Chinese president pledges to open up ‘super-sized’ economy and slams 'protectionism'

As China sets the pace in bringing tradefairs back to our show floors, the country’s president Xi Jinping has said his country is keen to sign free trade pacts with more countries. His message follows the recent signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) 15-country free trade deal (the largest ever signed in the world) with Southeast Asia states and Japan, Australian, New Zealand and South Korea. President Xi made his latest remarks, 19 November, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum, held this year online, which includes the US and Russia. He blasted protectionism, saying: “Openness enables a country to move forward while seclusion holds it back”. President Trump had previously used the event to lay out his vision for the future of global trade against a backdrop of an evolving China-US trade war. President Xi warned against protectionism and told the APEC meeting: “We will not reverse course or run against the historical trend by ‘decoupling’ or forming a small circle to keep others out,” he said Last month China’s leaders published their plans for turning China into a ‘high income’ nation by 2025 and advance to a ‘moderately developed’ nation by 2035. Photo of Xi Jinpeng by Angélica Rivera de Peña licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0