The newly unveiled Lingang Special Area embodies China’s overall opening-up policy and will serve the country’s continued economic development, a researcher said on Friday. The expanded Lingang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone is a member of the country’s free trade zone family and it will function as a new testing ground for economic reform and opening-up policies, said Sun Yuanxin, a professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and deputy dean of its Institute for Free Trade Zone Research. China now has 18 free trade zones and 55 free trade areas.