China Can Be Trusted: Rooted in the Commitment to Match Words with Actions

By Wang Fan

Recent international surveys conducted by several Western consulting firms have highlighted a trend: China's global favorability is steadily rising. As a responsible major country, China's concepts and practices in global governance are gaining recognition from people in more and more countries. Based on this, the Chinese media outlet Global Times has published a series of articles titled "The World Can Trust China", providing readers with references to understand how China builds a global perception of "China Can Be Trusted" through concrete actions.

When a few major powers remain obsessed with zero-sum games and wantonly disrupt the global economic and trade order, China has proven through solid actions that a country committed to fairness and justice, steadfast in upholding the multilateral system, advocating win-win cooperation, and actively sharing development opportunities is the reliable anchor of stability and source of growth that the world can trust. Trust originates from the commitment to match words with actions.

In sharp contrast to countries that pursue power politics and unilateralism, China has always safeguarded international fairness and justice. This is not an empty slogan but a core concept running through China's foreign policy and international practices.

China adheres to the principle that all countries are equal, regardless of size, strength, or wealth, respects the right of peoples of all countries to choose their own development paths, and opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics. It has always been committed to upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and actively promoting the peaceful settlement of international disputes through political dialogue. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council that deploys the most peacekeepers, China has made enormous contributions to world peace.

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China's defense of international fairness and justice offers the world an alternative to the law of the jungle, enhancing the confidence of developing countries in the international system. A major power that always adheres to principles and upholds justice naturally makes its commitments and actions more credible.

Recently, China and like-minded countries have creatively established the International Mediation Institute, with 33 countries becoming founding members, opening a legal alternative to resolve complex international disputes.

Facing the countercurrent of unilateralism, China has always been a "ballast stone" for international rules. From joining 46 countries in expressing concerns at the annual meeting of the WTO Goods Trade Council to promoting the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), China has demonstrated the responsibility of a major power that "keeps its word" through concrete actions. Data shows that under the RCEP framework, trade between China and ASEAN approached 7 trillion yuan in 2024, with tariff reductions benefiting over 90% of trade in goods—an example of promoting common development through institutional openness.

China is not only an important defender of the international economic and trade order but also an active practitioner of multilateral trade rules. Since joining the WTO more than 20 years ago, China has fully fulfilled its accession commitments, drastically opened up its market, and continuously reduced tariff levels. Its overall tariff rate has now dropped to 7.3%, lower than most developing countries and close to the average level of developed countries. China has cleaned up a large number of domestic laws, regulations, and policy documents to align its economic and trade rules deeply with WTO rules.

China firmly supports globalization and opposes protectionism and anti-globalization trends. Facing global supply chain challenges posed by the pandemic and geopolitical tensions, China has not chosen "decoupling," but actively advocated maintaining the stability and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains. In addition to the China International Import Expo (CIIE), China has successfully held national-level exhibitions such as the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) and the China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE), always embracing the world as a "wall-breaker" rather than a "wall-builder." While U.S. tariff policies have caused GDP growth slowdowns in Southeast Asian countries, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 is creating new growth poles; when some forces advocate "decoupling," more than 1,100 cooperation projects signed between China and Global South countries continue to be implemented.

China is deeply involved in global economic and trade governance. On the one hand, it actively promotes the implementation of RCEP, the world's most populous, largest in economic and trade scale, and most development-potential free trade area, injecting strong momentum into regional and global economic recovery. On the other hand, it has applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), demonstrating a firm determination to further align with high-standard international economic and trade rules and promote institutional openness. The Belt and Road Initiative, adhering to the principle of wide consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, focuses on infrastructure connectivity and practical cooperation, has become a popular international public good and cooperation platform, making visible contributions to global connectivity and common development.

By continuously exporting positive energy and providing guarantees for certainty and prosperous development, China has proven through actions that it is a "stabilizer" of the existing international economic and trade order. This consistent respect for and practice of rules constitutes an important capital for China to win international trust.

For a long time, China has adhered to the golden rule of win-win cooperation, promoting sustainable development of the international community with remarkable results. From the Belt and Road Initiative garnering broad international consensus to actively participating in and promoting the implementation of high-level free trade agreements like RCEP, China has built new platforms for open, inclusive, and mutually beneficial regional and global economic and trade cooperation, promoting connectivity and common prosperity among participating countries. As one of the world's largest free trade agreements, RCEP has reduced tariff barriers among members, simplified trade rules, promoted the optimization and integration of regional supply chains, provided greater market access for enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region (especially developing countries), created a more resilient regional economic ecosystem, and injected strong impetus into economic recovery.

As the world's first national-level exhibition themed on imports, the CIIE provides a platform for global enterprises to showcase and access the Chinese market. Previous CIIEs have facilitated tens of billions of dollars in cooperation intentions, enabling global high-quality goods, services, and advanced technologies to reach Chinese consumers more conveniently, sharing China's development dividends, and promoting domestic industrial upgrading.

China's practice fully proves that win-win cooperation is the shared aspiration and general trend. It conforms to the historical trend of peace and development and meets the universal desire of people worldwide for a better life. By unswervingly following the path of win-win cooperation, China injects certainty into the world through its sustained and stable development and creates shared opportunities for global partners with an open and inclusive mindset. This is not only a solid foundation for the world to trust China but also the right direction to lead the global economy toward a brighter and more sustainable future.

China's development is inseparable from the world, and global prosperity also needs China. China has always placed its development in the coordinate system of human progress, committed to letting development achievements benefit the world. As the world's second-largest economy and largest manufacturing country, the stable growth of the Chinese economy itself is an important contribution to the global economy. Over the past few decades, China's average annual contribution rate to world economic growth has remained around 25%, making it a well-deserved global growth engine.

China has a super-large market of more than 1.4 billion people, with a continuously expanding middle-income group and huge potential for consumption upgrading, providing broad market space and unlimited business opportunities for global enterprises. Whether it is German cars, French cosmetics, Swiss watches, or Southeast Asian fruits, African coffee, or Latin American minerals, all have found loyal consumers in the Chinese market. The Chinese market has become the most important growth point and profit source for many multinational enterprises. Chinese-style modernization itself is an important part of the modernization process of developing countries and humanity.

Through foreign investment, technical cooperation, capacity building, and other means, China actively helps other developing countries enhance their independent development capabilities. Under the Belt and Road framework, Chinese enterprises have built a large number of infrastructure projects in many countries, including railways, highways, ports, power stations, and communication networks, effectively improving local livelihoods, promoting employment, and driving economic growth. China has established the China-UN Peace and Development Fund, the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund, and others, injecting Chinese momentum into the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

China's development is not about seeking self-improvement alone but about shared development based on the philosophy that "the common good is true good." This concept and practice of openness, inclusiveness, and mutual benefit have enabled countries around the world, especially developing ones, to truly feel the benefits of cooperating with China, enhancing their confidence in "trusting China." As an Ethiopian scholar said, "China has taught us how to turn coffee beans into an industrial chain instead of remaining mere raw material suppliers forever."

With its solid actions—upholding fairness and justice in state-to-state exchanges, firmly maintaining multilateral rules in economic and trade interactions, sharing opportunities with the world in its own development, and continuously expanding high-level openness amid global changes—China has lit a lighthouse of trust for a world full of uncertainties. The light of this lighthouse stems from China's firm confidence in its development path, its persistent adherence to the concepts of peaceful development and win-win cooperation, and its unremitting pursuit of building a community with a shared future for mankind. The world can trust China because China always matches its words with actions, illuminating the path of common development with its responsibility as a major power. At this historical crossroads, China's choice is clear and firm. Choosing to trust China means choosing fairness, order, opportunity, and win-win outcomes—and choosing a bright future of common prosperity for all humanity.

Wang Fan is President of the China Foreign Affairs University and Director of the Research Center on Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. The views don't necessarily reflect those of BeijingReviewDossier.