China urges Asian neighbours to take peace and security ‘into their own hands’
- Country’s legislative chief says region should resist ‘bloc confrontation’, calls for unity and independence amid ‘serious challenges’
- Zhao Leji also promises more economic cooperation and openness as Beijing seeks to steady ties in the region
The head of China’s top legislative body has urged Asian governments and business leaders to take the fate of the region’s peace and security “into their own hands”.
China calls for ‘critical’ global financial reforms, a collective Asian voice
Zhao urged the country’s neighbours to “insist on independence and autonomy, unity and self-reliance … oppose taking sides in bloc confrontation to prevent the region and the world from degenerating into a geopolitical arena of contention”.
Zhao delivered the speech on the third day of the conference, where former and current officials, business executives and academics discussed Asian financial cooperation, trade, investment, and geopolitics.
Zhao, China’s No 3 leader, also promised more economic cooperation, adding that that door to the country’s markets will “only open wider and never be closed”.
Long-delayed China-Japan-South Korea summit needed ‘as soon as possible’
China will continue to reduce its “negative list” of bans or restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, ensure that foreign firms are treated the same way as domestic firms, and make it more convenient for foreigners to work, study and travel in China, he said.
Zhao met dozens of foreign corporate executives, as well as the forum’s board of directors on Wednesday, highlighting what he said was China’s “series of high quality measures of opening up”.
Leaders from Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Nauru and Cambodia also spoke at the ceremony in Boao, a town in southern China’s Hainan province.
US military presence risks conflict in South China Sea, Boao Forum hears
The forum is a non-governmental international organisation of 29 member states mainly in the Indo-Pacific aimed at promoting economic exchanges, coordination and cooperation in the region and between Asia and other parts of the world.
The opening ceremony has typically been attended by China’s president or premier, but neither Xi Jinping or Li Qiang are attending this year’s event as they hold meetings and host international delegations in Beijing this week.
01:23
Dutch prime minister raises cyberspying allegations in talks with Chinese leader Xi
Xi has scaled back his appearances at top-level meetings, while Li has attended fewer international meetings than his predecessor Li Keqiang.
