A view of the Lujiazui area in Shanghai Photo: VCG

China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng doubled down on the nation’s financial opening‑up at the 2026 Lujiazui Forum held in Shanghai on Wednesday, pledging broader institutional measures and casting Shanghai as a rising global hub for RMB asset allocation and risk management, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

In a key note speech at the opening ceremony, He reaffirmed China’s commitment to expanding institutional openness and welcoming global financial players. He vowed to support Shanghai in taking the lead in piloting offshore financial services, expediting its development into a premier global center for RMB asset allocation and risk management, and enhancing the facilitation of cross‑border trade and investment. On global cooperation, He said China stands ready to work with other nations to tackle shared financial risks and strengthen global governance, per Xinhua.

The remarks came as the 2026 Lujiazui Forum kicked off on Wednesday, unveiling a raft of landmark financial opening‑up policies.

At the forum, Shanghai officially released an action plan for developing offshore finance to bolster its global financial hub status. The blueprint prioritizes initial offshore business pilots covering offshore trade finance, free trade zone offshore bonds, offshore reinsurance and offshore RMB forex trading, and will expand eligible services gradually based on pilot outcomes, according to the document released on the website of the Shanghai municipal government on Wednesday.

Major financial opening-up measures were also rolled out at the forum. Six major domestic banks will pilot offshore RMB forex trading via the national foreign exchange trading platform within the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, central bank governor Pan Gongsheng announced at the forum. The central bank will also launch a new RMB Repo facility for foreign and international monetary authorities to obtain RMB liquidity. Dubbed the FIMA RMB Repo Facility, the new tool allows overseas central banks, international financial organizations and sovereign wealth funds to obtain RMB liquidity through repurchase transactions backed by high-grade assets, including Chinese central government bonds.

China’s latest financial opening-up drive comes as global capital is increasingly flowing into the country. Amid global market volatility, Chinese assets are drawing global capital with growing certainty.

Wu Qing, chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission said at the forum that China’s capital markets have undergone profound positive changes. Having weathered major risk shocks, the markets have seen growing resilience and risk resistance. Amid sweeping rebalancing and reallocation of global financial assets, Chinese assets are winning wide attention and favor from international investors for their safety, resilience and innovation value.

Zhu Hexin, the head of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange, disclosed at the forum that foreign holdings of Chinese equities and bonds have exceeded $1 trillion. He also unveiled a series of forthcoming forex policy revisions, including revamped FDI cross-border rules, streamlined procedures for ODI and external debt forex transactions, optimized cross‑border equity incentive mechanisms, and new QDII quota issuance.