The opening ceremony of the eighth China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum (HQF) was held in Shanghai on November 5. That afternoon, the Sub-forum on Open Trade and Secure Development was convened, hosted by China's Ministry of Commerce and co-hosted by Renmin University of China (RUC). The event was jointly organized by RUC's School of Global and Area Studies (Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies) and the School of Global Leadership.

Addressing core issues in global trade and economic governance, the sub-forum brought together leading experts from academia, strategic communities, business circles and think tanks from China and abroad. Discussions focused on advancing an open, inclusive, equitable, balanced and mutually beneficial global trading system. This marked RUC's third time hosting an HQF sub-forum since 2021 and its first time serving as a co-host, underscoring the university's sustained commitment to contributing Chinese insights and solutions to global governance.

Zhang Donggang (left), secretary of the CPC RUC Committee, presents appointment certificates to Thomas Sargent (right) and Martin Jacques, members of the RUC International Strategy and Development Committee, at the forum.

RUC's School of Global and Area Studies officially releases a flagship research report titled "Facing 2050: The symbiotic path for trade security development among China and the world".

As one of the four think tank partners of the HQF, RUC's School of Global and Area Studies officially released a flagship research report titled "Facing 2050: The symbiotic path for trade security development among China and the world". With a long-term vision extending to 2050, the report is grounded in the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity and introduces the notion of "symbiotic security" as a core pathway for China and global trade development.

Using the forward-looking analytical framework of the Comprehensive Development Goals 2050 (CDGs 2050), the report outlines projected shifts in the global economic and trade landscape, proposes 10 key scenarios for building an open, inclusive, secure and sustainable global trading system, and offers implementation pathways across areas such as normative leadership, rules restructuring, infrastructure connectivity, industrial collaboration and risk governance.

The forum also featured strategic dialogues on policy choices and cooperation prospects amid global economic transformation, as well as roundtable discussions examining trade and security under geopolitical turbulence and pathways for open trade in the face of growing headwinds against globalization.

Launched in 2018, CIIE, as the world's first national-level expo themed on imports, has become a vital platform for China's high-level opening-up and a key window for sharing development opportunities with the world. As an integral component of the CIIE, the HQF upholds multilateralism, focuses on frontier global issues, and provides a high-level platform for international dialogue and cooperation, with an ever-growing global influence.