Successful experiences behind Xi's confidence

At a time when US and European leaders are losing confidence in the future, China's President Xi Jinping has boldly embraced it. This paradox, however, is the natural outgrowth of decades of successful economic policies in China contrasted with increasingly discredited and failed ones in the West.

Xi's comments to address the necessity of continuing opening-up during the annual sessions of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, the country's top political advisory body, are of the greatest importance. They show China remains committed to peace and the expansion of global trade and investment.

The contrast with the unpredictable policies of the Donald Trump administration in the United States and the uncertainty sweeping the major countries in Western Europe could not be greater.