Support for free trade takes on new significance

Amid mounting fears over the specter of escalating trade tensions haunting the global economy, China's role as a visionary leader of open and free trade is taking on a new significance, an expert said.

The world's second largest economy celebrates the 40th anniversary of the launch of reform and opening-up this year, a milestone that set the stage for an unbridled socioeconomic miracle whose sheer scale and pace in little more than a generation is unprecedented in human history.

"Since 1978, the country's journey from self-imposed isolation to a modern market economy has proved to be a driving force for global trade," said Christian Ewert, director general of Amfori, which is based in Belgium and was previously known as the Foreign Trade Association - the global business association for open and sustainable trade.