20 years after WTO entry, China delivers global dividends

Reaching out for shared prosperity

While walking the talk, China is also willing to embrace the world with open arms and provide public goods to boost global development.

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, for instance, has grown into the world's largest international cooperation platform and the most popular public good over the past eight years, with over 200 cooperation agreements inked between China and over 170 countries and international organizations.

Defying trade protectionist headwinds, China has been active in building open cooperation platforms. The establishment and hosting of a series of open platforms, including the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China International Consumer Products Expo, as well as the upcoming CIIE, has facilitated the unimpeded flow of trade and provided a much-need boost to the global economy.

China means business in opening its doors wider and making its market more accessible. It has pledged to extend tax incentives for overseas investors, introduced the first negative list for services trade, and further expanded the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment.

Foreign-funded companies have benefited from their presence in China and cast a vote of confidence with bigger bets. Tesla, for example, has decided this year to make the gigafactory in Shanghai its primary vehicle export hub after the company broke ground on its first overseas plant two years ago.

The road ahead, however, won't be all rosy. Rising de-globalization, the persistent pandemic and looming climate change pose challenges that have put the world at a development inflection point.

At the just-concluded G20 Rome summit, China has, in response to these common challenges, stressed efforts to practice true multilateralism, step up macroeconomic policy coordination and adopt responsible macroeconomic policies to avoid negative spillovers on developing countries.

In pursuit of a path of green, low-carbon and sustainable development, it has reiterated the goals of peaking its CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, calling on the developed countries to honor their funding commitments to developing countries to help them cope with climate change.

Much has been realized and achieved in the past two decades despite all the twists and turns. For China, a global growth driver and advocate of multilateralism, there is always more to be expected.