REUTERS – China has never deliberately pursued a trade surplus and is willing to be “the world’s market”, Vice-Premier He Lifeng told the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday (Jan 20).
This comes after the manufacturing giant logged a record surplus that will further unnerve its trade partners.
China is willing to leverage the advantage from its “mega-sized market” and “more vigorously” expand imports, he said at the WEF’s annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort in Davos.
“We are not only willing to be the world’s factory, but also, more eagerly, to be the world’s market,” he added.
Its resilient goods exports last year helped the world’s second-largest economy weather challenges from US President Donald Trump’s erratic trade policies and lukewarm demand at home.
But they have also created an endemic production overcapacity, and it could prompt more protectionist pushback from countries that seek to strengthen their own manufacturing sectors.
Vice-Premier He is leading a Chinese government delegation to the WEF summit from Jan 19 to 23. The event has attracted some 2,900 delegates, including top tech and financial executivies, as well as various heads of state, such as Trump.
He is the third-highest-ranking Chinese official to mingle with international business and political leaders at the Davos summit, since President Xi Jinping’s attendance in 2017.
The vice-premier will also host a reception with global business leaders, said a source.
His Chinese delegation is expected to present China as a reliable trade and investment partner, at a time when Washington’s erratic and coercive tariff policies have unsettled both rivals and allies.
“China is all countries’ trading partner rather than an adversary, and China’s development is an opportunity, rather than a threat, to global economic development,” he said in his WEF address.
