“November 8, Lima. APEC 2024 meeting logo. Photo: Xinhua Sweet Potato During the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in 2016, also held in Lima, Xi Jinping used a metaphor to describe China-APR relations, comparing them to the sweet potato, a vegetable native to Latin America. He explained that although sweet potato vines […]”, — write: businessua.com.ua
November 8, Lima. APEC 2024 meeting logo. Photo: Xinhua
Sweet potatoesDuring the APEC leaders’ meeting in 2016, also held in Lima, Xi Jinping used a metaphor to describe China-APR relations, comparing them to sweet potatoes, a vegetable native to Latin America.
He explained that although sweet potato vines can stretch in all directions, they all grow from the roots. “Similarly, no matter what level of development it reaches, China, which has its roots in the Asia-Pacific region, will always contribute to its development and prosperity,” he noted.
Today, this metaphor is even more relevant. Since joining APEC in 1991, China has become a key trading partner and export market for most members of the forum. According to the Customs Service of the People’s Republic of China, in the first 10 months of 2024, the volume of China’s trade with the APEC economies reached an all-time high, exceeding 21 trillion yuan (about 2.92 trillion US dollars), which is a 5.7 percent increase. more than in the previous year, and amounting to 59.1 percent. from the total volume of trade of China.
In its efforts to promote free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, China has reduced the overall level of tariffs to 7.3 percent.
“China cannot develop in isolation from Asia Pacific, and Asia Pacific cannot prosper without China,” Xi Jinping said at the meeting of APEC leaders on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2013, emphasizing the interconnectedness of the region’s growth.
Interconnection is one of the key themes of Xi Jinping’s vision of the development of the Asia-Pacific region. He once gave an example from traditional Chinese medicine to illustrate APEC cooperation: “When there is free flow, there is no pain; when there is pain, there is no free flow.” “Thanks to connectivity, the economic arteries of the APR work more harmoniously,” he explained.
During his trip to Indonesia in 2013, Xi Jinping proposed the establishment of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative, and proposed a plan to establish an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to support the initiative.
To date, more than half of the 21 APEC economies participate in cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road. Projects such as the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia and the port of Changkai in Peru are designed to help strengthen trade networks and stimulate growth across the region.
“President Xi Jinping has put forward a number of proposals and initiatives to strengthen regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, and the Belt and Road Initiative is one of the main ones aimed at developing comprehensive ties in the region,” said Liu Chenyang, director of the APEC Study Center at Nankai University in Tianjin. . – These efforts under the leadership of President Xi Jinping demonstrated to the whole world China’s determination to put down roots in the Asia-Pacific region and benefit the region in the long term.”
Source: kp.ua