BEIJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- As the city of Shenzhen, located in south China's Guangdong Province, prepares to welcome Asia-Pacific leaders for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting next week, China is set to host this gathering for the third time, marking another milestone in its decades-long engagement with regional economic cooperation.
Over the past 25 years, east China's Shanghai, Beijing in north China and now Shenzhen have served as host cities, tracing the country's evolving role from a participant learning to align with international trade rules to an important contributor to regional cooperation and an increasingly active pioneer of new areas of growth.
Looking back to 2001, when APEC leaders gathered in Shanghai, Asia was still recovering from the financial crisis of the late 1990s, and China was days away from joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The Shanghai Accord that emerged from the meeting reaffirmed the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment. APEC leaders at that time also welcomed China's WTO accession.
"At that time, China was still learning the rules of international trade and was preparing to become deeply integrated into the multilateral trading system centered on the WTO," said Lin Feng, an official of China's Ministry of Commerce.
Since joining APEC in 1991, China had actively aligned itself with international rules to fit into this multilateral trading system. By the time it first hosted APEC in Shanghai, China's average tariff rate had fallen from 39.5 percent to 15.3 percent, while its trade with other APEC economies had nearly tripled.
Following the Shanghai meeting, China continued to expand opening up and embed itself deeper in regional industrial and supply chains. In 2010, it became the world's second-largest economy.
In 2014, China hosted the APEC economic leaders' meeting for a second time, with the event held in Beijing. One of the key outcomes was the endorsement of the Beijing Roadmap for APEC's Contribution to the Realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), marking a significant step toward advancing regional economic integration.
"It was a substantive step toward the establishment of the FTAAP. Since then, APEC economies have steadily advanced related work toward this shared goal, with China playing an important leading role," said Zhou Yamin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In the years that followed, regional trade and economic integration gained further momentum, with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) entering into force.
The full implementation of the RCEP in 2023, in particular, brought into operation the world's largest free trade agreement by population and trade volume.
"China's role in APEC has evolved from an important participant into a key contributor to the agenda and an active promoter of practical cooperation. It has not only helped shape the direction of APEC cooperation, but has also worked to advance grand blueprints amid complex realities, exerting a far-reaching influence on regional cooperation," said Zhang Jingjia, a researcher at Nankai University, located in Tianjin Municipality in north China.
Over the past decade or so, APEC member economies, home to nearly 40 percent of the world's population, have come to generate more than 60 percent of global economic output and close to half of world trade, pulling the center of gravity of the global economy steadily toward the Asia-Pacific.
China, notably, has served as a stabilizing anchor for regional economic growth. With its overall tariff level already reduced to 7.3 percent, approaching the average among developed economies, China has emerged as the largest trading partner of 13 APEC economies.
In 2025, trade between China and other APEC members had grown to 1.4 times its 2018 level, accounting for around 60 percent of China's total foreign trade. By the end of 2025, China's outbound direct investment (ODI) stock in other APEC economies had reached 2.41 trillion U.S. dollars, which is more than 70 percent of the country's total ODI stock.
Now, 12 years after its previous turn as host, China is once again chairing APEC. Working with other member economies under the theme of "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together," China has focused on three priorities, namely openness, innovation and cooperation, and hosted more than 300 meetings and events across the country during the year.
At a press conference earlier this month, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao called on APEC economies to uphold free trade and build an open, mutually beneficial model of development, promote innovation-driven growth with strengthened policy coordination on digital and intelligent trade rules, and work toward a fairer and more equitable international economic and trade order.
Given a sluggish global economy, innovation is expected to become a new source of momentum for APEC cooperation and growth.
"China's strengths in green and digital economy and artificial intelligence, together with its commitment to openness and cooperation, will create unprecedented opportunities for other APEC economies," Zhou said.
Across electronics, automobiles and equipment manufacturing, China and other APEC economies are building complementary and mutually reinforcing innovation chains. A growing number of Asia-Pacific and global multinationals have established research and development centers in China, using its vast market to rapidly deploy and iterate new technologies.
In the first three quarters of 2026, China's high-tech products trade with other APEC economies surged 50.3 percent year on year to 6.66 trillion yuan (about 991.78 billion U.S. dollars), contributing almost half of the total bilateral trade increase.
China's push for innovation-driven growth, via technology advancement and industrial integration, will expand the overall pie of Asia-Pacific trade and investment, experts said, noting that its own development can help drive shared growth across the Asia-Pacific and inject fresh momentum into the region. ■
