Envoy: China remains an opportunity for global development

China will remain an important opportunity for global development and stands ready to share growth and pursue common prosperity with the United States and the rest of the world, Beijing's top envoy in Washington said on Friday.

Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng made the remarks while presenting the outcomes of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which adopted the proposal for the 15th Five-Year Plan, a blueprint to guide China's economic and social progress from 2026 to 2030.

Through the key Party meeting held in Beijing last week, "China has again sent a signal to the world of its commitment to openness, cooperation, mutual benefit and common prosperity," Xie said at the "Innovation, Openness, Shared Development" Global Dialogue US Session, co-organized with China Media Group.

The new document represents a top-level strategic design for China's next stage of development and "a clarion call for seizing the momentum and advancing Chinese modernization," according to Xie.

"China will always be an important opportunity for global development," Xie said, pointing to the country's "huge and ever-expanding consumption market" of 1.4 billion people, with "the world's most complete industrial system" and "a thriving global innovation hub".

He also noted the country's vast potential fueled by urbanization, industrial upgrading and a green transition. It faces growing demands for education, elder care, medical care and other services, creating "readily accessible opportunities for mutual benefit" for global enterprises and talent.

In the next five years, China will seize the "historic opportunity" of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation to strengthen its capabilities in education, science and human resources, Xie said.

He also said that in the next five years, China will continue to expand opening-up at the institutional level, safeguard the multilateral trading system and promote broader international economic flows.

As economic globalization faces headwinds and protectionism rises, Xie said China remains steadfast in embracing economic globalization, advancing reform and development through greater openness, championing true multilateralism, and sharing opportunities and pursuing common development with the rest of the world.

Xie noted that protectionism and unilateralism would only disrupt global supply chains and hinder growth, saying that "only through solidarity and win-win cooperation can we navigate the rough waters together."

Xie expressed hope that the United States will follow the principles of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation, saying this would promote steady, sustainable China-US relations and a brighter future for both peoples and the world.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of The Kuhn Foundation, said it was "a critical time, not just for China's development, but for the world's development."

"To see China's development is a benefit for the world, and we all look forward to the next five years to see how it develops, and to wish China all the best in achieving its own domestic development and in engaging the world so that everyone benefits equally," Kuhn said in a video speech.

Also speaking at the event, Denis Simon, chairman of the Global Talent Alliance, said that many of today's greatest challenges — climate change, food security, AI governance and global health — cannot be solved by any single country alone, highlighting that "in each of these areas, US-China collaboration is essential."

"If we can approach our relationship not as a zero-sum competition, but as a mutual search for shared solutions, we can transform the tensions that exist today into trust, and we can transform the rivalry into results, shared results," Simon said.

huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com