【Special attention】

Author: Gu Yan and Liu Fanxi (respectively director and researcher of the Research Department of Xi Jinping Economic Thought Research Center and associate researcher of Xi Jinping Economic Thought Research Center)

Opening up to the outside world is an important driving force for my country's economic and social development. Promoting reform and development through opening up is an important magic weapon for my country's development to continuously achieve new achievements. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the strategic plan of "expanding high-level opening up to the outside world and creating a new situation of win-win cooperation." This not only inherits and carries forward the experience of Chinese-style modernization construction, but also fully demonstrates the responsibility of a major country to maintain the global economic order and promote the healthy development of economic globalization. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "Opening up is an important driving force for the progress of human civilization and the only way for world prosperity and development." To do a good job in opening up to the outside world during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, continue to work harder in actively expanding independent opening up, promoting innovative trade development, expanding two-way investment and cooperation space, and jointly building high-quality "One Belt, One Road", seeking greater breakthroughs, and striving to create a new situation in Chinese-style modernization.

Strategic choices to take the initiative in opening up

At present, the century-old changes in the world are accelerating and the international balance of power has been profoundly adjusted. Actively expanding independent opening up is a key move for my country to win the initiative in economic development and win the initiative in international competition. From a domestic perspective, proactively aligning with international high-standard economic and trade rules can force domestic system reform and industrial upgrading, and solve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development; from an international perspective, independent opening up takes into account "China's needs" and "the world's expectations", which can not only meet the demand for high-end elements in the upgrading of my country's industrial chain, but also provide stable market opportunities for various countries.

Since 2013, my country has established 22 pilot free trade zones, and has replicated and promoted a total of 379 institutional innovations across the country, effectively playing the role of a comprehensive experimental platform for reform and opening up. In 2023, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone launched a pilot program to fully align with international high-standard economic and trade rules. In just over a year, it effectively promoted the basic implementation of 80 pilot measures, providing a "free trade plan" for steadily expanding institutional opening up. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port has gone from a "smooth start" to "taking shape" and has entered a new stage of "island-wide customs closure operation". At present, various preparations for customs closure operations are basically in place. In addition, the visa-free dividend continues to be released. At present, my country has achieved comprehensive mutual visa exemption with 29 countries, and implemented unilateral visa-free entry to 47 countries. In the first three quarters of 2025, visa-free entry for foreigners increased by 48.3% year-on-year... This series of pragmatic measures not only releases market vitality, but also sends a strong signal to the world that my country will unswervingly expand opening up. This attitude of "active openness" rather than "passive adaptation" has enabled my country to transform from a "rules acceptor" to a "rules participant" in global governance, injecting new momentum into the multilateral trading system.

During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must actively expand independent opening up. First, it is necessary to deepen the integration of international high-standard economic and trade rules, focus on the service industry, promote the expansion of pilot openings in the telecommunications and medical fields, and steadily and orderly expand independent opening up in the education and cultural fields. The second is to actively promote the process of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), actively incorporate high-level economic and trade rules in the fields of digital economy, green economy, and standards cooperation, and expand the network of high-standard free trade zones. The third is to carry out wider, deeper and more vigorous institutional opening-up experiments, speed up the replication and promotion of pilot measures, support each trade pilot zone to promote innovative development of the entire industry chain according to local conditions, and accelerate the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics with global influence.

A powerful engine for building a trade power

At present, the global trade pattern is showing a trend of digitalization and green transformation, and the traditional trade model is facing challenges. Only through innovation can we improve the quality and efficiency of trade and enhance the vitality and resilience of the international cycle. At the same time, trade innovation can promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade and allow better linkage between domestic and international markets and resources.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country's foreign trade volume continued to expand, and the scale of goods trade continuously crossed the two major levels of 5 trillion and 6 trillion US dollars, reaching 6.16 trillion US dollars in 2024, an increase of 32.4% from the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan", ranking first in the world for 8 consecutive years. Innovation in service trade accelerated, and cross-border service trade negative list management was implemented for the first time. In 2024, the trade volume of knowledge-intensive services will increase by 38% compared with 2020, and the import and export volume of digitally delivered services will increase by nearly 40%. In the same year, the import and export scale of cross-border e-commerce reached 2.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 67% compared with 2020. Shenzhen has gathered 120,000 cross-border e-commerce sellers, attracted 4/5 of the world's top platforms, and formed a digital trade ecosystem that "buys globally and sells globally".

During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must unswervingly promote innovative development of trade. First, it is necessary to promote the optimization and upgrading of trade in goods, actively expand trade in intermediate goods and green trade, open up diversified international markets, accelerate the integration of domestic and foreign trade, support the integrated operation of domestic and foreign trade by enterprises, and promote the same line, same standard and same quality for domestic and foreign trade products. The second is to innovate and enhance service trade, improve the negative list management system for cross-border service trade, and build a national service trade innovation and development demonstration zone. The third is to develop digital trade innovatively, expand opening up in the digital field in an orderly manner, deepen international cooperation in digital trade, and promote the construction of a comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone. The fourth is to promote the balanced development of imports and exports. While stabilizing exports, we should increase efforts to expand imports and give full play to the important role of imports in increasing consumption, adjusting structure, developing the economy, and expanding opening up.

The key link in building a global factor allocation system

Attracting foreign investment can bring advanced technology and management experience, helping the transformation and upgrading of my country's industrial and supply chains; foreign investment can promote my country's wider and deeper participation in global industrial division of labor and cooperation, and expand the development space for Chinese-style modernization. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, this coordinated effort of "bringing in" and "going out" is not only an inevitable requirement for building a new development pattern, but also an important path to achieve the development goal of "looking at both GDP and GNI".

From 2021 to the first half of 2025, the scale of two-way investment between my country and the countries co-building the "Belt and Road" exceeded 240 billion US dollars, of which my country's investment in the co-building countries reached 160 billion US dollars, and the investment in China by the co-building countries exceeded 80 billion US dollars. In 2024, the national version of the negative list of restrictions on foreign investment access will be reduced to 29 items, and restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector will be cleared. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country's actual use of foreign investment totaled more than 720 billion US dollars, more than 240,000 new foreign companies were established, and high-tech industries accounted for more than one-third of the investment. A large number of iconic projects such as automobiles, medical health, and electronic information were settled in China, and the regional headquarters and R&D centers of multinational companies increased significantly. Facts have fully proved that investing in China is not an option, but a must. In early 2025, cases such as the German Volkswagen and Xiaopeng's cooperation in building a charging network and the French Air Liquide Group's investment in a green methanol project in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province confirmed the confidence of foreign investors in the Chinese market.

During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must unswervingly expand the space for two-way investment and cooperation. First, it is necessary to optimize the development environment for foreign investment, implement the Foreign Investment Law and its implementation regulations, continue to polish the "Invest in China" brand, implement post-establishment national treatment with high standards, protect the rights and interests of foreign investors in accordance with the law, and create a market-oriented, legal and international first-class business environment. The second is to improve the quality of foreign investment, improve the system and mechanism to guarantee foreign investment, improve the comprehensive overseas service system, expand the functions of the national overseas investment management and service network system, and improve the convenience and effectiveness of overseas investment management. The third is to innovate the investment cooperation model, encourage foreign capital to carry out equity investment in China, increase the promotion of listed companies, overseas funds and investment institutions, etc., and guide more high-quality foreign capital to invest in my country's listed companies for the long term.

High-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road”

Promoting the "Belt and Road" construction is not only a need for China to expand and deepen its opening up to the outside world, but also a need to strengthen mutual benefit and win-win cooperation with Asia, Europe, Africa and other countries around the world. It is also related to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the long-term plan for the sustainable development of mankind. From "freehand brushwork" to "meticulous painting", the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative is based on the principle of extensive consultation, joint construction and sharing, breaking down geopolitical barriers, promoting "hard connectivity" of infrastructure, "soft connectivity" of rules and standards, and "heart-to-heart connectivity" of the people, becoming the most extensive and largest international cooperation platform in the world.

From 2021 to 2024, my country's trade in goods with countries co-building the "Belt and Road" will increase from US$2.7 trillion to US$3.1 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 4.7%. This growth rate is particularly eye-catching in the context of the global trade downturn. In 2024, the proportion of countries co-building the "Belt and Road" in my country's total import and export value will exceed 50% for the first time, and the cumulative number of China-Europe freight trains will exceed 100,000, becoming the "steel camel fleet" that stabilizes the global supply chain. In February 2025, Tianjin Port shipped more than 4,000 domestically produced cars for export overseas at one time, demonstrating the hub value of the "Belt and Road" trade channel. Today, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative has attracted the participation of more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations. The areas of cooperation are constantly expanding, the scope of cooperation is expanding, and the level of cooperation is constantly improving.

During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must unswervingly build the "Belt and Road" with high quality. First, we need to strengthen the strategic alignment with the co-building countries, continue to deepen the exchange of experience with the co-building countries in the field of economic development, jointly build energy, transportation, communications and other infrastructure projects, build a three-dimensional interconnection network, focus on health, education, environmental protection, poverty reduction and other fields, promote the implementation of more projects that benefit the local area and benefit the people, and better promote the economic and social development of the co-building countries. The second is to deepen pragmatic cooperation in trade, investment, industry, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges, better leverage the role of China-Europe freight trains, the New Land-Sea Corridor and other important trade channels, and promote the upgrading of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. The third is to expand cooperation in green, digital, artificial intelligence and other fields, and accelerate the construction of innovation, digital, green, health, ice and snow, and aerial Silk Roads.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a series of strategic deployments on "expanding high-level opening up to the outside world", which provides a clear direction and fundamental follow-up for us to continuously enhance the linkage effect of two domestic and international markets and two resources during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and effectively respond to the uncertainty of rapid changes in the external environment. Through independent opening-up, trade innovation and empowerment, mutual promotion of two-way investment, and "One Belt, One Road" improvement, China is implementing the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind through practical actions of openness and cooperation. This kind of openness is not about unilateral profit in a "zero-sum game", but about common prosperity in a "positive-sum game". It will surely inject inexhaustible impetus into Chinese-style modernization and make new and greater contributions to sharing opportunities and common development for all countries in the world.

"Guangming Daily" (page 12, October 27, 2025)