Keynote Speech by Li Qiang at the Opening Ceremony of the 2023 Annual Meeting of Boao Forum for Asia (full text)

Xinhua News Agency, Boao, Hainan, March 30th

Guided by the concept of community of human destiny
Inject more certainty into world peace and development.
-Keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2023 annual meeting of Boao Forum for Asia
(March 30, 2023, Boao, Hainan)
Li Qiang, Prime Minister of the State Council, People’s Republic of China (PRC)

Dear heads of government,

Dear heads of international organizations,

Dear directors of Boao Forum for Asia,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Ladies and gentlemen, friends,

I am very happy to meet you in the beautiful Hainan Island and attend the 2023 annual meeting of Boao Forum for Asia. First of all, on behalf of the China Municipal Government, I would like to extend my warm congratulations on the opening of the annual meeting! I would like to extend my sincere welcome to all the guests! Thank you for your long-term concern and support for the development of China!

The theme of this annual meeting is "An uncertain world: unity and cooperation to meet challenges, openness and tolerance to promote development", which is in line with the current situation and concerns of all parties and has strong practical significance. In today’s world, chaos is intertwined, and human society is facing unprecedented challenges. Instability, uncertainty and unpredictability have become the norm. In this great change full of uncertainty, people urgently hope to have more and stronger deterministic forces to push the world forward towards a better future.

Ten years ago, the Chairman of the Supreme Leader first put forward the important concept of a community of human destiny, and then on many international occasions, including the Boao Forum for Asia, he profoundly expounded China’s proposition of building a community of human destiny, and further put forward global development initiatives, global security initiatives and global civilization initiatives, providing a Chinese plan for global development and governance. In the past 10 years, China has promoted the building of a community of human destiny with pragmatic actions and achieved a series of significant practical results. In particular, the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has driven the vast number of developing countries to accelerate their development and opened up new space for the world economy. At the same time, it has also made fruitful efforts in advocating political settlement of the crisis, solving international hot issues, persuading peace and promoting talks, and turning war into friendship, demonstrating the responsibility of a responsible big country. These are vivid practices of the concept of a community of human destiny. Facts have proved that the concept of a community of human destiny has become a banner that leads the trend of the times and human progress, and a source of certainty that promotes lasting peace and common prosperity in the world.

Now, Asia and the world are at the crossroads of historical evolution. We must hold high the banner of the concept of a community of human destiny, work together to build a community of Asian destiny, build an anchor of world peace and stability, a source of growth and a new highland of cooperation, inject more certainty into world peace and development, and strive to create a better future for mankind.

First, jointly protect a peaceful and stable development environment and inject more certainty into the chaotic and intertwined international situation. Peace is the premise of development. In the past few decades, Asia has achieved remarkable development achievements in the world, which cannot be separated from the overall peaceful and stable environment; In order to achieve greater development in Asia in the future, there must be no chaos and war, otherwise it will ruin its future. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the Bandung Spirit, which were born nearly 70 years ago, are the crystallization of the wisdom of the Asian people. The "Asian way", which takes mutual respect, consensus and taking care of the comfort of all parties as important principles, provides basic follow-up for cooperation and development between countries. The more turbulent the world situation is, the more we should cherish these precious wealth and resolutely protect the hard-won peace situation. We must always adhere to good-neighborliness and friendship, support ASEAN’s central position in East Asian regional cooperation, share security and destiny, and ensure lasting peace and stability in Asia. We should implement the global security initiative, adhere to the common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept, oppose the abuse of unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction", oppose taking sides, group confrontation and the "new cold war", persist in resolving differences and disputes between countries by peaceful means, and jointly safeguard world peace and tranquility.

Second, work together to create a more dynamic growth center and inject more certainty into the recovery of the world economy. Asia has nearly 60% of the global population, nearly 40% of the total economic output and more than 30% of international trade, and is the "ballast stone" and "propeller" of the world economy. We should implement global development initiatives, seize the opportunity of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and create new growth poles in cooperation fields such as digital economy and green economy, so as to make Asia a "power source" for world economic recovery and development. It is necessary to further promote regional economic integration, strengthen macro-policy coordination, implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with high quality, actively promote the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area version 3.0 negotiations, build a regional production division system with complementary advantages and win-win cooperation, and promote the formation of a more open regional market. It is necessary to build an open world economy, jointly build the "Belt and Road" with high quality, promote the liberalization and facilitation of global trade and investment, oppose trade protectionism and "decoupling and breaking the chain", ensure the stable and smooth supply chain of the global industrial chain, and inject strong momentum into the development of the world economy.

Third, jointly expand effective ways of unity and cooperation and inject more certainty into profoundly changed global governance. Today’s world is a global village, the future and destiny of all countries are closely linked, and many global problems we face need to be discussed and solved together. Last year, Asian countries successfully hosted the BRICS Leaders’ Meeting, the East Asian Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting, the G20 Leaders’ Summit and the APEC Leaders’ Informal Meeting, which played an important role in improving global governance. We must adhere to the concept of global governance, actively participate in the reform and construction of the global governance system, firmly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at the core and the international order based on international law, continuously deepen cooperation in the fields of food, energy, eco-environment, disaster prevention and mitigation, climate change and poverty reduction, jointly send out the strong voice of the times of peace and development, jointly release the positive signal of adhering to multilateralism, and promote the development of the global governance system in a more just and rational direction.

Fourth, we should jointly promote the deepening of people-to-people exchanges and inject more certainty into the integration and symbiosis of different civilizations. Not long ago, the Chairman of the Supreme Leader proposed the Global Civilization Initiative, which provided important guidance for promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations and promoting the progress of human civilization. Asia is the representative of the diversity of civilizations, and different civilizations complement each other. At the same time, Asian countries are at different stages of development, most of them are still developing countries, and each country has its own unique history, culture and specific national conditions. We are willing to work with all parties to implement the global civilization initiative and strive to create a new situation of cultural exchanges, cultural integration and people’s hearts. We must adhere to mutual respect, mutual trust, openness and tolerance, respect the development path independently chosen by all countries, and oppose the "clash of civilizations" and ideological confrontation. It is necessary to carry forward the common values of all mankind, strengthen exchanges in the fields of culture, education, health, youth and media, enhance understanding and trust through sincere communication, properly handle differences and problems by seeking common ground while reserving differences, and create a model for different civilizations to blend and coexist.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends!

As the largest developing country in the world, China’s development is of world significance. While doing our best to do our own thing well, we actively conform to the trend of the times of peace, development, cooperation and win-win, and always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order. China has created two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability, which in itself is a contribution to the world. It can be said that in an uncertain world, the certainty of China is the mainstay of maintaining world peace and development. This was the case in the past, especially in the future and the present.

From the future, the development goals and prospects of China are certain. The The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China（CPC） held in October last year drew a blueprint for the future development of China, and clearly pointed out that by the middle of this century, the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s central task is to unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups in the country to build a socialist modernization power in an all-round way, realize the goal of the second century, and comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese modernization. The modernization that China wants to build is a modernization with a huge population, the common prosperity of all people, the harmony between material civilization and spiritual civilization, the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and the peaceful development path. We will never realize modernization by means of war, colonization, plunder, etc., and will definitely make more than 1.4 billion people move into a modern society by peaceful development, which will bring strong momentum to economic growth in Asia and the world. To accomplish this central task, it takes a long period of continuous struggle. In this process, no matter what changes take place in the world, we will always adhere to the drive of reform, opening up and innovation, which will not only inject new impetus and vitality into the economic development of the whole world, but also let all countries in the world share the opportunities and dividends of China’s development. I think a long-term stable and dedicated China, a down-to-earth and courageous China, and a confident, open and sharing China must be a great force for world prosperity and stability.

At present, the momentum and situation of China’s economic growth are strong. In the first two months of this year, China’s economy showed a trend of recovery, with major economic indicators such as consumption and investment improving, employment prices generally stable, market expectations improved significantly, manufacturing purchasing managers’ index continuously stood above threshold, and several international organizations raised their expectations for China’s economic growth this year. Real scenes may be more convincing than statistics. Take Hainan Island, where Boao Forum is located, as an example, the tourism industry has changed from "Golden Week" of the Spring Festival to "Golden Month" and "Golden Season", and tourists are always everywhere, and the sales of duty-free goods on outlying islands continue to be hot, which fully reflects the strong economic resilience, great potential and vitality of China, the long-term positive fundamentals of China’s economy, and the scientific and effective policies and measures for China’s economic and social development. In the next step, we will continue to adhere to the principle of stability and strive for progress, consolidate and expand the economic recovery to a good trend, and promote the sustained overall improvement of economic operation; We will organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening the structural reform on the supply side, and continue to expand the market scale of China; We will introduce new measures in expanding market access, optimizing the business environment, and ensuring the landing of projects, and constantly optimize the institutional environment in which state-owned enterprises dare to do things, private enterprises dare to venture, and foreign companies dare to invest; We will effectively prevent and resolve major risks, especially to maintain the overall stability of China’s financial operation and firmly hold the bottom line that no systemic risks will occur. We are confident and capable of pushing the great ship of China’s economy to ride the wind and waves, make steady progress and make greater contributions to the development of the world economy.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends!

Another "Asian event" this year is that the 19th Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou in the golden autumn. The epidemic delayed the meeting and made us look forward to it more. From the ends of the earth to the west lake, there are many beautiful places in the open China. You are welcome to visit more. Where there is scenery, there must be a new economy, and there will be many mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation business opportunities. I believe that as long as we join hands, unite and cooperate to meet challenges, be open and inclusive and promote development, we will certainly bring more certainty to Asia and the world, and we will certainly create a better future for human society!

Finally, I wish the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2023 a complete success!

Thank you!