On July 25, the leading Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið carried an article by Ambassador He Rulong entitled " A Higher-Level of Opening Up for the New Era ".

The full text is as follows:

Quite a few conventions and meetings are going on right now throughout the world. One that you cannot miss is the Third Plenary Session of the 20thCentral Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), whichwas successfully held in Beijing between 15 and 18 of July. At the session, the Central Committee considered and adopted a resolution on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization.

The significance of the third plenary session of the CPC Central Committee can never be stressed enough, as one can recall the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, which had famously adopted the reform and opening up policy more than 40 years ago, kicking off the process of a soaring Chinese economy decades in a row.

This time, the Third Plenary Session highlighted in its resolution openness and peace, two phrases so overlooked in today’s turbulent world rampant with isolationism and exclusion.

By stressing openness as a distinctive feature of Chinese-style modernization, the Third Plenary Session maintained that China must adhere to the basic state policy of opening up to the outside world and promote reform through opening up. On top of that, China needs to build a new and higher-level open economic system by taking advantage of its super-large market and improving its capabilities in expanding international cooperation. It is necessary to steadily expand institutional opening up, deepen the reform of the foreign trade system as well as the foreign investment and outbound investment management system, optimize the layout of regional opening up, and promote a high-quality "Belt and Road" mechanism. As one can see, the resolution is all about continuing to reform and open up, which is completely different from the practice of  building up walls or setting up small circles to prevent products and services from other foreign countries.

Our world is one far from being tranquil and division and disagreement within countries and across countries are on the rise. Against this backdrop, the Third Plenary Session emphasized that Chinese-style modernization should follow the path of peaceful development. China must firmly pursue an independent foreign policy of peace, promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, practice common values for all mankind, implement Global Development Initiatives, Global Security Initiatives, and Global Civilization Initiatives, and advocate an equal and orderly world with multipolarity as well as a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. Of course, this does not sound very familiar in our world today where regional conflicts continue to unfold without any sign of abating. However, this is dictated by China’s philosophy in growing relations with other countries and proven by China’s consistent track record of peace in the UN system.

The Chinese path to modernization entails higher-level of opening up and a peaceful environment. China’s success story over the years is a living testimony to that. I strongly encourage Icelanders to go and visit China, as 14.635 million foreign tourists had flocked back to China in the first half of this year, registering a growth rate of 152.7% year on year. There you will find yourselves in a country full of confidence for the future, energy for innovation and goodwill for a peaceful world.