Strategic significance of building an open world economy

Editor's note: China Daily's Business Insight section has launched a column devoted to an in-depth interpretation of Xi Jinping's economic thought. This article is part of the series.

President Xi Jinping pointed out when meeting with representatives of the international business community on March 28, 2025 that China upholds true multilateralism, promotes universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, actively participates in global economic governance, and is committed to building an open world economy.

China's top leadership has stated that the country is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the outside world and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening-up. It strives to create new opportunities for the world with its own development and to contribute its share of building an open global economy that delivers greater benefits to all peoples.

Promoting economic globalization

The essence of economic globalization is the result of the dialectical movement of productive forces and relations of production. With the global expansion of socialized production and the uneven development of countries around the world, the basic contradictions of capitalism have spilled over from one country to the whole world. These trends may contribute to widening inequality, increased economic vulnerabilities and recurrent global crises if left unaddressed.

The history of human social development has repeatedly proven that openness brings progress, while isolation inevitably leads to backwardness. The correct direction of economic globalization is to follow the laws of global economic development and build an open, inclusive, cooperative and mutually beneficial world economy. Only by building an open world economy can we continuously bring about conditions and opportunities for development and expand the development space of economic globalization.

Requirement for modernization

Openness is a distinct hallmark of Chinese modernization. The present and the near future constitute a critical period for comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization. Adhering to open cooperation and mutual benefit is an inevitable requirement of Chinese modernization. Without an open world economy, such openness will be hindered and development will be constrained.

High-quality development is the primary task of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, accelerating the creation of a new development pattern, and enhancing the endogenous dynamics and reliability of China's domestic economy. Now is a crucial period for our country to accelerate the realization of Chinese modernization. As the world is intertwined with changes and chaos, turbulence is intensifying, the international economic and trade order is facing severe challenges, the growth momentum of the world economy is insufficient, and the impact of changes in the external environment is deepening, and our country's development has entered a period where strategic opportunities, risks and challenges coexist, and uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing.

China's top leadership has made comprehensive arrangements for building a new development pattern. The key to building a new development pattern lies in unimpeded economic circulation. This includes not only smoothing domestic circulation by building a unified national market, but also streamlining international circulation by building an open world economy. Only in this way can a new development pattern be formed in which the domestic circulation is the mainstay and the domestic and international dual circulations mutually promote each other, thereby creating a broader development space for the realization of Chinese modernization.

New international economic order

Because developed countries were the first to realize industrialization, they possess first-mover advantages in economic strength and technological levels, making them the leaders of current economic globalization. Developed countries have not only obtained massive economic benefits in the process of economic globalization by relying on their first-mover advantages, but also become the rule-makers of the world economy by leveraging their economic, political, technological and military advantages. By formulating economic rules favorable to themselves, developed countries have adopted a hegemonic behavioral approach to applying economic rules when they fit and discarding them when they do not, thus forming an unjust and unreasonable international economic order and causing development dilemmas for the vast number of developing countries.

With the deepening development of economic globalization, the economies of various countries have formed complex economic ties of interdependence. The law of uneven development of the world economy has led to the collective rise of emerging market countries and developing countries, which is changing the global political and economic landscape, gradually demanding a change in the old international economic order dominated by developed countries, and calling for the construction of a new international economic order. Historical lessons in the process of human development show that to overcome the law of uneven development of the world economy, it is imperative to build an open, inclusive, universally and mutually beneficial open world economy. With the rise of emerging economies, the inherent antagonistic contradictions of developed countries have begun to manifest, with their domestic financial risks continuously increasing, industrial "hollowing out" intensifying, and employment and economic growth becoming sluggish.

Instead of reflecting on and proactively changing the old international economic order, developed countries — in order to maintain their vested interests — blame the problems on economic globalization and have begun to engage in unilateralism and protectionism. Fundamentally speaking, solving the problems in the process of economic globalization requires building a new international economic order on the basis of building an open world economy, so as to achieve a rebalancing of the economic globalization process.

Mankind's common development

Only through mutual integration and connectivity can the economic development of various countries achieve mutual learning, mutual complementarity, mutual promotion and common development. Development and innovation are the requirements for sustainable growth of the world economy; interconnected growth is the requirement for robust growth of the world economy; and integration of interests is the requirement for balanced growth of the world economy. China is an advocate and active promoter of building an open world economy, unswervingly expanding institutional opening-up, safeguarding the multilateral trading system, expanding international circulation, promoting reform and development through opening-up, and sharing opportunities and developing together with countries around the world.

China's promotion of building an open world economy aims to provide Chinese solutions, contribute Chinese wisdom, and demonstrate Chinese strength for the common development of humanity. Through the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, China promotes the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit. By insisting on building with open doors, China unswervingly advances high-level opening-up, further expands market access, shares development opportunities and dividends with countries around the world, continuously brings new impetus and new opportunities to the world with China's new development, and works together to forge a high-quality world economy.

The writer is director of the Department of Political Economy at the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.