China News Service, Beijing, November 14. Question: Asia-Pacific Questions, Shenzhen Answers
China News Service reporters He Shaoqing Wang Zonghan
The 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders' Meeting will be held in Shenzhen from November 18th to 19th.
As the host of APEC again after 12 years, China's work throughout the year revolves around one center - turning the construction of the Asia-Pacific community from goals to actions, and from blueprint to reality. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out that the concept of the Asia-Pacific community has been proposed for decades, but this concept cannot remain on paper and cannot be limited to visions. "We hope to find the answer in Shenzhen."
Asia-Pacific question, why answer in Shenzhen?
As the highest-level, broadest and most influential economic cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region, APEC member economies account for about 40% of the world's population and create more than 60% of the global economic aggregate and nearly 50% of the total trade volume. As early as its establishment, APEC has set the goal of building an Asia-Pacific community; the "APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040" adopted in 2020 goes further and sets a clear timetable for this vision.
However, the vision is grand but difficult to implement. Although the goals of the community have been repeatedly reiterated for decades, it has always been difficult to move from blueprint to reality and implement them into actions.
At the external level, globalization is facing a backlash, protectionism continues to spread, world economic growth is weak, and APEC's "open regionalism" background continues to be eroded.
From an internal perspective, due to the different development stages of APEC's 21 economies, the coexistence of diverse regional economic and trade rule systems, and the indirect impact of the geo-environment on the layout of the industrial chain, the Asia-Pacific regional integration process still faces phased challenges.
For this reason, at a time when the century-old changes in the world are accelerating, China has included "building an Asia-Pacific community" as the theme of APEC's "Year of China". As the concrete practice of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind in the Asia-Pacific region, building an Asia-Pacific community is not only regarded as the only way to achieve long-term development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific, but also as a powerful response to the current complex global situation.
Wasted time and slow action will not only be detrimental to long-term development, but will also make the current response weak. Time waits for no one. The time is right for APEC economies to work together and take action!
It is difficult for those who work alone to get up, but it is easy for those who work together to follow. To make the vision a reality, we cannot do without the concrete actions of APEC members. Over the past year, China has split its vision into practical actions for all parties to participate: 3 senior official meetings, 10 professional ministerial meetings and high-level Digital Week events, and more than 300 conferences and activities of various forms throughout the year, from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, from Dalian to Macau; covering topics such as digital economy, green transformation, supply chain resilience, small and medium-sized enterprises, etc., with a total of more than 10,000 delegates attending the meetings, focusing on the details of the common ambitious goals.
The actions taken before the Shenzhen meeting are the continuation and epitome of China's participation in APEC for 35 years. Over the past 35 years, China has been a beneficiary and promoter of APEC. More importantly, China has proven with practical actions that competition between major powers does not have to become a zero-sum game, and one country’s development does not need to be at the expense of other countries.
Shenzhen becoming the venue for this conference is of great symbolic significance. As the "vanguard" and "test field" of China's reform and opening up, over the past 40 years, Shenzhen has developed from a small fishing village on the border into an international metropolis that is bravely leading the trend. It is a vivid portrayal of bridging differences through openness, increasing momentum through innovation, and realizing vision through cooperation.
From actively integrating into the international industrial division of labor at the beginning of reform and opening up, to now being deeply involved in global industrial chain and supply chain collaboration, Shenzhen's development history is also a practical history of Asia-Pacific exchanges, mutual learning, and win-win cooperation.
Wang Wen, dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, pointed out that holding the meeting in Shenzhen naturally carries a signal: the Asia-Pacific cannot slide into camp division, and economic cooperation should return to the economy itself. APEC in Shenzhen is standing at a new crossroads, trying to seize the "reins" and bring globalization back on track. Spanish China expert Julio Rios wrote in "Shenzhen and the Battle for the Future of Globalization" that the concept represented by Shenzhen is "very simple": competition does not mean that cooperation must be given up.
The APEC meeting held in Shenzhen is just such an "action test": 21 economies talk about opening up, innovation, and cooperation, and ultimately they all have to implement specific measures that can be implemented, promoted, and shared. Shenzhen's development path has never been about waiting for a perfect blueprint before taking action - it is about having the vision to dare to venture, dare to try, dare to be the first in the world, and revise and improve the blueprint in practice.
The beauty of harmony lies in the harmony of differences. One summit cannot eliminate all old differences, but it can constantly forge new consensuses. We look forward to Asia Pacific finding the answer in Shenzhen, and we also hope that this answer will stand the test of history. (over)
