Chinese President Xi Jinping looks at the gifts prepared for each other during the social time before the state banquet with President Lee Jae-myung at Sono Calm Hotel in North Gyeongsang on the 1st. Provided by the Presidential Office. Only the portion showing Xi was edited.
On a two-night, three-day state visit to South Korea from the 30th of last month, his first in 11 years, Chinese President Xi Jinping drew a line under the trade war with the United States and stood at the center of discussions on multilateralism and international cooperation at the APEC summit in Gyeongju. China is expected to give concrete shape to its vision of an 'open and inclusive Asia-Pacific community' at the APEC summit in Shenzhen next year.
Xi began his diplomatic schedule with a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Busan on the 30th of last month. As a result of the summit, the United States reduced the fentanyl tariff that had triggered the trade war from 20% to 10%. China and the United States also each deferred for one year the export controls on rare earths and technology that they had adopted as retaliatory measures. Beyond a truce in the trade war and partial rollback of the fentanyl tariff, China even secured assessments that the summit was a 'win for China'.
At the first session of the APEC summit on the 31st of last month, Xi said, "Let us build an open and inclusive Asia-Pacific community," and proposed a 'push for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific'. At the second session on the 1st, he said, "China wants to bridge the digital divide in the Asia-Pacific region," and proposed establishing a 'World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization' to actively provide artificial intelligence (AI) as a public good to the international community. This gives concrete shape to China's 2023 'Global AI Governance Initiative'.
He also proposed low-carbon green development, health policies that utilize AI, and responses to demographic change. Xi's proposals were reflected in the 'Gyeongju Declaration' adopted by APEC leaders, including cooperation at the APEC level on AI and the challenges of population aging.
Xi's bid to cast himself as a leader of the international community stood in contrast to President Trump's absence from the APEC summit. Al Jazeera reported, "President Trump met Xi for the first time since 2019 and then left. Xi then emerged as the central figure at APEC." U.S. business network CNBC, in relation to global discussions on AI regulation, reported that "the United States has always rejected efforts to regulate AI in international organizations."
Xi also held back-to-back summits with Japan, Thailand, Canada, and South Koreakey allies of the United Statesto induce cracks in Washington's encirclement of China and to highlight that, unlike the United States, China is a 'responsible major power'. Xi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed at their summit on the 31st of last month to work to restore bilateral relations that had chilled after the 'arrest of Huawei Chair Meng Wanzhou on espionage charges' case. His summit with President Lee Jae-myung is also seen as signaling a recovery in South KoreaChina relations.
The APEC summit next year will be held in Shenzhen, the 'Chinese Silicon Valley'. Once a fishing village until reform and opening, Shenzhen was designated a special economic zone in 1980 and grew into a processing-trade hub, then reinvented itself in the 2000s as a center for advanced technology. It is home to the headquarters of high-tech companies such as Tencent, Huawei, and BYD, and services such as drone delivery, driverless buses, and robot patrols are being piloted. With per capita GDP topping $30,000 last year, Shenzhen is a city optimized to showcase the technological edge of China to the world.
China is expected to flesh out its Asia-Pacific community vision at the Shenzhen APEC summit. At the same time, it is likely to seek to fend off ideological attacks on the Communist Party system by emphasizing the effectiveness of 'Chinese-style development', which blends a market economy with a socialist system.
Xi said, "Located on the Pacific coast, Shenzhen transformed in just a few decades from an underdeveloped fishing village into a modern international metropolis," adding, "This is a miracle in the history of world development and an important window that shows China's firm commitment to an open strategy that pursues mutual benefit and win-win outcomes."
한글기사 원본(Original Korean Story)