Huang Qifan, Academic Advisor to the China Finance 40 Forum (CF40) and Vice Chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, recently stated that joining high-standard trade and economic agreements—such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)—represents a major strategic initiative for China to proactively respond to a new global landscape. Huang Qifan noted that joining the CPTPP will help drive deeper domestic reforms through a higher level of openness, stimulate vitality in the domestic market, enhance the efficiency of the domestic circulation, and accelerate the formation of a more robust socialist market economy system. At the same time, joining the CPTPP itself constitutes a major strategic move for China to participate in the international economic cycle through openness—and serves as a crucial lever for promoting mutual reinforcement between domestic and international dual circulations.
Huang Qifan emphasized that, in addition to the CPTPP, China must also thoroughly implement its 'Free Trade Area (FTA) Strategy' and expand its network of free trade partners. Although the global industrial chain has undergone restructuring following the pandemic, the foundational 'Three Zeros' principle remains intact: 'zero tariffs,' 'zero barriers,' and 'zero subsidies' continue to represent the overarching direction. For China, grasping this fundamental logic enables it to enter international trade and economic rule negotiations with clarity of purpose and leverage in hand. In particular, China should effectively deploy the 'zero-tariff' card to strengthen its bargaining position. The strategic intent behind establishing pilot Free Trade Zones (FTZs) is to conduct trial runs and stress tests—and serve as platforms for risk mitigation—prior to implementing the broader FTA strategy. Moving forward, to meet the needs of building a new, higher-level open economy under evolving circumstances, China must not only establish additional FTZs but also upgrade and empower existing ones by expanding their geographic scope and functional authority.
Last updated: 2026-03-08