Wang Jian, Director and Researcher of the Institute of International Relations The China International Import Expo (CIIE) represents a major initiative for China to further open up to the outside world and promote globalization. Why does China hold the CIIE? I think there are two reasons for this. On one hand, globalization has encountered some problems. Currently, the world is experiencing backlash against globalization. The globalization has been proceeding at a high speed, especially since the 1980s when the Cold War ended. The unification of global markets and the development of information technology have greatly contributed to globalization, and increased global economic growth by around 50%. However, there is a rising trend of deglobalization, especially in some developed countries. For example, America keeps on leaning towards unilateralism and protectionism. Different from those in the past, the wave of globalization nowadays is represented by the new trade characterized by global industrial chain and changes in the destinations for investments. Financial capital tends to flow into Europe and America, while industrial capital tends to flow into developing countries. As a result, the offshore migration of industries from developed countries to emerging developing countries represented by China caused a decline in the share of “North American factories” and an increase in the share of “Asian factories” in the global value chain, as well as industrial hollowing-out. Meanwhile, the world suffers from excessive financialization which led to the financial crisis in 2008. It makes sense to adjust to tackle emerging problems, but many European and American countries blame others for their domestic structural adjustment problems, believing that they get the short end of the stick in the wave of globalization. Therefore, they want to reduce their involvement in the globalization process, decouple from the rest of the world, and resort to protectionism and unilateralism. However, we Chinese people believe that the problems are an inevitable part of globalization, and that we should adhere to multilateralism and make globalization more open, inclusive, balanced, mutually beneficial with more win-win results through cooperation and reform, so as to solve the problems of uneven development and distribution. In fact, globalization has slowed down since 2008 with more non-tariff barriers. When other countries choose to shut their doors, we counterattack protectionism and unilateralism by proactively taking measures to open our door and market, and unswervingly push ahead with globalization. On the other hand, China’s economic development has entered a new phase. In the early stage of its reform and opening-up, China learned from the Four Asian Tigers and mainly took an export-oriented approach. However, given its massive economic scale, China cannot fully copy their development model. Currently, China’s large consumer base and strong manufacturing capacity lay new foundations for its economic development. China’s middle class already tops 400 million. According to McKinsey Global Institute’s research, the world’s exposure to China rose from 0.4 in 2000 to 1.2 in 2017, and the world has become increasingly dependent on the Chinese market. Despite the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic this year, the latest data from General Administration of Customs showed that China’s imports rebounded and registered a growth of 6.2% in June, greatly boosting the global confidence in the Chinese market. In 2018, the output value of China’s manufacturing industry amounted to US$4 trillion, equivalent to the sum of the following three manufacturing powers, namely America, Japan, and Germany. Albeit the colossal size, our manufacturing industry is not as powerful as those of the three countries. Given that, we import large amounts of international goods through the CIIE to meet domestic consumption and upgrade, turn exhibitors into investors and promote the upgrade of China’s manufacturing industry through commodity and technology exchanges, aiming to transform China from a big manufacturer to a manufacturing power and give new impetus to globalization. The two previous editions of the CIIE proved to be quite effective and achieved remarkable results. Far more than a platform for exchanges of goods, technologies, and services, the CIIE has become an important platform for China to promote global development. First, it is a platform to publicize China’s policies to enhance opening-up and promote globalization. President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the previous two editions and put forward a series of opening-up policies in his keynote speeches. At the first CIIE, five major measures were introduced, namely stimulating the potential of import trade, continuing to ease market access, creating a world-class business environment, building a new highland for opening-up to the outside world, and deepening multilateral and bilateral cooperation. Building a new highland focuses on two aspects: free trade zone and free trade port. President Xi specifically mentioned that free trade port represents the highest level of openness in the world today. At the second CIIE, President Xi proposed to continue to make the pie of the global market larger, improve the global sharing mechanism, introduce flexible ways for global cooperation, jointly enhance the driving force and reduce the resistance of economic globalization, so as to promote the shift form the opening-up based on factors of production to one based on rules and related institutions and in line with international standards. Second, the CIIE is a platform for the exchange of ideas to build a consensus on promoting globalization in the right direction. During the previous editions, a small ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization was organized to contribute positive energy to the improvement of global economic governance. At the Hongqiao International Economic Forum, participants from various countries exchanged ideas and thoughts on globalization, innovative development, and industrial upgrade, and tried to build a consensus on supporting globalization. The World Trade Organization and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization released several reports, including the World Trade Report 2019. Third, the CIIE is a large platform for exchanges of global goods, technologies, and services. In terms of imports of goods and services, the first CIIE attracted 3,600 companies from 172 countries, regions, and international organizations. More than 400,000 domestic and foreign buyers attended the CIIE to negotiate purchases, and signed deals worth US$57.83 billion; the second CIIE attracted over 3,800 companies from 181 countries, regions, and international organizations. More than 500,000 domestic and foreign buyers attended the CIIE to negotiate purchases, and signed deals worth US$71.13 billion. As for the third CIIE, the booth area has increased by 20%, with more exhibitors, especially leading enterprises from various industries. The planned area of the Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products Exhibition Area has doubled compared with the second edition. It will focus on medicines, medical equipment, elderly care, rehabilitation, nutritional and healthcare food, medical services, etc., to contribute to the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and ensure the supply chain security of medical products. Fourth, the CIIE is a platform to show that China is promoting inclusive globalization and sharing its fruits of development. It not only imports high-quality goods, technologies, and services from developed countries, but also provides free booths for exhibitors from the least developed countries as well as a number of supply-demand matchmaking meetings specially designed for them, to allow both developed and developing countries to benefit from the opening-up of the Chinese market. This fully reflects China’s commitment to globalization, and enables more countries to share through the platform. President Xi Jinping repeatedly mentioned the “Belt and Road” Initiative at the CIIE, which is mainly about making globalization more inclusive. Globalization is closely related to the global industrial chain, but without solid infrastructure, it is impossible to enter the global industrial chain and share the benefits of globalization. According to statistics from the United Nations, only 3 billion out of the 7 billion people in the world have access to basic infrastructure. Last but not least, we should keep in mind that there remain many conflicts and clashes of cultures and civilizations that hinder globalization. The CIIE displays not only commodities, but also cultures and civilizations. National pavilions fully display various countries’ cultures, turning the CIIE into a big stage for cultural exchanges. In the future, we will use the CIIE to conduct exchanges of cultural products from various countries. In a word, the CIIE can provide participating countries with more market opportunities, investment opportunities, and growth opportunities, and boost global trade and economic prosperity. Meanwhile, by importing a large number of advanced products, technologies and services, it attracts large amounts of foreign investments to promote the upgrade of industries, technologies and services in the internal circulation and the high-quality economic development of China, becoming a node of the dual circulation, effectively promoting China’s higher level opening-up to the outside world and making greater contributions to globalization.