APEC represents the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group of economies, which has 21 members representing more than 50 % of global GDP and is home to approximately 2.7 billion people. The idea of APEC was first raised publicly during a speech in Seoul, South Korea on 31 January 1989 by Bob Hawke, then Australian Prime Minister. Ten months later, 12 Asia-Pacific economies met in Canberra to form APEC. China, Russia and the US are the three largest members. The others are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. It is worth noting that the APEC region generated 70 % of world economic growth in its first 10 years of existence.
Leaders meet annually for a summit that lasts several days and which, since its inception, has been primarily a platform for promoting free trade and multilateralism by fostering cooperation and reducing trade and investment barriers. However, the decisions taken at APEC meetings are non-binding and finding consensus is increasingly difficult, especially amidst the rise of nationalism and protectionism, of which President Trump's tariff policy is the main representative.
In recent years, APEC's agenda has included topics such as adapting to digital change, harnessing artificial intelligence, sustainable energy, food supply, responding to demographic change and increasing opportunities for women and people with disabilities.
APEC South Korea 2025
This is the first APEC meeting for President Trump in his second presidency, who assumed the presidency on January 20, 2025; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, on March 14; South Korean President and host Lee Jae Myung, on June 4; and Peruvian President José Jerí, who assumed the presidency on October 10. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi assumed the premiership on 21 October. This will be the first meeting for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, after she decided to skip the APEC 2024 meeting in Peru. Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who assumed the premiership on 7 September, if I am correctly informed, is skipping his first APEC meeting due to the death of Thailand's Queen Mother Sirikit on 24 October 2025. The death has led to a one-year period of mourning for Thai government officials and also a 90-day period of mourning for the Thai people in Thailand. Russian President Putin will not attend the summit and will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, who has represented President Putin at previous APEC summits in 2023 and 2024.
The 2024 APEC Summit in Peru was under the theme Empower, Include, Grow. Under this theme, participants shared ideas on inclusive and connected growth, digitalization and innovation to support the formal and global economy, and sustainable growth for resilient development. The discussions culminated in the Lima Leaders' Declaration. This year, the discussions are moving across the Pacific to Korea. Korea is hosting APEC for the first time in 20 years. The last time was in 2005 during the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Busan. At that time, one of the main outcomes was the Busan Plan to promote the top priority of promoting free trade. As can be seen, two decades ago APEC's primary focus was on trade and investment liberalisation and regional integration. The current APEC agenda has become much broader over the years. New challenges require a collective response from APEC economies. Against this backdrop, the Putrajaya Vision 2040 has broadened APEC's focus beyond traditional trade and investment to include innovation, digitalization, and sustainable and inclusive growth as key drivers of economic growth. With this in mind, Korea has chosen Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: Connect, Innovate, Prosper as the theme for APEC 2025. The theme of Building a Sustainable Tomorrow reflects the aspiration to realize an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific region as outlined in Putrajaya's vision, which I am familiar with from my nearly seven years in Malaysia.
Meeting of Presidents Xi and Trump
I don't know the details of the negotiations. But I do know that the meeting began at noon local time on 30 October at Gimhae Air Base in Pusan, South Korea, and lasted 100 minutes. Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping and said Beijing and Washington have already reached agreement on many issues and will continue this work during the summit. At the start of the meeting, President Xi Jinping called for the gradual development of relations between China and the United States, noting that negotiators from the two countries have reached some agreement in resolving major trade and economic disagreements.
President Xi Jinping said China and the United States have the potential to promote each other's success and prosperity. Trump, in turn, said his meeting with Xi will be successful and called President Xi Jinping a great leader of a great country. I'm sure we'll have a great relationship for a long time. China's foreign ministry said that during the talks, the leaders of China and the United States would discuss the development of Sino-US relations, issues affecting the parties' common interests, the issue of China's purchase of Russian oil, as well as the issue of the settlement in Ukraine. President Trump did not make a joint statement after his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. After the meeting, Presidents Xi Jinping and Trump walked out together, had a brief chat and shook hands. Trump then immediately departed. This was reported by Reuters, which broadcast the meeting live. Recall that Trump rated the meeting with Xi Jinping 10 out of 12.
The Chinese President noted that the China and US teams had held thorough negotiations and reached consensus on the existing issues. He stressed that economic and trade cooperation between the two countries should be a driving force, not a stumbling block. Xi Jinping urged the two sides not to fall into a vicious circle of retaliation. The two sides should narrow down the list of existing problems and expand cooperation, which should be based on the principles of equality, respect and mutual benefit. President Xi Jinping also recalled that in 2026, APEC will host the summit and the United States will host the G20. Therefore, the parties should support each other and strive for a positive outcome of the two summits. In addition, Beijing and Washington should properly cooperate in the international and regional arena. I have no doubt that President Xi Jinping has made it clear that his country will not be humiliated and intimidated. President Trump has met a very different leader, which indicates, among other things, China's attitude. The latter has responded to the tariffs by increasing tariffs on US imports, diverting from US farmers from whom it has traditionally bought soya beans and imposing restrictions on trade in precious metals. In other words: President Xi Jinping will negotiate, but he will not be intimidated, because on the global economic stage, China is an equal partner with the United States.
I have no doubt that the replica of the Golden Crown from the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla (57 BC to 935 AD), the state honours, the valuable golf club, the promises of a Nobel Peace Prize nomination satisfied the President's vanity and mind, at least for a while. The leaders of Malaysia, Japan and South Korea want to be on good terms with the White House and are trying to persuade him to drop the high tariffs he has imposed on the Asian nations mentioned above. I recall that China talks from time to time about the Century of Humiliation, the two Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion. None of these episodes was a failure for Chinese society. Until the Ming Dynasty, which closed China to the world in the 16th century, China was far ahead of Europe.
I assume the subject of drugs was discussed by the presidents. This is already because President Trump accuses China, among other things, of distributing chemicals for the production of fentanyl. This synthetic opioid is currently responsible for the highest number of drug overdoses in the US. It will be the first thing I ask Xi, the president said ahead of the Asia trip.
I remind you that China is resisting on the issue of fentanyl, as well as on the tariff war, and given the history of the opium war, it will not be blackmailed. I don't know what kind of history expert President Trump is, but it is very important that he understands the emotional significance of history in China. This is also because he himself promised during his presidential campaign that America would no longer be laughed at or ripped off under his leadership. In a way, Trump was talking about American humiliation. As it were, the reality is that the history of drugs is shaping China's actions and strategies of the present. In the context of drugs, I recommend reading the book Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China. I do not know whether President Trump's preparation for his meeting with President Xi Jinping included even a superficial familiarity with Lin Tse-tung's patriotic poem, which Xi Jinping read more than once during his career ascendancy. The aforementioned imperial official of the Manchu Qing dynasty oversaw China's foreign trade in the early 19th century and became a key figure in the First Opium War.
Lin is still celebrated as a national hero in speeches by rulers and in school textbooks for his confrontational stance against Britain: he sought to stop opium smuggling into China. But a wily Britain gained control of Hong Kong, and so began a century of humiliation. That is why President Xi decided to remove this shameful stain during his era. He offers the fact that China is in a race to the finish line for world economic leadership, while the US, after four years of Democrat rule, is spinning in a vicious circle of inflation, massive debt and socio-economic disruption. President Xi is offering the world a model of cooperation based on mutual respect and equality of partners, while President Trump is coming up with a dead model of a world operating on the basis of American rules. The Trump administration's improvisational approach is thus in stark contrast to China's emphasis on stability.
Stones on the road to understanding and peace
Speaking on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, President Trump noted that he expects an agreement with Beijing after his meeting with the Chinese president. Beijing's main practical demand is that the United States lift tariffs on Chinese goods. Those tariffs more than doubled in just two weeks in April before the sides agreed to a 90-day suspension that expires in mid-November. But the threat of tariffs remains, CNBC points out: Trump has already threatened to impose new tariffs - up to 100 % - starting next month. Recall that the Chinese generally want more stable and favorable economic and trade relations. The demand for easing of technology restrictions will continue to exist, although it is unlikely based on a visit to several top institutes I visited as part of the Ocean Ecology conference to present a paper on Vernadsky, which I will write about separately I do not believe that Nvidia, for example, will be able to regain the Chinese market share that the company has completely lost.
While China still needs advanced U.S. technology in the short term, its leaders emphasized plans to develop its own technology base over the next five years at a plenary meeting last week. Why? China is concerned that U.S. trade and technology policies are beginning to affect its relations with other countries. That's why Beijing is using its dominant position in rare earths as leverage to fight US restrictions on semiconductor supply. On October 9, China expanded its rare earth export licensing regime to include products that contain even 0.1 percent rare earths of Chinese origin.
New provisions and mutual respect
On Monday, provisions were introduced into the U.S. trade agreement with Malaysia that prohibit Kuala Lumpur from cooperating with third countries in a way that harms U.S. goods. At the same time, it urges Malaysia not to undermine US technological restrictions. At the same time, Beijing insists that trade talks with the US be based on mutually beneficial cooperation and mutual respect. This respect means, among other things, recognising Beijing's position on Taiwan and the South China Sea. In other words: The United States should recognize China's development as a reasonable and legitimate process.
The main role of the 15th Five-Year Plan
The aforementioned conference was held in parallel to the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which concluded last week in Beijing on 25 October. Virtually all the recommendations emphasise the leading role of scientific and technological innovation. In his explanatory speech on the recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan, President Xi Jinping stressed that the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) is of great significance for facilitating China's sustainable and healthy development and for laying the country on a firmer foundation to basically achieve socialist modernization as planned. The speech, as well as the recommendations adopted by the plenary, were made public on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I still had a full schedule in Beijing, so I cannot report in detail.
What is certain is that the recommendations have been initiated in line with the country's strategic development objectives, taking into account the crucial role of the next five years and based on an in-depth analysis of the domestic and global environment. In the process of designing the plan, special emphasis will be placed on ensuring that the plan remains both goal- and problem-oriented, applies systems thinking, further deepens reforms in a comprehensive manner, and opens up more to the outside world. Socialist modernization can only be realized through a historical process of gradual and continuous development. It requires the unremitting hard work of one generation after another, President Xi Jinping said.
He also noted that the 15th Five-Year Plan period will serve as a critical phase in building on past achievements to break new ground to achieve socialist modernization by 2035. The key development objective for the 15th Five-Year Plan period is to maintain a reasonable pace of economic and quality social development. In it, scientific and technological innovation will play a leading role, which can be generated by overall plans to modernize the industrial system, strengthen self-sufficiency and strength in science and technology, and accelerate ecological transformation in all fields. I recall that a group was set up in January to draw up recommendations, with Xi Jinping as its head.
In addition, the CPC Central Committee of China organized six teams to carry out research projects in 12 regions at the provincial level, and 35 key research projects were assigned to Party and government organs, and several symposiums were organized. An online campaign was launched to collect suggestions from the public, which received more than 3 million comments. During the drafting process, the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee met three times and the Politburo met twice. It is fair to say that the work to draft this document is another vivid example of intra-party democracy and people's democracy in action throughout the process, Xi Jinping said. The drafting of the outline has officially begun and the draft is to be submitted for discussion at two sessions next year. China is expected to become more technologically advanced, self-sufficient and confident on the global stage, and the 15th Five-Year Plan will play a key role in advancing China's second-century goal of building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by 2049.
The need to strengthen strategic communication
China and APEC on Tuesday signed the Protocol on the Expansion of the Free Trade Area 3.0 in Kuala Lumpur, a milestone that heralds new opportunities for the two sides to expand and strengthen bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
The update protocol is characterized by expanding mutually beneficial cooperation in emerging areas, improving alignment of standards and regulations, and promoting trade and inclusive development in the region. The Protocol demonstrates the commitment of the countries of the region to work together to address persistent economic challenges and brings new impetus and confidence to regional and global development. The above-mentioned update represents the latest stage in the development of the China Free Trade Area, which was launched in 2002 and fully implemented as version 1.0 in 2010. The subsequent version 2.0 protocol was signed in 2015 and entered into force in 2019. Negotiations for the upgrade to version 3.0 were launched in November 2022 and successfully concluded in May this year.
China has also been ASEAN's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years, while ASEAN has been China's top trading partner for the past five years. According to the Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade will reach $982.3 billion in 2024, a 17-fold increase since 2002. Amid the changing international environment, all states should be more resolute in uniting and strengthening, fending off external disruptions and defending their legitimate rights and interests through mutual trust and coordinated actions. There is no doubt that there is a need to strengthen strategic communication, to comprehensively resolve differences and disputes, such as the Cambodia-Thailand dispute, and to urgently agree on a code of conduct in the South China Sea.
Everyone is aware of the high winds, the crashing waves and the raging storms, both domestically and internationally. APEC's strategic resolve in working with China will not waver. On the global chessboard, Beijing will continue to emphasize the strength of the multilateral trading system. This is in the spirit of Confucianism, of significant cultural and ethical progress across the board, including strengthening the national security shield. This is the complete opposite of Trump 2.0. The direction towards an ultra-high-tech national market has been set by the technological achievements of the Made in China 2025 program, launched 10 years ago, which is already positioning China as a technology leader in at least 8 of 10 scientific fields. Plus key programs that many Chinese and foreigners don't even know about, with special emphasis on the 973 program (from 1997) and Project 985 (from 1998), the G60 scientific innovation corridor that connects nine cities in China's Yangtze River Delta.
It is clear that the fragmented West has completely ignored the projects mentioned and the fact that the five-year plans are considered one of China's key political advantages. Predictably, there will be a special emphasis on quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, hydrogen, nuclear fusion, brain-computer interface, embodied intelligence and 6G, not to mention artificial intelligence. Conceptually, China will focus on its single national market and socialist modernization. The current political system is quite different mainly because the Enlightenment firmly established the concept of progress. From Sun Yat-sen's revolution to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party to the Communist Party, generations of Chinese have strived for change and shared the same goal: to transform China and achieve progress. During the Enlightenment, Confucian individual ethics came under the most radical criticism and attack. While much of the dying Western system that China has adopted is not viable, the various political factions lack consensus on what the future holds. What kind of change does China need? How should it be implemented? What is the purpose of change?
What the Chinese Communist Party has done is the socialist revolution that it has promoted since its founding, using the revolution to overthrow the old regime, thoroughly transform society and establish a completely new system. This naturally also leads to the various contradictions that China faces today, especially the conflict between traditional Confucian philosophy and Marxism-Leninism. Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese Communist Party has accelerated its transformation from a revolutionary party to a ruling party. One thing is clear: if a political party governs for the sake of governing, it will inevitably decline. This is evident not only from the history of Communist rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but also from the historical and contemporary experience of Western political parties that calculate their legitimacy on the basis of votes.
After reforming and opening up to the world, the Chinese Communist Party redefined its modernity to achieve its original revolutionary goal of solving the problem of universal poverty. I recall that China has lifted nearly 700 million people out of absolute poverty. Despite all the undeniable achievements observed over 40 years during visits to China, by studying periodicals and the development of its former students, the Chinese Communist Party must redefine its modernity by reaffirming its mission, emphasizing its original aspirations and reviving its revolutionary nature. Consent is not needed.
Jan Campbell
English 
Czech 
Spanish 
French 
Italian 
Russian 
Chinese 
German