Photo: VCG

Graphics: GT

China pulled the US out of the 2008 financial crisis, a Chinese expert said on Thursday, saying that China's opening-up is win-win.

"China made the largest contribution for the US to recover from the financial crisis over the past 10 years. In 2009, when the global economy was hit heavily by the financial crisis, China's GDP accounted for about 8 percent of the global total, but the country's contribution to global economic growth reached 50 percent," Zhang Yansheng, chief research fellow with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told reporters on the sidelines of the New Economy Forum held in Beijing on Thursday.

China's opening-up is mutually beneficial and win-win, Zhang said.

"As of now, China is the largest trade partner of more than 120 economies," Zhang said.

In 2018, China's GDP represented 16 percent of the global total, but its contribution to global economic growth was still remarkable at 30 percent, he said.

"In the past 10 years, China's financial leverage rate increased about 114 percentage points. Why China did this? This policy actually pulled the US and world economies out of crisis," Zhang said.

Amid the prolonged China-US trade war, Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) President Jin Liqun said at the forum that he anticipated further cooperation between China and the US as well as joint investment.

"There is wide scope for China and the US to cooperate for the benefit of the people in the two countries as well as helping the development of other countries," Jin said at the New Economy Forum in Beijing on Thursday.

The AIIB has cooperated with US companies and financial institutions, and there are also many US citizens who hold high posts in the AIIB, Jin said, encouraging US manufacturers and suppliers to cooperate with the AIIB.

As for China's opening-up, the West should better understand the East and not get too anxious, according to Zhang.

"China's increasing opening-up is like a child gradually growing up, but the Western countries are too eager to see China completely open up right now. That's like asking a three-year-old child to become an adult overnight," Zhang said.

"China is boosting opening-up following its own pace, as China's culture and history determine its opening-up can't be done in only one step," Zhang said on Thursday. 

China accelerated its opening-up in recent years. Apart from continuous efforts in trimming its negative list, laws on foreign investment and business environment optimization will take effect on January 1, 2020.

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone launched the Lingang special area in August, while six other new pilot free trade zones have been set up in provinces including Northeast China's Heilongjiang, Southwest China's Yunnan and East China's Shandong.

Whatever the measures are, these are the new platforms for a new round of opening-up in the new era, Zhang said.

These areas are competing to establish a high-level opening-up platform, to aggregate technologies and talent, to build modern regulation, governance and cross-border systems, as well as to improve the business environment, according to Zhang.