always the “form” and what remains unchanged is the “core”. This network has always been based on "fate" as the link, credit as the cornerstone, and mutual benefit as the driving force. It has also always served as a bridge between China and the host country, and between the Asia-Pacific and the world. The way trust is produced is changing, but trust itself is always the core asset of this network.
Reporter from China News Service: APEC has set up the Business Advisory Council (ABAC) as a formal channel for the business community to participate in APEC. What kind of relationship should be formed between spontaneously formed private business networks like the Chinese Business Network and mechanisms within the official framework such as ABAC?
Chen Yiping: The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) was established in 1995 and is the main channel for the business community to participate in APEC cooperation. The Council is composed of three representatives from the business community selected by each member, and is chaired by the host country of the APEC meeting that year.
The main task of ABAC is to directly submit policy recommendation reports to leaders, ministers, and senior officials, and to hold face-to-face dialogues with leaders every year.
If ABAC is an "authorized" formal organization, the Chinese Business Network is a spontaneous communication mechanism outside the system. The former focuses on policy advice, while the latter focuses on information communication and project implementation. The two can complement each other.
For example, ABAC Chinese representatives took the initiative to visit overseas Chinese business organizations during research; the 2026 Overseas Chinese Trade Fair (Overseas Chinese Industry Fair) held 11 themed business negotiations to achieve precise industry docking; Chinese business groups forwarded their common demands to ABAC through hubs such as the Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Federation of Industry and Commerce, etc.
More importantly, Chinese businessmen in Asia-Pacific countries use the credit network accumulated over hundreds of years to promote the implementation of Asia-Pacific policy initiatives and become practitioners of exchanges, cooperation and community building.
APEC's concept of "open regionalism" emphasizes promoting liberalization through voluntary and unilateral actions and achieving common prosperity in an open rather than closed framework. The Chinese Business Network realizes the cross-border flow of capital, goods, information and people in a spontaneous manner without formal institutional arrangements. In this sense, it can indeed be called the private version of "open regionalism" and the "soft infrastructure" of Asia-Pacific cooperation.
China News Service Reporter: In the process of Chinese enterprises “going global”, overseas Chinese businessmen often play the role of “guides”. Is it possible for this role to be institutionalized under the APEC framework? In the context of intensified geopolitical competition, how can the Chinese business network maintain its "bridge" nature?
Chen Yiping: The role of “guide” can be fully mechanized. When Chinese companies go overseas, overseas Chinese businessmen provide local market information, legal and tax consulting, network channels and cultural translation, which essentially reduces transaction costs caused by institutional distance and cultural distance. This role can be transformed from individual case experience into public goods: establish a normalized docking mechanism for Chinese businessmen to participate in regional cooperation under the APEC framework, for example, integrate mature platforms such as the Overseas Chinese Trade Fair and the Chinese Business Summit into the APEC supporting activity system; rely on ABAC and the Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Federation of Industry and Commerce, and overseas Chinese businessmen organizations to form a closed loop of appeal transmission, project matching, and policy implementation.
The Asia-Pacific region is the core area where diverse civilizations meet and blend. Confucian civilization, Indian civilization, Islamic civilization, indigenous civilizations of Pacific island countries, and Western civilization have long coexisted here. For thousands of years, the migration of people, trade exchanges, and cultural exchanges have continued, forming a continuous historical context of people-to-people and cultural exchanges in the Asia-Pacific.
The world is currently undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, with competition among major powers intensifying and regional conflicts occurring frequently. Facing new challenges, we need to rely on the long-standing tradition of people-to-people exchanges in the Asia-Pacific under the APEC framework to establish platforms and mechanisms that can serve as bridges for immigrants, deepen mutual learning among civilizations, promote symbiosis among civilizations, and consolidate the indispensable humanistic foundation of the Asia-Pacific community.
Reporter from China News Service: Guangdong is promoting "overseas Chinese to help thousands of enterprises and products go overseas", and there are also platforms such as the Overseas Chinese Fair, Asia-Pacific Industrial Cooperation and Overseas Expo. In your opinion, in the context of APEC, how should Guangdong play the "overseas Chinese" card to be most valuable?
Chen Yiping: Guangdong has a tradition of opening up to the outside world. It has a history of two thousand years of being born by the sea and connecting the world through commerce. It adheres to the spirit of openness and inclusiveness, courage to be the first, pragmatism and low-key, mutual benefit and win-win, and has become a vanguard, pioneer, and experimental area for reform and opening up.
What is important is that Guangdong has nearly 30 million overseas Chinese and a long-term extensive network, as well as practical experience in the coexistence of multiple systems in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Guangdong can use overseas Chinese as a bridge and culture as a media to create a frontier for Asia-Pacific civilization exchanges.
In the context of APEC, the key for Guangdong to play the "overseas Chinese" card is to use overseas Chinese as a bridge to transform the cross-border trust network of overseas Chinese in Guangdong into the private foundation for Asia-Pacific digital trade and supply chain interconnection. At the same time, using Shenzhen APEC as a platform, the Overseas Chinese Fair and the Chinese Business Summit will be made into a docking site, service node and community narrative carrier between China's production capacity and the Asia-Pacific market.
