Improving the Institutions and Mechanisms for High-Standard Opening Up (Authoritative Interview · Studying and Implementing the Spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee)

——Interview with Wang Wentao, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Commerce

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee deliberated and adopted the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese Modernization." Centering closely on the theme of advancing Chinese modernization, it laid out strategic measures for further comprehensively deepening reform. With a distinct theme, prominent priorities, and pragmatic and feasible measures, it serves as an overall mobilization and overall deployment for advancing comprehensive deepening of reform in both breadth and depth on the new journey of the new era, and will surely provide strong impetus and institutional guarantees for Chinese modernization. To deeply study and understand the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, our reporter interviewed Wang Wentao, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Commerce.

　　Opening Up Is a Distinctive Hallmark of Chinese Modernization

Reporter: On the new journey of advancing Chinese modernization, what is the significance of improving the institutions and mechanisms for high-standard opening up?

Wang Wentao: Opening up is a distinctive hallmark of Chinese modernization. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee emphasized that the basic state policy of opening up must be upheld, and made important deployments for improving the institutions and mechanisms for high-standard opening up. This reflects the great importance the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core attaches to opening-up work, and demonstrates our country's determination to unswervingly expand opening up. We should understand the intrinsic unity of reform and opening up within the grand blueprint of further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization.

From the perspective of their relationship, reform and opening up complement and promote each other: only when reform is in place can the capacity for opening up be stronger and the space for opening up be broader; only when opening up is expanded can the impetus for reform be fuller and the results of reform be better. Promoting reform and development through opening up is a successful practice of China's reform and development.

From the perspective of domestic development, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "only an open China will become a modernized China." Realizing modernization on the largest scale and of the greatest difficulty in human history requires us to actively expand domestic demand, give play to the advantages of a super-large-scale market, and enhance the linkage effect between the domestic and international markets. We must promote high-quality development through high-standard opening up and cultivate a strong material foundation for Chinese modernization.

From the perspective of international cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation are the right path for the world. In recent years, economic globalization has encountered headwinds, with "decoupling and breaking chains" and "small yards with high fences" running rampant, and the World Openness Index showing a downward trend. This requires us to always stand on the right side of history and promote the advancement of economic globalization. We must expand high-standard opening up, promote international cooperation on industrial and supply chains, and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

　　Advancing High-Standard Opening Up Has Rich Connotations

Reporter: In the critical period of comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization, what new connotations does high-standard opening up have?

Wang Wentao: General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "China will only open its doors wider and wider." The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee emphasized "advancing high-standard opening up," which can be understood from the "four betters."

**First, opening up that better aligns with international high standards. Proactively aligning with international high-standard economic and trade rules and achieving compatibility and mutual recognition in rules, regulations, management, and standards is an important part of steadily expanding institutional opening up. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have carried out pilot trials in pilot free trade zones, launching the first negative list, the ** "single window," and ** free trade accounts, which have well played the role of a comprehensive experimental platform for reform and opening up. High-standard opening up on the new journey means taking the opportunity of promoting accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) to build a new system for a higher-standard open economy, establish compliance mechanisms aligned with internationally accepted rules, shape new advantages in opening up, and release new dividends of opening up.

Second, more proactive voluntary opening up and unilateral opening up. Expanding voluntary opening up and unilateral opening up to the least developed countries is a new requirement of the plenary session. For example, the Belt and Road Initiative, pilot free trade zones, and the China International Import Expo are all voluntary opening up. The China International Import Expo was personally planned, proposed, deployed, and promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping. Having been held for six consecutive sessions, it has achieved the goal of "getting better and better with each session" and has become a window for building a new development pattern, a platform for promoting high-standard opening up, and an international public good shared by the world. High-standard opening up on the new journey means further relaxing market access, opening the market to the world more proactively and actively, and making China's huge market a great opportunity for the world.

Third, opening up that better promotes the development of new quality productive forces. The plenary session proposed improving the institutions and mechanisms for developing new quality productive forces in light of local conditions. The prominent feature of new quality productive forces is innovation. For example, artificial intelligence, the digital economy, and the green economy are the frontiers of innovation and the current new tracks, requiring expanded openness and cooperation and the creation of an open innovation ecosystem. High-standard opening up in commercial work on the new journey means creating new consumption scenarios, cultivating new drivers of foreign trade, polishing the "Invest in China" brand, and making China's huge market a "strong magnetic field" for global innovation activities.

Fourth, opening up that better promotes win-win cooperation. The plenary session emphasized advocating an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. At present, the world is undergoing accelerated changes unseen in a century, and the development difficulties facing various countries have markedly increased. Openness and cooperation and mutual benefit and win-win outcomes are the correct choice. High-standard opening up on the new journey means making the pie of opening up bigger, lengthening the list of cooperation, comprehensively participating in WTO reform, expanding the "circle of friends" of free trade, and promoting the building of an open world economy.

Implementing Reform Tasks Item by Item

Reporter: In the next stage, what key measures will the commerce authorities take to improve the institutions and mechanisms for high-standard opening up?

Wang Wentao: Studying and implementing the spirit of the plenary session well is a major political task at present and for some time to come. We will transform all strategic deployments into task lists and work lists and implement them item by item.

First, steadily expand institutional opening up. Proactively align with international high-standard economic and trade rules, and achieve compatibility and mutual recognition in rules, regulations, management, and standards in areas such as property rights protection, industrial subsidies, environmental standards, labor protection, government procurement, e-commerce, and finance. Actively expand voluntary opening up and expand unilateral opening up to the least developed countries. Actively participate in the reform of the global economic governance system, safeguard the authority of the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, and expand the network of high-standard free trade areas facing the world.

Second, deepen the reform of the foreign trade system. A strong trading nation has three pillars, namely trade in goods, trade in services, and digital trade, and these three pillars must be consolidated through improving institutions. In trade in goods, actively expand new growth points such as trade in intermediate goods and green trade, and create an institutional environment conducive to the development of new forms and new models; in trade in services, fully implement the negative list for cross-border trade in services and advance comprehensive pilot demonstrations for expanding the opening up of the services sector; in digital trade, accelerate the digital empowerment of the entire trade chain and advance the building of comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce.

Third, deepen the reform of the management systems for foreign investment and outbound investment. Implement as soon as possible the requirement to "clear" restrictive measures on foreign investment access in manufacturing, reasonably reduce the negative list for foreign investment access, and promote the orderly expansion of opening up in areas such as telecommunications, the internet, education, culture, and healthcare. Improve the institutions and mechanisms for promoting and safeguarding outbound investment, improve the management and service system, and promote international cooperation on industrial and supply chains. Create a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized, improve the roundtable system for foreign-funded enterprises, ensure national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises in areas such as access to factors of production, qualification licensing, standard setting, and government procurement, and protect the rights and interests of foreign investment in accordance with the law. In short, we will do the "subtraction" of the negative list and the "addition" of optimizing the business environment, so that foreign-funded enterprises can feel at ease, be reassured, and have confidence, and so that "the next 'China' is still China."

Fourth, optimize the regional opening-up layout. Implement the strategy of upgrading pilot free trade zones, encourage pioneering and integrated exploration, promote innovative development of the entire industrial chain, accelerate the building of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and deeply advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. Build open highlands of diverse forms and accelerate the formation of a comprehensive opening-up pattern featuring linkage between land and sea, domestic and international, and mutual reinforcement between east and west.

Fifth, improve the mechanisms for promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. Improve the Belt and Road international cooperation mechanisms and strengthen the building of multilateral cooperation platforms in areas such as green development, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, energy, taxation, finance, and disaster reduction. Coordinate the advancement of major landmark projects and "small yet beautiful" livelihood projects, build pilot zones for "Silk Road e-commerce" cooperation, build high-quality overseas cooperation parks, and turn the Belt and Road into a "road of happiness" that benefits all parties and the world.

We will deeply study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the spirit of the plenary session, promote the implementation and effectiveness of the major deployments of the Party Central Committee in the commercial field with a nail-driving spirit, adhere to promoting reform through opening up, improve the institutions and mechanisms for high-standard opening up, open up new prospects for high-quality commercial development, and make new contributions to the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation.