Chinese president Xi Jinping has hit out at protectionism, despite his country scoring poorly for free trade.
In comments coming in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election, Mr Xi said that unilateralism and protectionism needed to be rejected in favour of economic globalisation.
Mr Xi’s speech, read out to business executives by Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao on Friday, said that economic globalisation was facing “countercurrents”, without specifying any particular country or leader.
“The world has entered a new period of turmoil and change, unilateralism and protectionism are spreading, the fragmentation of the world economy has intensified,” Xi said.
“Hindering economic cooperation under various pretexts, insisting on isolating the interdependent world, is reversing the course of history,” he added.
Mr Xi listed a series of recent measures the Chinese government has taken to attract foreign investment, including increasing the number of Chinese industries that can receive foreign investment, as well as unilateral visa exemptions to foreigners visiting China.
“China will implement more independent and unilateral opening-up policies, expand the network of high-standard free trade zones facing the world, and open even further the door into China,” the Chinese leader said.
However, some analysts said that China’s pitch as an alternative or counterbalance to a protectionist Trump-led United States has lost its shine compared to 2016, when Trump was first elected.
Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at National University of Singapore, said that unlike 2016, there were now widespread concerns in the international community about how Chinese state subsidies to industrial sectors and their resulting overcapacity negatively affect other countries’ economies.
According to the International Trade Barrier Index 2023, published by the Tholos Foundation, China scores on 78th best country. However, Kong Kong, which is scored separately, comes it at number five. The UK is eighth and US is 65th.