The 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders' Meeting will be held in Shenzhen from November 18th to 19th. Chinese President Xi Jinping will chair the meeting and deliver a speech.
Since 2013, Xi Jinping has attended or chaired all APEC meetings and delivered important speeches. He has used vivid metaphors to profoundly elaborate on the beautiful vision of Asia-Pacific cooperation and draw a blueprint for building an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future.
On November 11, 2014, the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting was held at the Yanqi Lake International Conference Center in Huairou, Beijing. President Xi Jinping presided over the meeting. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lan Hongguang
01 wild goose
In 2014, China, which served as the host of APEC for the second time, hosted the 22nd APEC Leaders’ Informal Meeting on the banks of Yanqi Lake in Beijing. Xi Jinping pointed out in his opening speech that the 21 members of APEC are like 21 geese. "Today, we gather at Yanqi Lake with the purpose of strengthening cooperation, spreading our wings and writing a new vision for the development of the Asia-Pacific."
"One flower is not spring, and a solitary goose cannot fly." At the end of his speech, Xi Jinping specifically emphasized the importance of unity among APEC members, and sent a message to all parties to "take Beijing's Yanqi Lake as a new starting point, lead the world's economic flying geese, and fly to a bluer and broader sky."
Wild geese rely on walking together and leveraging each other's strength to survive the wind and rain; the prosperity and development of the Asia-Pacific are also inseparable from the mutual cooperation and concerted efforts of various economies. APEC member economies are located on multiple continents and have different development paths and levels, but this is not an obstacle to deepening cooperation. Xi Jinping has repeatedly advocated building an Asia-Pacific partnership featuring mutual trust, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win at APEC meetings.
"Like-minded people are partners. Seeking common ground while reserving differences is also a partner." APEC has always taken promoting common development and enhancing people's well-being as its original mission, and has embarked on a path of cooperation that is harmonious but different, and mutually beneficial and win-win. Asia-Pacific economies account for nearly 40% of the world's population, generate more than 60% of the global economy and nearly 50% of the total trade. In 2025, the regional GDP will reach 61.4 trillion U.S. dollars, and the total import and export of goods will exceed 26 trillion U.S. dollars, becoming the core engine of global growth.
On November 11, 2026, just one week before the opening of the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Informal Leaders’ Meeting, Shenzhen fully entered “welcome mode”. The picture shows the APEC-themed flowerbeds on Shennan Avenue. Photo by China News Service reporter Chen Chuhong
02 sweet potatoes
In 2016, when Xi Jinping attended the APEC Business Leaders' Summit in Lima, Peru and delivered a keynote speech, he used "sweet potatoes", a crop native to Latin America, to explain China's determination to take root in the Asia-Pacific and seek common development with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
"The vines of the sweet potato extend in all directions, but its tubers always grow at the base. In the same way, no matter how far it develops, China will take root in the Asia-Pacific, build the Asia-Pacific, and benefit the Asia-Pacific." Xi Jinping said.
Only when the roots are deep enough can the vines have the confidence to grow further. Since joining APEC in 1991, China has unswervingly expanded high-level opening up to the outside world and worked with other members to deepen practical cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, innovative development, and green transformation. China has become the main trading partner and export market for most APEC members, making important contributions to the long-term stability and economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region.
Especially in the current situation of increasing uncertainty in the world economy, China has continued to benefit its neighboring partners with its pragmatic actions of openness and cooperation, bringing new opportunities and injecting certainty into the economic development of the Asia-Pacific.
This is an aerial photo of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, taken on November 10, 2018. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Bai Xuefei
03 boat
In 2018, in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, Xi Jinping and other APEC member leaders boarded the Pacific Explorer cruise ship to attend the APEC Business Leaders Summit.
"APEC is connected by water. When I boarded the ship just now, looking at the vast sea, I thought of the word 'in the same boat'." Xi Jinping said in his keynote speech that in today's turbulent world economy and prominent risks and challenges, "we are in the same boat and planning development cooperation together, which is of special significance."
The century-old changes in the world are currently accelerating, regional conflicts occur frequently, and anti-globalization is on the rise. How to build a more peaceful, prosperous and beautiful Asia-Pacific? Xi Jinping proposed China’s plan to build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future. During Xi Jinping's APEC tenure, he has repeatedly put forward a series of major ideas and propositions on jointly building an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future, guiding the Asia-Pacific region to create a better future in the tide of the times.
People expect that the upcoming 33rd APEC Leaders' Informal Meeting will better bring together the forces of all parties and inject new impetus into working together towards an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future.
On the morning of November 12, 2024, local time, the APEC logo was on the streets of Lima, the capital of Peru. Photo by China News Service reporter Sheng Jiapeng
04 cake
In 2024, when Xi Jinping attended the 31st APEC Leaders' Informal Meeting in Lima, Peru, he pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen economic and technological cooperation, increase support for developing economies and disadvantaged groups, jointly make the economic development "cake" bigger and better, and allow more economies and more people to share the results of development.
Xi Jinping has repeatedly used "cake" as a metaphor in his speeches at APEC meetings, calling on all parties to work together, focus on pragmatic cooperation, and establish an Asia-Pacific development concept that is inclusive and beneficial.
The cake needs to be both big and well divided. Relying on differences in factor endowments, Asia-Pacific economies have formed a highly coordinated industrial division of labor system, forming an industrial symbiosis pattern of "you among me, and me among you." In recent years, APEC has continued to increase support for developing economies and disadvantaged groups, allowing more economies to share the fruits of development. For example, the manufacturing parks and new energy projects built by China in the Asia-Pacific region not only drive local employment growth and industrial upgrading, but also expand the development space of Chinese enterprises.
Wild geese, sweet potatoes, boats, cakes... a series of vivid metaphors express the essence of Asia-Pacific cooperation and continue to guide the way for all parties to work together to build a more prosperous Asia-Pacific community.
Reporter: Guo Chaokai
