China urges Asian neighbours to take peace and security ‘into their own hands’

While the world faces complex security threats, “we will … take the future destiny of Asia’s long-lasting peace and security into our own hands, so that the flame of peace can be passed on from one generation to the next,” Zhao said, without specifically mentioning the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and the Red Sea.

Zhao delivered the speech on the third day of the conference, where former and current officials, business executives and academics discussed Asian financial cooperation, trade, investment, and geopolitics.

Zhao, China’s No 3 leader, also promised more economic cooperation, adding that that door to the country’s markets will “only open wider and never be closed”.

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China will continue to reduce its “negative list” of bans or restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, ensure that foreign firms are treated the same way as domestic firms, and make it more convenient for foreigners to work, study and travel in China, he said.

Zhao met dozens of foreign corporate executives, as well as the forum’s board of directors on Wednesday, highlighting what he said was China’s “series of high quality measures of opening up”.

Leaders from Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Nauru and Cambodia also spoke at the ceremony in Boao, a town in southern China’s Hainan province.

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The forum is a non-governmental international organisation of 29 member states mainly in the Indo-Pacific aimed at promoting economic exchanges, coordination and cooperation in the region and between Asia and other parts of the world.

The opening ceremony has typically been attended by China’s president or premier, but neither Xi Jinping or Li Qiang are attending this year’s event as they hold meetings and host international delegations in Beijing this week.