Zhao Leji, chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, reaffirmed commitments to high-standard opening-up and domestic demand in a keynote speech Thursday at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2026 plenary. The event in Boao, Hainan province, themed "Shaping a Shared Future: New Dynamics, New Opportunities, New Cooperation," drew over 1,600 representatives from more than 60 countries and regions.
The Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2026 ran from March 24 to 27 in Boao, Hainan province. At Thursday's plenary meeting, Zhao Leji highlighted rising geopolitical conflicts, unilateralism, protectionism, hegemonism, and bloc confrontation. "People across the world are yearning more urgently for peace and development, and their call for fairness and justice has grown stronger," he said, urging nations to reject conflict, confrontation, exclusion, bullying, and estrangement.
China will tap its market of over 1.4 billion people by boosting investment and consumption in telecommunications, education, healthcare, elderly care, and child care, Zhao added. He stressed innovation-driven development, free trade, law-based governance, institutional opening-up, high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and protection of foreign investors' rights.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said China's vast domestic market serves as a powerful engine for regional growth. "Looking ahead, Singapore has confidence in China's long-term prospects," he noted. South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, in a video address, aims to concretize industrial, technological, and investment ties with China for mutual and global benefit.
Hannah Qiu, PayPal's senior vice-president and China CEO, credited China's financial opening for benefits to the firm, which launched PayPal Open in China last September to aid merchants' overseas sales. Peter Burnett, CEO of the China-Britain Business Council, welcomed China's focus on services opening-up. Tony Pusic of AstraZeneca highlighted opportunities in biomedicine from China's strategic industries push.
Boao Forum Secretary-General Zhang Jun said at a March 24 press conference that around 2,000 representatives from over 60 countries and 1,100 journalists from 150 media outlets would attend, with two flagship reports released.
