China’s President Xi Jinping has warned other states not to „dictate“ his government. At the same time, he promised in his speech on the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the reform and opening policy under Deng Xiaoping that China’s development was „no threat to any country“.
„We will resolutely reform what can and must change,“ Xi said in the Great Hall of the People. However, referring to the US trade dispute with China to further open China’s markets, the president said China would just as determinedly „not reform,“ which can not be changed.
China and the US have been in a commercial dispute for months. Both states have imposed reciprocal sanctions in many sectors of the economy. US President Donald Trump is particularly disturbed by the dumping prices from China and the large US trade deficit with the People’s Republic. Only recently has there been a rapprochement between the governments in Washington and Beijing.
Meanwhile, China is pushing ahead with a series of projects in Asia and Africa. This is considered by many states to be an attempt to influence China in the long term – both politically and economically.
China under Xi is developing weaker
To make matters worse for Xi added that the economic power of the People’s Republic has decreased and its course is therefore also within the country controversial. Some critics even accuse him that the country moves backwards since taking power six years ago. To the outside world, a president is being presented, who stages himself as a verbal champion of free world trade. However, measures to reduce market barriers, discriminate against foreign firms or steal technology have largely disappeared.
Also in his current speech, Xi announced no initiatives that could bring the Chinese economy back on track. He merely said, „Openness brings progress, secrecy leads to backwardness.“ He thus disappointed the wishes of private entrepreneurs who had hoped for a further opening of Chinese industry and less dominance of state-owned enterprises from the anniversary of the reform policy.
Instead, Xi said China will never develop at the expense of the interests of other countries. He advocated a multilateral trading system without directly addressing the trade dispute with the US. And Xi, unlike previous opportunities, expressly and highly valued Deng’s market reforms. They had maneuvered China off the brink of economic collapse that had come after the Cultural Revolution.
Hunger, want and poverty overcome
Xi said China has done in just a few decades „for which developed countries needed hundreds of years.“ Hunger, want and poverty had been overcome and the People’s Republic became the second largest economy in the world.
The opening, begun by Chinese reform architect Deng Xiaoping, has in fact brought China an unprecedented boom since 1978, which has also benefited foreign companies, which were finally able to do large-scale business in the People’s Republic.
