Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju on the 31st, emphasized the importance of multilateral trade and said, "Let us join hands and link the chains, rather than letting go and breaking the chains."
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, in a plenary speech at the APEC summit that day, Xi said, "We must enhance the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core," and "We must uphold the correct direction of WTO reform, defend basic principles such as most-favored-nation treatment and non-discrimination, and promote the evolution of international trade rules in step with the times to better safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries."
The speech came as the United States pushes unilateral tariff policies, strengthens protectionism, and pulls back from multilateral bodies. U.S. President Donald Trump, after a special address at the "APEC Chief Executive Officers (CEO) Summit," skipped the plenary session and returned home the previous day following his summit with Xi as his final engagement.
Xi said, "Let us jointly foster an open economic environment," adding, "We should continue to promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, deepen cooperation in fiscal and financial sectors, and steadily advance regional economic integration." Emphasizing the importance of supply chain stability, he said, "We should choose 'joining hands' and avoid 'letting go,' choose 'linking the chains' and avoid 'breaking the chains.' Let us further solidify the foundation of open development in the Asia-Pacific."
Xi also stressed the need to promote the digitalization and greening of trade and inclusive development. He said, "China has always upheld opening to the outside world as a fundamental national policy and has supported the building of an open world economy with concrete action. Unilateral visa-free policies continue to expand, and autonomous opening and unilateral opening are being expanded in an orderly manner," adding, "China will unwaveringly expand high-level opening to the outside world and will continuously provide new opportunities to the Asia-Pacific and the world with the new achievements of Chinese-style modernization."