Ke Jing, Institute of International Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences   The China International Import Expo (abbreviated as CIIE) that was held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10 has been the world's first ever large-scale exhibition themed on import, attracting more than 3,600 companies from 172 countries, regions and international organizations, more than 200 of which are on the Fortune Global 500 List and leading enterprises of various industries. It is novel in its form, with its exhibits covering goods and services trade, consumer goods, and industrial materials including important equipment and parts. It is not only accessible to the average Chinese consumers but also attracts more than 160,000 domestic and foreign professional buyers. It provides the products and services imported from overseas an excellent opportunity for display, and helps establish a global-wide import trade network, not only pushing ahead China's transition towards a consumption-driven growth but also contributing China’s share to stabilizing and maintaining the global trade order. First of all, it reflects China’s commitment to further open up its economy to the world through practical actions. Many foreign chambers of commerce in China state that while some countries are dead set on strengthening their unilateralism, China's move fully demonstrates the determination to further open up and the stance to defend the global multilateral mechanism by trade liberalization. Since the inception of China’s reform and opening-up, China's annual total import volume has increased from RMB 18.7 billion yuan in 1978 to RMB 12.5 trillion yuan in 2017, developing into the world's second largest importer. With the latest round of import tariff adjustments on November 1, the total tariff level in China has dropped to 7.5%. The convening of CIIE is both a gesture to the world that China will be more proactive in opening up the market and a strategic move in the country's new round of reform and opening up. Secondly, this is a manifestation of China's resolution to stabilize and maintain the global trade order. The trade frictions between China and the United States have brought great uncertainty to the global economic order. They tend to cause panic, and lead to multiplication of market risks, posing great threats to the prospect of world economy. China has the largest middle-class population in the world. According to the 2017 Global Wealth Report released by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, China currently accounts for 35% of the world's 1.1 billion middle-class population. By 2022, this proportion is expected to increase to 40% and the potential for consumption is enormous. Meanwhile, opening up the Chinese market to the world could greatly reduce uncertainty, boost market confidence, provide a powerful engine for world economy, and help maintain and stabilize the global trade order. Thirdly, it helps achieve a more balanced and sustainable global economic order. Unbalanced economic growth has become a prominent issue in global economic governance. It is unbalanced not only on the global level, namely, some countries suffer serious deficits while others have a large surplus, but also on the domestic level: unbalanced structure of economic growth and an expanding income gap among residents. All these phenomena will lead to unsustainable development of economy and tend to trigger economic crises. The countries across the world have never been so interdependent like today, and the globalization of economic crises is very common. The stability and sustained growth of the global economy is only possible if the entire international community works together to create a more balanced and diversified economic growth structure and truly enhance the ability to fight economic crises. The Chinese economy is also undergoing structural adjustments. It needs to reduce its dependence on exports and investments, and enhance the role of domestic demand in economic growth. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, the contribution rate of China's final consumption to GDP growth in 2017 is 58.8%, but there is still room for further improvement. CIIE can stimulate the development of the consumer market and balance the domestic economic structure. It can also help improve the governance of global economy and build a more balanced global economic order. Finally, it also provides more opportunities for the integration of less developed countries into global trade and economy. The development of the world economy should not only focus on the factors that affect and influence growth, but also on how to distribute the growth results fairly in the international community and domestic societies. There are still more than 40 less developed countries in the world. To help them participate in CIIE, China provided a certain number of booths free of charge and even exempted some less developed countries from Africa from all fees for participating in the exhibition. This not only helps the above countries integrate into the world economy, but helps build a more benevolent and inclusive global trade order. (The author is a Ph.D. at the Institute of International Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)