BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's 40-year reform and opening-up will continue to deepen in a way conducive to the development of fairer international rules, according to Chinese economist Zhang Yuyan.
"Dexterity in handling its relations with the rest of the world will be vital to the country's future reform and opening-up," Zhang, director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua in an interview.
The country needs to find a balance between maintaining its policy path and safeguarding its core interests while trying to meet new demands from the outside world, Zhang reckoned. "We should better explain the endeavors and national conditions of China in a bid to make this process smoother."
Despite the challenges posed by trade protectionism and unilateralism, China is still in a period of strategic opportunity as long as it manages its own tasks well, Zhang said.
Commenting on China's "miraculous" development, he said it is characterized by the country's adaptation to the international rules and opening to the global market.
"Over the past 40 years, China first oriented itself to the international economic system, then contributed to and led efforts for the system's optimization," Zhang said. "The opening-up brought China's deep integration and an increasingly larger say in the global economic system, which is commensurate with its economic heft."
The current system of global economic governance is based on a set of "non-neutral" rules pivoted to the interests of developed economies that laid its foundation, obviously flawed in its underrepresentation of emerging economies, Zhang said.
"Emerging economies are actively pushing forward reform of the system amid profound changes in power gaps among major economies," he said. "We are seeing an irresistible trend where they are trying to make the institutional arrangement more balanced and neutral without dismantling the whole system or building an entirely new one."
He compared international competition under current rules to a race with Usain Bolt, record-setter of the Men's 100 meters. "Let's say we pit an ordinary college student against Bolt; there's no question the student would lose, and that's the situation now. Changes need to be made to level the playing field."
Zhang said it's necessary to refine the rules so as to give players in different tracks opportunities to exert their respective advantages on a level playing field to reach their proper places.
"China will build on its opening-up to promote a more open world economy, boost cooperation in global governance and make the competition rules fairer," he said.
