BEIJING: China International Import Expo (CIIE) is slated to be held in Shanghai, a global financial hub, in November 2018. It will be co-hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and Shanghai’s municipal government. Preparations are underway for the gigantic event, which is expected to attract over 100 countries and regions. For instance, Orient International Co. Ltd, a Chinese trading enterprise, has created a one-stop service to assist foreign businesses with customs declaration, transport, and exhibition. To make the event a success, the Chinese government has invited political elites, business persons, exhibitors, and purchasers from all over the world to expand trade with China. The Chinese Embassy in Canada identifies the following scheduled activities at the Expo: supporting activities such as meetings on supply-demand matchmaking, seminars, and product release; country pavilions for exhibitions by “relevant countries and regions” on their trade and investment achievements; and enterprise and business exhibition on trade in goods and services. Notably, the Expo is an outcome of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s announcement at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May 2017. Chinese Export Commodities Fair), whereas the CIIE is the “first national expo in the world” which is centered on imports. The event thus affirms China’s determination to relay the message of its unequivocal commitment to inclusive globalization in the wake of the growing perception about U.S. retrenchment from the liberal economic order under the Trump administration. If we recollect, in his sermonic stance against protectionism, Xi made the following statement at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2017: “We should commit ourselves to growing an open global economy to share opportunities and interests through opening-up and achieve win-win outcomes. One should not just retreat to the harbor when encountering a storm, for this will never get us to the other shore of the ocean.” And interestingly, the Chinese state media is touting Xi’s advocacy of globalization as the inspiration behind this year’s World Economic Forum with its ennobling theme of “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.”
In other words, the Expo, though just an event, emanates from China’s ambition to emerge as the arbiter of the global economy the process of which was kick-started by the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As Xi stated at the WEF in 2017, “China has not only benefited from economic globalization but also contributed to it. Rapid growth in China has been a sustained, powerful engine for global economic stability and expansion.” In support of this statement, he pointed out that China provided over 400 billion yuan of foreign assistance between 1950 and 2016, and it drew more than $1.7 trillion of foreign investment and made over $1.2 trillion of direct outbound investment since the launch of economic reforms.
