China Pledges Wider Market Access, Digital Trade Push at Hangzhou Expo
Premier Li Qiang opened the Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, pledging easier market access, stronger cross-border e-commerce import policies and greater Chinese input into global digital trade rules.
China will widen market access and refine its policies for cross-border e-commerce retail imports, Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday, as he opened the Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province.
In his address, Li said Beijing intends to share the opportunities offered by its domestic market with other countries. He called for close attention to shifting patterns in international trade and for efforts to steer global commerce through the digital era.
Drawing on remarks by President Xi Jinping, Li said digital technologies are steadily embedding themselves across every part of economic and social life, reshaping how goods are produced, how people live and how societies are governed.
He set out three broad themes. First, he described digital trade as a window onto the changing landscape of the global economy, noting that its growth is generating fresh momentum and opening space for worldwide expansion while making it simpler for markets to link up and speeding innovation in trade. At the same time, he said, it has thrown widening development gaps, new trade barriers and holes in international rules into sharper relief.
Second, Li urged an open approach to advancing trade in the digital age. He said countries should cooperate in good faith, deepen digital connectivity and bring their markets into closer alignment. Bridging the digital divide and expanding North-South cooperation on digital trade were also needed, he added, along with better digital governance and fuller use of mechanisms such as the World Trade Organization to build a fair and reasonable economic and trade order.
Third, he said China would back its words with action: expanding digital consumption demand, strengthening support for the digital industry and helping drive digitalisation elsewhere, while improving its own digital development environment and offering Chinese approaches to refining international rules.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Adylbek Aleshovich Kasymaliev, chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, also spoke at the ceremony. More than 1,200 representatives from nearly 50 countries and regions, along with international organisations, attended.
The expo, focused on digital trade and industrial cooperation, runs until September 27 and centres on artificial intelligence. Li later toured the venue and spoke with visiting foreign leaders.
China's digital trade has grown quickly in recent years. The value of its digitally deliverable services trade rose at an average annual rate of 11.2 percent between 2016 and 2025, ahead of the global average by 1.8 percentage points.