13 March 2024, University of Chicago

Your Excellency Ambassador Max Baucus,

Governor Jeff Colyer,

Mayor Lori Lightfoot,

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon!

It’s my great pleasure to attend today’s Global Media Dialogue event focusing on “Opportunities in China ”. As all countries in the world are paying close attention to China’s economy, it is very fit and proper to organize this event today.

The 2024 China’s “Two Sessions” have just concluded. The Chinese government work report reviews last year’s performance of China’s economy, and comprehensively outlines the expected goals and development prospects for this year. China’s economy has demonstrated strong vitality and resilience, and brings great impetus and opportunities to the world. It is important that we recognize the opportunities and seize them well.

First, China’s high-quality development and high-level opening up will create new opportunities for all countries. Seeking greater progress in high-quality development is of paramount importance to China in the new era. China’s economy grew by 5.2% in 2023, still at the forefront of major economies, and its contribution to global growth exceeded 30%. Emerging industries are booming. Green transition has yielded impressive outcomes. New quality productive forces are taking shape at a faster pace. The growth of new demands and new business forms is rapidly expanding. China is opening its door wider, as more substantive steps are taken in its high-standard and institutional opening up. Negative list for foreign investment gets shorter and shorter. China’s super-sized market, with over 1.4 billion people, is unleashing opportunities for the whole world. China remains a strong engine for world economy. 

Second, we must keep working on healthy, stable China-U.S. relations, so as to seize the opportunities in China well. The most important inspiration from the past 45 years is that both China and United States stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Cooperation is the only right choice. Finding and adhering to the right way for the two major countries to get along bears on the well-being of the people of our two countries and also the whole world.

We need to work hard to follow up on the important common understandings reached between the two heads of state, and turn the San Francisco vision into reality. Upholding principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, should always be the common pursuit and direction of efforts of both China and the U.S. 

We should firmly grasp the essence of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, which is mutually beneficial and win-win. The economies of both countries are highly complementary and interdependent, and no one can be separated from the other. Both sides have benefited greatly from the practical cooperation in the past forty-five years. Our success is each other’s opportunity rather than challenge, and the two sides need to help each other succeed instead of undercutting one another. For any decoupling, it is the people who will ultimately pay the cost, and the biggest risk is non-cooperation.

We need to be responsive to the will of the two peoples, and support our peoples reaching out to each other. As President Xi Jinping pointed out, the foundation of China-U.S. relations was laid by our peoples, the door was opened by our peoples, the stories are written by our peoples, and the future will be created by our peoples. People in the U.S. Midwest have witnessed numerous stories of friendly exchanges and win-win cooperation between China and the U.S. in trade, investment, culture and education. In particular, the business community is an important supporter, participant and contributor to the cooperation between the two sides. In the Year of the Dragon, we hope that everyone will continue to show vitality like a dragon, seize opportunities, and vigorously promote cooperation, so as to achieve common development and benefit our two peoples.

I wish today’s event a big success, thank you!