Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with heads of major international economic organizations, who came for the "1+10" Dialogue, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on December 10, 2024. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday China has full confidence in achieving this year's economic growth target and will continue to play its role as the biggest engine of world economic growth, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Xi made the remarks as he met with heads of major international economic organizations, including President of the New Development Bank Dilma Rousseff, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva, President of the World Bank Group Ajay Banga, and Director-General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who came to Beijing for the "1+10" Dialogue.  

During the meeting on Tuesday, Xi said China will further open up to the outside world, proactively align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and build a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment to provide more opportunities for and share more development dividends with other countries, Xinhua reported. 

China is willing to maintain dialogue, expand cooperation and manage differences with the US government, and push bilateral relations forward in the direction of steady, healthy and sustainable development, Xi said, expressing the hope that the US side will work with China in the same direction.

"Tariff wars, trade wars and sci-tech wars go against the trend of history and the laws of economics, and there will be no winners," Xi said, according to Xinhua. 

The foreign guests hailed China's remarkable achievements, particularly in reducing poverty and fostering new quality productive forces, saying China's people-centered development philosophy has been proven to be both successful and practical and offers inspiration for the world, Xinhua reported. 

China has continued to comprehensively deepen reform, expand opening-up and achieve high-quality development, providing tremendous opportunities to the world, especially countries in the Global South, they said.

Bringing certainty

Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that as the world faces various uncertainties, the dialogue and cooperation between China and major international economic organizations help bring certainty and further assure  that the world's second-largest economy will continue to play a crucial, positive role for the world economy. 

"Many in the international community hold high expectations of China. Amid the uncertain global environment, they hope that China will continue to play an active and positive role in many fields. And this is why this kind of dialogue mechanism between China and major international economic organizations is important," Zhou told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

For their part, the heads of the major international economic organizations said that amid global economic challenges and the rise of unilateralism and protectionism, countries around the world are looking to China with hope and belief that it will remain a key engine of global economic growth, Xinhua reported.

They added that the major international economic organizations stand ready to collaborate closely with China, uphold multilateralism, and safeguard free trade and economic globalization, according to Xinhua.  

"The dialogue between China and the major international economic organizations demonstrates not only its solid cooperation with global multilateral institutions but also its resolute support for multilateralism," He Weiwen, a senior fellow from the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

He further pointed out that the US' erroneous policies of imposing additional tariffs and restricting high-tech exports are disrupting multilateral economic rules and posing a grave threat to the world economy. "US policies may target China, but they also threaten the world and directly challenge global multilateral trade rules," he said, adding that the US will not emerge as a winner from such policies.

Despite the US' long list of restrictions, China-US bilateral trade remains resilient, latest data showed. In the first 11 months of 2024, China's import and export volume with the US reached 4.44 trillion yuan ($612.4 billion), up 4.2 percent year-on-year, with China's exports to the US expanding 5.1 percent year-on-year, according to data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, threats of additional tariffs on Chinese products have already sparked concerns within the US over potential damage to American businesses and consumers, as some US media reports indicated that the additional tariffs could raise prices for American consumers and costs for US businesses that are reliant on imports.

"We can see that the additional tariffs on China have not stopped its exports, which have instead seen growth and even reached record levels during some periods. On the contrary, the tariffs did not help boost US exports to China and have increased costs for US households and businesses," He said.

Global engine

Moreover, despite some risks and challenges, including a worsening external environment, the Chinese economy remains on a solid growth trend, which will contribute greatly to global growth this year and beyond, according to Zhou. 

"China's various economic indicators, including trade data, have met expectations. On top of that, the Political Bureau meeting offered more positive and important policy guidance for continued economic development, which I believe will bring more vitality and is critical for continued economic growth," Zhou said, adding that this will offer diversified and steady development opportunities for the world.

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Monday held a meeting to analyze and study the economic work of 2025 and arrange Party conduct and anti-corruption work. The meeting said the main goals and tasks for economic and social development in 2024 will be successfully accomplished, and urged the implementation of a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy next year and expanding high-level opening-up.

Many observers around the world are also closely following the upcoming Central Economic Work Conference, during which Chinese policymakers are expected to set the priorities for economic work next year.