Unwavering commitment to opening-up

Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan assured his audience at the Bloomberg-sponsored New Economy Forum on Thursday in Beijing that the country would keep opening up and let the market play a "decisive role".

Warning that the international order is "under attack", he reiterated Beijing's persistent call for a constructive, multilateral approach to the problems facing all countries, including China.

"We should abandon the zero-sum thinking and Cold War mentality," he said.

Also on Thursday, Premier Li Keqiang made the same pledge and appeal, during his fourth "1+6" roundtable with leaders of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, International Labor Organization, OECD and the Financial Stability Board.

Themed on promoting open, stable, high-quality world economic growth, the roundtable was intended to discuss needed responses to the challenges facing the global economy and ways to promote global governance reform, and provided an opportunity for outlining Chinese endeavors to improve the business environment and further open up.

If Wang, widely credited as having spearheaded some of the country's important economic reforms, highlighted the Chinese leadership's unchanged commitment to reform and opening-up, Li's remarks during the roundtable provided specifics for that commitment.

China was an obvious focus at the roundtable. The meeting was a fitting venue for reaffirming the central leadership's repeated recent vows to adhere to reform and opening-up, which has been called into question lately for various reasons.

Besides clarifying some lingering confusions regarding Beijing's policy orientation to leaders of the key global institutions overseeing world economic health, the meeting also offered a valuable opportunity for Chinese and global economic decision-makers to compare notes on how China can do better going forward.

With its rapid development during the past decades, China has taken great pride in being a key driver of global growth. But as downward pressures mount and manufacturing stumbles at home, Beijing is making all-out efforts to safeguard growth and employment. And having been interwoven tightly into the global economy, China is keenly aware its economic future is contingent on that of the world's.

Beijing's commitment to preserving economic globalization and refining global governance, therefore, is not only an embodiment of its understanding of its role as a "responsible big country", but also based firmly on its own need for a healthy global economic environment.

For that reason, Beijing has been an enthusiastic cheerleader for a multilateral approach to the challenges facing the present-day world.

As Li indicated, strong, sustainable, balanced, inclusive growth of the world economy is in this country's best interest, and it is willing to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with all parties to inject impetus into global economic growth and development.