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Developing at a Steady Pace in Complex and Severe International Circumstances——On China's Economic Development and Foreign Policy
2022-08-13 15:50

(On the afternoon of 10 August 2022, Chinese Ambassador to Thailand Han Zhiqiang delivered a keynote speech at the Assumption University of Thailand. The full text is as follows:)

Today, I am honored to have the opportunity to visit the Assumption University of Thailand, which is renowned in Thailand and the world, and to exchange views with you on the current development of China. Many Thai social elites have emerged from this beautiful campus. Each year, not only Thai students but also foreign students from more than 70 countries, including China, enter this campus, which reflects the contribution of the Assumption University to the Thai society, the world and the China-Thailand friendship. I would like to take this opportunity to pay high tribute to the President Bancha and the teachers and students of the Assumption University.

Just now, I witnessed the unveiling ceremony of the "AU-TUST Joint Research Institute of Modern Biology and Medical Technology" jointly established by the Assumption University and the Tianjin University of Science and Technology of China. This is another important landmark project of the inter-university cooperation between the Assumption University and Chinese universities. Please allow me to express my congratulations again and look forward to this cooperation to effectively promote China-Thailand biomedical research and benefit the people of China, Thailand and the world.

I. On China's Development

The Complex and Severe External Circumstances

As human history enters the twenties of the 21st century, the general trend of the world is still peaceful development, but various risks and challenges have obviously increased. The COVID-19 pandemic directly threatens people's health and life safety, and has a tremendous impact on the economic and social life of all countries in the world. The crisis in Ukraine and the extreme sanctions imposed by some countries have exacerbated the shortage of food and energy, making the already struggling world economy even worse. 583 million people worldwide were infected by the virus and 6.42 million died. The crisis in Ukraine has lasted 167 days, and the battle continues. Regional stability and cooperation in the Asia Pacific region are also facing serious interference brought by geopolitics.

The global supply chain and industrial chain are in disorder, and the prices of energy and food are soaring. In 2021, the Brent crude oil price increased by 53.6% at the end of the year compared with the beginning of the year. In the first half of 2022, it further soared, with a year-on-year increase of 60%. The food price index released by the FAO increased by 28% year-on-year in 2021, and increased by 23% in June this year compared with the same period last year. In May this year, the World Bank lowered the world economic growth forecast to 2.9% from the previous 4.1%. The report released by the IMF in July predicted that the previous 3.6% would be lowered to 3.2%. With sluggish growth and high prices, many people believe that the world economy has entered a stagflation period and may have a more serious recession.

In such an international environment where the pandemic situation is prolonged and the political and economic situation is chaotic, all countries in the world are facing many severe challenges, and China is of course no exception. Because of China's own characteristics, it is more difficult than other countries in many aspects.

China's pandemic prevention task is the most arduous. China is a large country with the population of 1.4 billion. As a developing country, the medical security level of each Chinese is limited. It is conceivable how difficult it is to ensure the precious life and health of every Chinese in the global pandemic. Although China has established a basic medical security system covering 95% of the total population, it only ranks 64th among the countries reported by the WHO. Although 3.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been vaccinated in China, covering 92% of the total population, 112 million people have not been vaccinated, and 31 million people over 60 years old have not been vaccinated.

China's economy is a highly open market economy and bears the brunt of the severe challenges of the world economic situation. China is the world's largest importer of energy and resources. 72% of the oil supply depends on the international market, and the dependence upon foreign food is 19.4%. The sharp rise in international oil and food prices will exert great pressure on China's economy. As a global manufacturing and trading power, China is the largest goods trading partner of more than 130 countries and regions in the world. Whether the global supply chain and industrial chain are stable or not is also a major issue for China. In 2021, the export container freight index (CCFI) increased by 165.69%, which greatly increased the import and export costs of Chinese enterprises.

China is also facing a special challenge, that is, the United States, out of its ambition to dominate the world and its ideological prejudice, racial discrimination and arrogance, cannot allow China's further development and constantly creates trouble for China. The United States has launched a trade war against China since the Trump regime. Although it hurts others and harms itself, it has not been canceled so far. Under the pretext of national security and in order to maintain the monopoly position of American enterprises, the United States has cut off the supply of components and blocked the market for Chinese high-tech enterprises. The United States, taking the efforts of the whole government, has suppressed HUAWEI, which has grown up through its own tenacious efforts and provided the most advanced technology products and the most safe and high-quality services to all countries in the world. This has become the most typical negative case in the contemporary world where the United States disregards market rules and disrupts economic order by political maneuver. These crazy actions of the United States have caused serious repercussions on itself, and of course, China's economy will inevitably be affected.

China's efforts and achievements

In the face of various challenges and difficulties, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have been leading the Chinese people to unite as one and firmly safeguard national development and security. We have taken the overall planning of pandemic prevention and control and economic and social development as the central task at present. We have determined to put the protection of people's lives in the first place and done our best to prevent and control the pandemic. At the same time, the word "stability" should be put as top priority, and all efforts should be made to ensure the steady development of the national economy.

Effectively controlling the pandemic situation. Under the personal command of President Xi Jinping, China has determined a set of effective policies and measures to fight against COVID-19 from the beginning of the outbreak, such as science-based pandemic prevention, targeted measures implementation and dynamic zero-COVID policy. Under the leadership of the CPC and the government and through the concerted efforts and hard work of the people throughout the country, after the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, China successfully contained the spread of the pandemic in one month, controlled the number of new cases in the local area within single-digit in two months, achieved the decisive results of the Wuhan defense battle in about three months, and entered the regular pandemic prevention and control stage of "prevent inbound cases and domestic resurgences".

As of August 1, China (excluding Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan) had reported 227,030 confirmed cases, 220,685 cured and discharged cases, 5,226 dead cases, and the infection rate and mortality rate remained the lowest in the world. No matter what measures are taken to prevent and control the pandemic, there must be a price to pay. China adopts a dynamic zero-COVID policy and will take strict control measures in specific places and at specific times. It is inevitable that production and life will be affected to a certain extent. However, this is a local pain, which is conducive to the pandemic area getting rid of the pandemic as soon as possible, and is also conducive to protecting the pandemic prevention safety and normal production and life in the wider region of the country. Facts have proved that China's "dynamic zero-COVID policy" conforms to China's reality and is currently the best choice for China.

Stabilizing economic development. The global economic growth is sluggish, and inflation is generally worsening. Under such circumstances, the interest rate hike and reducing balance sheet by developed countries have caused great uncertainty to the global financial situation. The impact on developing countries is particularly great.

China's GDP increased by 2.3% in 2020, making it the only country among the world's major economies to achieve positive growth. In 2021, China's GDP grew by 8.1%, making it one of the fastest growing countries in the world. China's annual economic growth rate is expected to be 5.5% in 2022. The economy grew by 2.5% in the first half of this year. In the first quarter, it increased by 4.8%, making a good start. Since the beginning of April, serious pandemic have occurred in Jilin, Shanghai and other places in China. Coupled with the further deterioration of the external environment, China's economic activities have been greatly affected. In April, the major economic indicators fell in depth. The decline narrowed in May and began to stabilize and recover in June. In terms of the added value of industrial production, it was - 2.9% in April, 0.7% in May and 3.9% in June. Some people say that in the first half of this year, China's economy experienced a very obvious V-shaped curve. The reason for the rapid bottom recovery is mainly the result of the government's favorable and effective response to regulation.

China has long anticipated the problems facing the current economy. At the economic work conference held by the Party Central Committee at the end of last year, it proposed the general policy of prioritizing stability while pursuing progress in the face of various uncertainties and risks, and made systematic arrangements. In May this year, the State Council issued a package of a total of 33 policies and measures to solidly stabilize the economy in six aspects. In terms of fiscal and financial measures, new tax rebates and tax reductions were 2.64 trillion yuan (US$392 billion), local governments issued 3.45 trillion yuan (US$512 billion) of special bonds, and newly added national financing guarantees were 1 trillion yuan (US$149 billion). These economic development measures are closely combined with pandemic prevention and control to minimize the impact of pandemic prevention on economic activities, and at the same time minimize the new risks that economic activities add to the spread of the pandemic.

China's economic fundamentals underpinning long-term growth will remain sound and promising. China's economy has overcome multiple challenges, and major indicators have stabilized and rebounded in an all-round way. In the next stage, the international environment is complex and grim, the pandemic situation is still uncertain, and there are still many challenges and difficulties in economic operation. However, China's economy is characterized by complete industrial categories, huge domestic demands, strong resilience and great potentials. With the implementation of a series of policies and measures to stabilize growth, the national economy is expected to further recover and maintain stable growth.

The steady development of China's economy has injected precious positive energy into the world economy in difficulties. Last year, China's GDP totaled US$17.7 trillion, accounting for 18% of the global economy. China's economy contributed 26.6% to the world's economic growth. Since 2006, China has been the first in the world for 15 consecutive years.

Looking forward to the future, China will follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and comprehensively promote modernization. Last year, we achieved the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating absolute poverty in all respects, making historic progress and achievements. Our next goal is to build a modern socialist country in all respects and realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by the middle of this century, that is, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. To this end, we will adhere to the new development philosophy of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing, accelerate the establishment of a "dual circulation" development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and external circulations mutually reinforcing each other, and achieve high-quality development and the common prosperity of the people.

II. On China-Thailand Relations

Building a community with a shared future between China and Thailand. In early July, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid an official visit to Thailand, called on Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, and held talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai. The two sides agreed to jointly build a more stable, more prosperous and more sustainable China-Thailand community with a shared future, giving the kinship between the two countries a new meaning of the times.

China and Thailand are linked by mountains and rivers, similar cultures and blood ties. Under the new situation, China and Thailand are facing common development opportunities as well as various common risks and challenges. In recent years, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries and through the joint efforts of both sides, the political mutual trust between China and Thailand has been deepened and the mutually beneficial cooperation has been expanded. In the face of the challenges posed by the pandemic, we stood by each other and overcame difficulties together. We explained the special relationship of sharing weal and woe with facts. At the beginning of the outbreak, Thailand took the lead in expressing sympathies and providing medical supplies to China; China was the first country to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Thailand. The 50.85 million doses of vaccine from China played an important role in building an immune barrier in Thailand. Last year, the trade volume between China and Thailand was US$131.2 billion, an increase of 33%. The export of Thai agricultural products to China was US$11.9 billion, an increase of 52.4%. This is also an important support for the economic recovery under the pandemic.

At present, China-Thailand mutually beneficial cooperation faces many favorable conditions. The regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) has come into effect, and an upgraded version of the China-ASEAN free trade area is being prepared. In particular, the China-Laos railway has been opened to traffic and the China-Thailand railway is under construction, which will form a railway artery running through the Indo-China Peninsula. Looking forward to the future, with the continuous progress in connectivity, China and Thailand will increasingly integrate and develop economically, and the people's neighborhood exchanges will become closer. China and Thailand will share the same destiny and prosperity.

III. On Current International Situation

The world is undergoing the greatest changes in a century. The international power pattern is a rising East and a falling West, and the power for peaceful development is increasing. However, the devil of the Cold War is lingering in Europe and Asia, and the world is not peaceful. Where is the world headed: Peace or war? Progress or regression? Openness or isolation? Cooperation or confrontation? These are the questions of the times are in front of us.

On August 2, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi made a provocative visit to China's Taiwan region in disregard of China's strong opposition and publicly declared that the United States would vigorously develop U.S.-Taiwan Relations and defend Taiwan. Taiwan has been China's territory since ancient times. From the historical context, to the resolutions of the United Nations, to the reality that 181 countries in the world, including the United States, recognize the one-China principle, Taiwan is part of China's territory, and the Taiwan question is China's internal affairs. This is a clear and explicit fact. The United States, on the one hand, recognizes that Taiwan is a part of China’s territory, but on the other hand, claims that it will come to protect Taiwan's security. What an absurd and hegemonic logic it is! As a matter of fact, the United States is inciting and supporting Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party authorities to pursue Taiwan independence and separatism in order to achieve its criminal purpose of "using Taiwan to contain China". This is a serious harm to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, a breach of the United States' own international commitments, and a trampling on international law and the basic norms of international relations. In this regard, China must of course make strong responses and countermeasures. We conducted military exercises in the waters near Taiwan to resolutely respond to and counter US provocations. It is a legitimate action to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a just act to resist the US side's wanton trampling on other countries' sovereignty and to maintain regional peace and tranquility. The United States has done bad things by itself, and now it is playing the trick of a thief crying "Stop thief!" and spreading rumors that China changes the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and affects regional stability. In fact, instigating the Taiwan authorities to seek independence and split China's territorial sovereignty is truly changing the status quo. It is the United States that provokes troubles. It is the United States that creates the crises. And it is the United States that escalates tensions. The United States has waged wars all over the world, created turmoil and crises in various regions, ignored international law and the norms of international relations in order to maintain its hegemonic status, and caused countless countries to suffer. The United States has become the largest trouble maker in the world.

East Asia, where we are located, has long maintained a good situation of peace, stability and rapid development, and has formed a regional cooperation mechanism based on the central role of ASEAN. In the past few decades, East Asia has been called an oasis of peaceful development against the backdrop of endless turmoil and disputes around the world. At present, the situation in East Asia is also facing various variables. The Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation schemes are eroding East Asian unity, undermining East Asian cooperation, and seriously threatening regional stability and development. We must be highly vigilant against this dangerous trend, and jointly cherish and safeguard the hard won situation of peaceful development. We must not allow this oasis of East Asia to become a new source of turbulence in the world.

The second half of this year witnesses China, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand as the hosts of the BRICS Summit, the series of East Asian Leaders Meetings, the G20 Leaders' Summit, and the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Global governance has entered the "Asian moment". The international community expects Asia to play a leading role.

China adheres to the path of peaceful development and is committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind. At the United Nations General Assembly last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Development Initiative (GDI), advocating that development should be a priority and a people-centered approach should be adopted to achieve inclusive and innovative development for the benefits of all. At the Boao Forum for Asia in March this year, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Security Initiative (GSI), advocating that humanity has long been an indivisible security community and all countries in the world should jointly follow a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum. This is China's wisdom and China's plan that Chinese leaders have contributed to the severe challenges facing world development and security, which has been welcomed and responded by most countries in the world.

We should adhere to the spirit of mutual respect, equal consultation, dialogue and cooperation, and mutual benefit and win-win results, adhere to the political consensus of Asian countries in handling international and regional affairs, give full play to the wisdom and influence of Asia, and utter the common voice of Asia to the world, safeguard the general trend of world peace and development, and prevent zero sum thinking and power politics from bringing the world and the region into dangers. This is where the fundamental interests of contemporary Asian countries lie, and it is also the inescapable historical mission of contemporary Asian countries.

The East Asian economy is the main driving force for world development, and the East Asian civilization is the positive energy most needed for world progress. Young people are the future and hope. I am convinced and wish the students great success in your studies and make due contributions to the beautiful future of the world.

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