Xi urges inclusive regional devt at APEC
More agreements follow recent RCEP success, uphold irreversible multilateralism
In a week that saw multilateralism triumph in the world, after the signing of the world’s largest trade pact accounting for about onethird of world’s population and global trade, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) yielded fruitful results by launching a vision for the next two decades, underlining the irreversible trend of multilateral cooperation, of which China has been one of the most important driving forces.
On Friday, a substantial outcome came out of the APEC with the announcement of the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040, fostering the vision for an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pa
cific community by 2040, according to the 2020 Kuala Lumpur Declaration. During a virtual meeting on Friday at the 27th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed China’s commitment to multilateralism and building an open world economy, and said China will “favorably consider” joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
US President Donald Trump also attended. Video footage of the meeting exposed a protectionist Trump, who was the only one of the 21 APEC leaders to appear without a backdrop logo wall bearing the APEC theme.
“We must stay as determined as ever to support the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core, promote free and open trade and investment, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all,” Xi said via video link.
Xi said China will favorably consider joining the CPTPP, successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. TPP was considered to be one of the most important achievements of the Obama administration, but Trump abruptly withdrew from the deal after taking office.
Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, said the statement by the Chinese president showed China’s willingness and open attitude toward regional multilateral mechanism.
Wang Yiwei, director of the institute of international affairs at Renmin University of China, said that China’s positive declaration of favorably considering joining the CPTPP is important to safeguard the multilateral trade system amid the pandemic, while the US pursues unilateralism. China is now the most powerful leader of globalization, he said.
Faced with criticism for ignoring its allies, Trump showed up at the meeting, having tweeted a few times at the same time as the APEC meeting about the US election results. Netizens found out that he was the only leader who appeared without a APEC backdrop.
He Weiwen, a former senior trade official and an executive council member of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said that Trump’s appearance was more of an existence-validating show-up for the outgoing US president, as he is by no means interested in APEC and actually stands on the opposite of APEC.
“Only when the US returns to Asia-Pacific regional cooperation mechanisms can we talk about its leadership in the region,” said Song Guoyou, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. “Will the US regain its lost influence? That will depend on whether US policies are aligned with common interest in Asia and adhere to multilateralism.”
We must stay as determined as ever to support the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, Xi said.