Wang Yuesheng and Ma Xiangdong: Promoting High-Level Opening-Up Through Deep-Level Reform
General Secretary Xi Jinping, at the opening ceremony of a provincial and ministerial-level leading officials' workshop on studying and implementing the guiding principles of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Court, emphasized: "We must persist in the unification of reform and opening up, steadily expand institutional opening up, proactively align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, deepen the reform of management systems for foreign trade, foreign investment, and outbound investment, and create a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized." This provides the fundamental guidance [1] for grasping the dialectical relationship between reform and opening up and for persisting in their unification. On the new journey in the New Era, we must not only understand the theoretical connotation of promoting reform and development through opening up but also fully recognize the vital role of reform in high-level opening up, expanding the scope, breadth, and depth of opening up through deep-level reform.
Since the beginning of this year, China has implemented multiple measures to consolidate the stable fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment. The quality of foreign trade exports has improved while volumes remained stable, the scale of imports has expanded steadily, and high-quality development has taken solid steps forward, making a positive contribution to economic growth. In the first three quarters, China’s GDP grew by 4.8% year-on-year, a result closely linked to the total value of imports and exports of goods exceeding 32 trillion yuan and a 6.2% increase in exports. However, it must be noted that the momentum of world economic growth is currently weak, with increasing external uncertainties and unstable factors. China faces significant challenges in foreign trade exports and outbound investment. Some countries, out of consideration for protecting their own industries or strategic competition, have set up obstacles for Chinese enterprises’ exports and overseas investments, using the pretext of anti-subsidy duties to levy additional tariffs and intervening in or restricting China’s outbound investment. It can be said that significantly improving China’s external economic and trade environment and facilitating high-quality development remains an urgent task facing us.
At present, overcoming this challenge is not easy. On one hand, economic globalization is encountering headwinds, and the ecosystem for open innovation and cooperation has been damaged to some extent. Coupled with the decline of the multilateral trading system, establishing a stable, just, and open international economic and trade order faces challenges. On the other hand, global trade regionalization and fragmentation are serious, with many exclusive small cliques [2] emerging. In particular, some developed economies intend to use relevant economic and trade rules for their own benefit while excluding developing economies, which makes the external environment facing China even more complex and severe.
From a domestic perspective, China's economy has transitioned from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. This places higher demands on the concepts, models, and layouts of opening up, urgently requiring the implementation of opening up across a wider range of areas, broader fields, and deeper levels to achieve the optimal allocation of resource elements on a global scale and provide strong momentum for high-quality development. Practice has proven that only through high-level opening up can we accelerate adaptation to the major trend of restructuring global international economic and trade rules, actively participate in the reshaping of the global economic and trade order, seize the initiative in rule-making, and carry out economic and trade cooperation with more countries and regions. Only through high-level opening up can we fully utilize both domestic and international markets and resources through international cooperation, creating conditions for promoting high-quality development, particularly for enhancing innovation capabilities. Only through high-level opening up can we better use the international circulation to enhance the efficiency and level of the domestic big circulation [3], improve the quality and allocation level of China’s factors of production, and provide support for economic transformation, upgrading, and the enhancement of international competitiveness.
High-level opening up is a necessary condition for China’s economy to achieve high-quality development. Currently, the restrictions, isolation, and suppression of China by some countries have become the primary obstacles to establishing high-level economic and trade cooperation with major developed economies. However, we must also recognize that those attempting to completely "decouple" from China or suppress China for strategic purposes are, after all, a very small number of countries. It is entirely possible for us, through our own efforts, to reform those systems and rules that do not align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, thereby building more mutually beneficial bilateral and regional economic and trade relations through high-level opening up.
Special mention must be made here regarding the understanding of the dialectical relationship between reform and opening up. Throughout the decades of China's reform and opening up process, domestic reform and opening up to the outside world have been complementary and mutually reinforcing. Reform in a broad sense includes the connotation of opening up, and the deepening of reform is embedded within the process of opening up. We emphasize "promoting reform through opening up"; China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, which greatly promoted market-oriented reforms, is important proof of this. Currently, facing an increasingly complex external situation, emphasizing "promoting the expansion of opening up through the deepening of reform," further deepening the reform of the economic system, breaking down institutional and mechanistic obstacles hindering development, and better aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules is also a necessary implication [4] of the task at hand. Practice has proven that without more in-depth market-oriented reforms and significant progress in areas such as property rights protection, environmental standards, and labor protection, it would be difficult to achieve alignment and compatibility with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and high-level opening up would be difficult to advance and expand.
Standing at a new historical starting point, we must focus on deepening institutional and mechanistic reforms in key areas such as systems, rules, trade, and investment. We must continuously improve the systems and mechanisms for high-level opening up, using deep-level reform to boost high-level opening up and further increase the depth, width, and breadth of our opening to the world.
Steadily expand institutional opening up to further increase the depth of opening up. Over the years, China has actively promoted opening up; the scope, fields, and levels of opening have continued to expand, ties with the world economy have become closer, and a new pattern of high-level opening up is accelerating its formation. However, looking at global economic and trade development trends, China's opening up still lacks sufficient depth and height, particularly manifested in institutional opening up. Currently, international economic and trade rules are extending deeply from "at-the-border" rules to "behind-the-border" rules [5]. To boost high-level opening up through deep-level reform, we must attach greater importance to the reform of "behind-the-border" management systems, establish compliance mechanisms that align with international common rules, create a transparent, stable, and predictable institutional environment, and shape new advantages for a higher-level open economy.
Enhance the level of opening in the service sector to further increase the width of opening up. China has fully abolished foreign investment access restrictions in the manufacturing sector, but the opening of the service sector remains relatively lagging. In particular, the factor-based opening [6] of the service industry is still in the pilot stage, and institutional opening aligned with high-standard economic and trade rules has only just begun. Service trade is an important component of international trade and a vital field for international economic and trade cooperation. To boost high-level opening up through deep-level reform, the service sector should be a key area. We must deepen domestic reforms in the field of service trade, standardize licensing, qualifications, and technical standards in the service sector, simplify licensing approval procedures, increase the transparency of regulatory policies, and reduce the costs of cross-border service trade. Simultaneously, we must deepen the reform of the foreign investment management system, reasonably reduce the negative list for foreign investment access, significantly relax market access, create an open and fair market competition environment, and promote the orderly expansion of opening up in fields such as telecommunications, the internet, education, culture, and medical care, thereby enhancing the level of opening in cross-border service trade.
Expand the space for high-level open cooperation to further increase the breadth of opening up. Currently, the regional layout of China's opening up remains unbalanced, and the potential for opening up in the central and western regions has not been fully realized. To boost high-level opening up through deep-level reform, we must continuously expand the space for opening in depth. Through institutional and mechanistic reform and innovation, we should guide various regions to find their functional positioning based on their industrial structure, resource endowments, and innovation capabilities. By leveraging comparative advantages, optimizing the allocation of factor resources and the division of opening functions, we can cultivate new momentum for open development and create diverse highlands of opening up. While consolidating the leading position of the eastern coastal regions in opening up, we must strive to improve the level of opening in the central, western, and northeastern regions, accelerating the formation of a comprehensive opening pattern characterized by land-sea internal and external linkage and mutual assistance between the east and the west.
(The authors are specially invited researchers at the Beijing Center for the Study of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era) Source: Economic Daily (December 26, 2024) Web Editor: Huihui