APEC’s approach to resilience

The bloc’s value lies not in issuing broad declarations, but in transforming consensus into replicable and scalable public goods for regional and global governance through pragmatic cooperation

Asia-Pacific regional cooperation has become increasingly important amid growing uncertainty in the global economic and trade landscape, driven by sluggish global growth, rising trade protectionism and accelerated restructuring of industrial and supply chains. The APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, held in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, from May 22 to 23, marked an important milestone in China’s role as APEC host in 2026. More importantly, it helped build consensus and shape the agenda for the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, which will be held in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in November.

Since its establishment in 1989, APEC has played a central role in shaping the Asia-Pacific economic order through a distinctive “APEC approach” that is tailored to the region’s diversity and varying stages of development. Based on voluntary, non-binding and consensus-building principles, APEC embraces open regionalism and promotes regional economic cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. By maximizing common ground while respecting differences, it has strengthened regional cohesion and fostered broad-based consensus across the region.

From the Bogor Goals to the Putrajaya Vision 2040, APEC has consistently provided long-term strategic direction for regional cooperation. The Bogor Goals — a commitment APEC leaders made in Bogor, Indonesia, in 1994, to achieve free and open trade and investment by 2010 for industrialized economies and by 2020 for developing economies — established a phased road map toward trade and investment liberalization, helping transform the Asia-Pacific into one of the world’s most dynamic and open economic regions during the height of globalization. The Putrajaya Vision 2040, adopted in 2020, envisioned an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community. It identified three economic drivers — trade and investment; innovation and digitization; and strong, balanced, secure, sustainable and inclusive growth.

China’s proposed theme for APEC 2026, “Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together”, together with its three priority areas — openness, innovation and cooperation — represents both a continuation and a concrete implementation of this vision.

In terms of openness, the 2024 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting issued the Ichma Statement on A New Look at the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific agenda, strengthening the multilateral trading system, opposing protectionism and enhancing supply chain cooperation.

In terms of innovation, APEC has prioritized cooperation in emerging fields such as the digital economy, artificial intelligence, green development and new energy technologies, with a strong emphasis on technology-driven growth.

In terms of cooperation, APEC continues to promote inclusive and sustainable development, with particular attention to food and energy security, climate change, poverty reduction and greater integration of small and medium-sized enterprises and vulnerable groups into global value chains. Together, these priorities reflect APEC’s ongoing efforts to promote high-quality growth in the Asia-Pacific while expanding both the scope and depth of regional economic cooperation.

The Asia-Pacific region’s role as a stabilizing force in the global economy is rooted first and foremost in its considerable economic weight and high degree of openness. According to official APEC statistics for 2025, the region was home to approximately 3 billion people, accounting for 36.6 percent of the global population. Its real GDP reached $57.5 trillion, representing 59.4 percent of the world total, while its imports and exports of goods and commercial services accounted for 46.8 percent and 46.2 percent of global trade, respectively.

Data from the APEC Policy Support Unit show that the region achieved real GDP growth of 3.5 percent in 2023 and 3.3 percent in 2024. The latest edition of the APEC Regional Trends Analysis shows growth of around 3.3 percent in 2025. Despite fluctuations in global demand, tightening financial conditions and escalating trade frictions, the Asia-Pacific economy has maintained relatively strong resilience, underscoring the enduring value of open markets, deep economic integration and regional cooperation as drivers of growth.

This stabilizing role is also reflected in APEC’s capacity for institutional innovation and rule incubation. In 2012, APEC introduced a list of environmental goods that later served as an important reference for negotiations on the World Trade Organization Environmental Goods Agreement. During the 2014 Beijing APEC meetings, China and the United States reached a consensus on expanding the Information Technology Agreement, paving the way for the WTO’s 2015 agreement to eliminate tariffs on 201 IT products.

APEC has also successfully implemented initiatives such as the APEC Business Travel Card scheme to facilitate cross-border business mobility, as well as two phases of Trade Facilitation Action Plans and the Connectivity Blueprint, all of which have significantly reduced transaction costs and enhanced regional connectivity. These efforts have also helped advance the implementation of commitments under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

These examples demonstrate that APEC’s value lies not in issuing broad declarations of principle, but in its ability to transform consensus into replicable and scalable public goods for regional and global governance through pragmatic cooperation.

For China, APEC has long served as a major platform for participating in international economic cooperation. As the first regional economic cooperation mechanism China joined, APEC has provided an important channel for advancing China’s diplomacy as a major country, including head-of-state diplomacy, neighborhood diplomacy and economic diplomacy.

APEC’s vision of building an Asia-Pacific community by 2040 also carries significant practical relevance for China’s efforts to build a community with a shared future for humanity. By fostering a stable and favorable regional environment, APEC supports China’s pursuit of institutional opening-up and high-quality development. Continued progress in trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, regional connectivity, and Asia-Pacific value and supply chain cooperation will further strengthen China’s capacity for high-level opening-up and create broader space for advancing Chinese modernization.

This year, China is hosting APEC for the third time. Both the Shanghai Accord adopted in 2001 and the Beijing Agenda issued in 2014 have become landmark achievements in APEC’s history.

Going forward, China will demonstrate the responsibility of a major country by supporting the openness of the Asia-Pacific economy and promoting practical cooperation in areas such as the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, connectivity, the digital economy and AI in response to evolving trends in global trade restructuring. China will also work with all parties to build an Asia-Pacific community, inject new momentum into regional development, and strengthen the synergy between APEC-led regional cooperation and global governance, further reinforcing the Asia-Pacific’s role as the primary engine of global economic growth.

Liu Chenyang is a professor and the director of the APEC Study Center of Nankai University. Yu Xiaoyan is an associate research fellow at the APEC Study Center of Nankai University.

The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.