What is the significance of Asia-Europe Expo?
5600 km border, bordering on 8 neighboring countries. The unique geographical advantage determines that Xinjiang is the strategic barrier for the western region of China, an important region for China to implement the strategy of developing the western region, and an important gateway for China to open to the outside world. Holding the Asia-Europe Expo, giving full play to the geographical advantages of Xinjiang's introduction from the east to the west and opening to the west, and building it into a regional international exchange platform are of great significance for expanding all-round and multi-field economic and trade cooperation with China, West Asia, South Asia and European countries, and are conducive to promoting the formation of a new pattern of China's opening to the outside world, namely, "land opening" and "coastal opening", and giving play to Xinjiang's role as a bridgehead and hub in the process of opening to the west.
On September 1 day, the first five-day China-Asia-Europe Expo opened in Urumqi. The predecessor of the Expo is the Urumqi Foreign Trade Expo with a history of 19 years, and this year is the first time to upgrade to a national exhibition. The Associated Press said that China authorities hope to turn the Expo into a platform for diplomatic and economic exchanges in the region and strengthen Urumqi's position as a regional trade and industrial center.
I think the birth of China-Asia-Europe Expo means more than the so-called rise of exhibition level. It reflects a major breakthrough in China's geo-development strategy: the western development began to look west, outward, and Asia and Europe!
1999, after 20 years of reform and opening-up, China formulated the western development plan, and the new century began. There are three main backgrounds for the strategic concept of developing the western region: (1) Under the guidance of market economy, there has been obvious regional imbalance in China, especially between coastal areas and inland areas, and between eastern areas and western areas, which needs to be corrected urgently; (2) Ethnic problems still exist in some areas; (3) In addition, some ethnic issues are related to international factors. Therefore, the western development is a targeted strategic layout. It is hoped that through the inclination of policies and resources, the development of the western region will be accelerated, and the above three situations and problems will be fundamentally and properly handled.
The first 10 year of western development came to an end last year, and many indicators showed obvious improvement, but some still need further efforts. Not only that, people can also find that from a macro perspective, China still has many potentials and advantages to play. Therefore, there should be new ideas and actions in the second stage of western development.
1. From the perspective of Chinese mainland's geo-economy, it seems that in the past 30 years, the four directions of China's southeast, northwest and northwest are only concentrated in the east, mainly the economic and trade relations between China and Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada and Australia have developed rapidly, while the other three parties' north, west and south are obviously lagging behind and the contrast is quite strong. Taking globalization as a metaphor, China only "enjoyed" hemispherization, even a quarter.
In view of this, in recent years, China has actively strengthened its economic and trade relations with its southeast and southern neighbors, that is, the 10 plus 1 framework between China and ASEAN. 10 plus 1 FTZ 20 10 was officially launched.
Now, the holding of the China-Asia-Europe Expo means that after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, another international interaction mechanism with economic and trade as the basic goal in China officially kicked off.
2. For a long time, due to the restriction of historical experience, China's vision and pattern basically face the east, which is related to the rise of human navigation technology and marine civilization in the past 500 years. /kloc-After 0/5th century, the Silk Road, which was once brilliant for one or two thousand years, gradually faded out of history. However, in the past 500 years, the ancient Silk Road, which has been silent for a long time, will shine again because of (1) globalization, (2) the rapid development of contemporary transportation and communication technologies, and (3) the changes in the map of global political and economic forces.
-Globalization makes any country, including China, theoretically bring any region in the world, including the south, the North Pole and any corner of the earth, into the scope of its optimal global spatial layout. For China, Central Asia, West Asia, Eastern Europe and Western Europe are no exception.
-since ancient times, in the past 60 years, except for the United States, all the major powers in the world have been located on the world island, that is, the Eurasian continent. This law has its natural logic, which is no accident.
Urumqi happens to be located in the geographical center of Eurasia. The average voyage from Urumqi to the major political and economic cities in the world is the shortest among the major political and economic cities in the world. Considering the rapid development of high-speed rail and network, Urumqi's geographical advantage is unparalleled in the world's big cities.
Third, the so-called "G2" game between China and the United States in the new century, the main fields on the chessboard are: (1) currency, (2) Taiwan Province Province, and (3) the competition between China and the United States against the Muslim world and Europe.
It is an inevitable logic and choice in China's global strategy in the new century to continue to look west across Alashankou, and it will begin now.