Globalization cannot be stopped by anyone, Xi warned as he welcomed other countries to boost exports to China.<\/b>
\nOn November 5, the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) opened in Shanghai. More than a trade fair, the event is designed to bolster China\u2019s image as an open market \u2013 particularly in the face of a mounting trade war with the United States.
President Xi Jinping made that point himself in his remarks at the opening ceremony. According to Xinhua, Xi stressed that the CIIE is not just an expo, but \u201ca major policy for China to push for a new round of high-level opening-up and a major measure for China to take the initiative to open its market to the world.\u201d
According to Chinese state media, \u201ca total of 172 countries, regions, and international organizations\u201d were represented at the inaugural CIIE; 82 countries had booths set up in the Country Pavilion for Trade and Investment. More than 3,600 companies were in attendance. High-level attendees include the presidents of Cuba, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Lithuania, Panama, El Salvador, and Switzerland as well as the prime ministers of Croatia, Egypt, Hungary, Georgia, Laos, Malta, Pakistan, Russia, and Vietnam.
The CIIE was not originally conceived of as a response to the trade war between the United States and China. Those tensions began in earnest this summer, while the expo\u00a0has been the works for well over a year\u00a0\u2014 it was first announced at the Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing back in May 2017. In fact, the\u00a0CIIE was originally supposed to help ease trade tensions by promoting China\u2019s openness to foreign companies \u2013 and, implicitly, signaling the country\u2019s willingness to rein in ballooning trade deficits with the United States and other partners.
That motivation remains, but the event was\u00a0unavoidably colored by the\u00a0trade spat with the United States. Accordingly, Xi filled his remarks at the opening ceremony with a defense of globalization \u2013 and an implicit rebuke of the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d-style protectionism. Globalization is \u201can irreversible historical trend,\u201d Xi told attendees, adding that the \u201cgreat tide of history will inevitably move forward.\u201d
\u201cAll countries should be committed to opening up and oppose protectionism and unilateralism in a clear-cut stand,\u201d\u00a0Xi urged. As part of that,\u00a0he repeated past promises that China will continue to promote a \u201cnew round\u201d of opening to the world. Xi was thus quick to point out that the CIIE was the first national-level expo in the world to focus on imports.
There were clear echoes here of Xi\u2019s speech at the 2017 Davos meeting, where he tried to position China as the new defender of free trade and globalization. That branding exercise has become both a harder sell and a more crucial one for China to make as the United States and European countries step up their criticisms of\u00a0Beijing for placing restrictions on foreign firms.
However, promoting China as a free trade champion was only part of the impetus for the event. As with every other Chinese-hosted international events, there was a clear connection to the Belt and Road Initiative \u2013 after all, the CIIE was first announced at the Belt and Road Forum. Speaking at a banquet for VIP attendees, Xi expressed his belief that the CIIE \u201cwill provide a new platform for\u2026 advancing the joint development of the Belt and Road.\u201d
The emphasis on the BRI was also clear from the list of attending leaders. Key nodes of the Belt and Road \u2013 Southeast Asia, East Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and of course Pakistan \u2014 were represented by heads of state and government from regional countries (Central Asia was notable here for its absence of top-level representation). One of the critiques levied against the BRI \u2013 and Chinese trade policy in general \u2013 is that it tends to overwhelm developing markets with Chinese goods, damaging local industries and engorging trade deficits. The CIIE was supposed to be an antidote to those charges, by explicitly offering BRI (and other) countries a chance to sell their own goods to China.
Interestingly, however, despite the expo being heavily geared toward imports, China also had its own booth \u2014 with Chinese exports on display. In a particularly obvious bit of BRI symbolism, the Laotian and Vietnamese prime ministers took a simulated ride on China\u2019s newest high-speed train at the Chinese booth.
But the political meaning was most stark in the attendance of the presidents of El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Panama. All three Latin American countries cut ties with Taiwan in the past two years in favor of establishing relations with Beijing. Their presence at China\u2019s marquee business event of 2018 was a clear signal to Taipei\u2019s existing diplomatic allies of the economic rewards of joining Team Beijing.
The CIIE will run from November 5 to 10, and is expected to be an annual event hereafter.<\/p>\n