13 years on, China sends new signals on APEC 'home court'

Zhang Wei, general manager of a Beijing-based wine company, pins high hopes on the upcoming 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, considering it a good occasion to acquaint himself with the economy of the Asia-Pacific region. [Special coverage]

Though the lion's share of his company's profits come from the domestic market, Zhang's company sells wine to other APEC members, such as Japan, Canada and the United States, and he hopes his company can expand business to the entire Asia-Pacific region.

"Compared with 13 years ago, Chinese companies are becoming more international," said Zhang, who has attended some previous APEC meetings.

An increasing number of Chinese enterprises are doing business overseas and Chinese entrepreneurs are more willing to express themselves in international arenas such as the APEC meeting, he observed.

"I expect to do more business in the Asia-Pacific region and I'm paying close attention to every signal being sent from the APEC meetings," said Zhang.

The world is watching, too. A recent report published on the website of the Wall Street Journal predicted that, on economic issues, "trade and infrastructure are likely to dominate," while Japanese website The Diplomat said that the meeting will align with China's vision for a region connected through railroads, ports, highways, and pipelines.

"HOME COURT" AGAIN

Thirteen years fly, the APEC comes back to China again, while the country and the world have been different.

When hosting the APEC summit in Shanghai in 2001, China had just completed negotiations for its accession to the World Trade Organization and won the bid for the 2008 Olympics. The country was starting to integrate with the international system.

The shock of the 9/11 terrorist attack was also fresh. "The subject of anti-terrorism was frequently mentioned at that APEC meeting," said Ruan Zongze, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies.

In 2001, China ranked as the world's sixth-largest economy, while Japan was second-largest.

That year, Chinese media hailed the Shanghai APEC as "the highest-level and biggest multilateral event ever held in China."

Over the past 13 years, China has hosted two other influential international events -- the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai Expo. China has grown to be the world's second-largest economy, just after the United States. It has also become the world's largest foreign currency reserve and the world's largest goods trader. The country has been at the center of the international stage.

The international situation is undergoing significant changes as well, as the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s spread from the West throughout the world and is still casting a shadow over the global economy. In June, the World Bank cut this year's global growth forecast.

Though China remains one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, some outside the country are anxious about whether the country can achieve sustainable growth, and they consider China's economic slowdown one of the biggest challenges for the world. The upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will be an important window for those with doubts to understand the trend in China's economic development.

"The growth of China's influence in the international arena has been reflected in the APEC arena. In earlier years, other members paid little attention to China's participation in APEC meetings, but now things are changing," said 85-year-old Wang Yusheng, a former APEC senior official.

Meanwhile, the importance of the Asia-Pacific region, which includes the world's top three largest economies, has also been rising.

APEC, founded 25 years ago, has gradually transformed the "Asia-Pacific" from a mere geographic concept to a body for economic cooperation involving 2.8 billion people and half of the global economic aggregate. APEC members account for 40 percent of the world's population, 57 percent of total global GDP and 46 percent of global trade.

The Asia-Pacific is now the most dynamic and promising geo-economic region in the world, widely regarded as an engine driving world economic growth.

China has begun to integrate with the Asia-Pacific at a faster pace. In 2013, 60 percent of China's total foreign trade was with other APEC members, 83 percent of its utilized foreign investment was from them, and 69 percent of outbound Chinese investment flowed to them.

Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific has relied more and more on China. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), China now contributes over 50 percent to Asian economic growth, with every one percentage point of China's economic growth driving the Asian economy by 0.3 percentage point.

"That's why people put high expectations on the upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting," said Ruan Zongze, adding that the upcoming summit will try to answer a question: How will the Asia-Pacific region continue to serve as an engine for the world's growth?