Last week, the eyes of the region were on Beijing as President Xi and President Trump met for the first of what is likely to be multiple engagements between the leaders this year. At the same time, officials from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Commerce, tasked with ensuring their APEC hosting this year delivers meaningful outcomes, have been busy with arrangements for APEC’s annual gathering of trade ministers in Suzhou, China on May 22–23.

This ministerial marks the mid-point in China’s APEC host year and presents an opportunity for China to measure progress towards their objectives as host economy. Each year, APEC advances deliverables on priority issue areas including trade facilitation, economic cooperation, and the digital economy. Along with this standard set of priority workstreams, each new host economy has the opportunity to add deliverables to the agenda that frequently align with domestic policy priorities. For example, as host in 2024, Peru focused on efforts to transition businesses from the informal to formal economy. In 2025, Korea pushed for deliverables on demographics and aging populations.

As China prepares for the first high-level APEC trade official engagement of 2026, this brief will explore how China is leveraging its APEC hosting to address domestic policy priorities and advance regional trade objectives.

Setting the Stage for APEC 2026

During the APEC meetings in Gyeongju last autumn, China presented written remarks from President Xi Jinping to lay the groundwork for China’s host year. The remarks also reiterated to business leaders that China is open for business and new partnerships.

While the U.S. has focused on advancing its trade agenda by pursuing bilateral agreements, President Xi’s remarks emphasized the “greatness” of the multilateral trading system. These remarks sent a message—especially to developing economies that fear fallout from increasingly tense great power competition—that China is a growth-oriented partner providing stability in the face of increased trade uncertainty. The speech also framed China’s approach for its host year with President Xi calling for renewed “commitment to the founding mission of APEC” and for contributions to a “more vibrant and resilient Asia Pacific cooperation.” He further identified four areas of focus:

1. Peace and stability: highlighting how APEC provides a platform for dialogue and consensus-based decision making to resolve differences and drive regional prosperity
2. Openness and connectivity: safeguarding a multilateral trading system and strengthening supply chains and regional connectivity by advancing the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP)
3. Win-win cooperation: leveraging APEC as a platform for capacity-building and cooperation amongst diverse stakeholders
4. Benefits for all and inclusiveness: implementing a sustainable development agenda and bridging development gaps.

Domestic Drivers of International Strategy in the CCP’s 15th Five-Year Plan

President Xi’s remarks to the global business community reflect the domestic drivers that are motivating China’s international policy. In the fall of 2025, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party released recommendations for the formulation of the 15^th Five-year Plan (the full text of which can be read here). Priority issues identified in the CCP’s Recommendations for the 15^th Five-Year Plan include:

• Development imbalances and inadequacies, especially with regards to rural modernization
• Sluggish effective demand for Chinese goods
• Bottlenecks and obstacles to economic flows, especially foreign protectionism
• Difficulty of transitioning to new growth drivers, especially in tech and clean energy
• Pressure on employment and personal income growth, gaps in public wellbeing
• An aging population

APEC 2026 and the 15^th Five-Year Plan

The recommendations for the Five-Year Plan illustrate the imperative for the government to foster new growth drivers by modernizing their industrial system, boosting domestic consumption, and investing in innovative technologies. Facing an aging population, diminishing returns to infrastructure investments, and a slowdown in the rate of improvement for living standards, the recommendations reiterate the need to create a “robust domestic market.”

China plans to achieve this through these international approaches:

• Expanding foreign market access, especially to China’s service sector
• Launching more pilot free trade zones and free trade ports
• Using AI and digitalization to support customs and eliminate bottlenecks
• Expanding cross-border e-commerce
• Standardizing domestic and regional trade regulations
• Investing in home-grown innovation for export and leveraging tech across sectors

These priority areas for fostering new growth drivers are evident in China’s APEC 2026 agenda which the government is advancing under the theme of “Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together” and set three overarching priorities: Openness, Innovation, and Cooperation. The sections below highlight alignment between these themes and China’s domestic priorities at key points in the APEC 2026 calendar.

Openness:

Demonstrating leadership in multilateral trade at the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting – May 22–23 (Suzhou)

The ministerial agenda in Suzhou will include discussions on digital cooperation, the green economy, multilateral trade and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). On the FTAAP, China has indicated its intent to pursue a high-level deliverable in 2026 to advance their goal of further regional market integration while also signaling commitment to a stable and predictable international trade architecture. China sees APEC as a forum to expand accession to regional free trade agreements (FTAs) and work towards harmonizing existing FTAs. Additionally, China has highlighted supporting the rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core as a priority in their connectivity agenda. This includes advancing WTO reforms and leveraging APEC to build consensus on WTO outcomes.

Innovation:

Advancing AI/tech policy objectives during APEC Digital Week – July 16–29 (Chengdu)

China is also focusing heavily on technological and digital innovation, backed by domestic priorities aimed at encouraging homegrown innovation and leveraging tech across sectors. On the international stage, China has called for the establishment of new organizations to facilitate technology governance, including a proposal for a “World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO)” announced by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in July 2025.

China’s Ministry of Industry and ICT, National Data Administration, and the Cyberspace Administration of China all have key roles during APEC digital week. High level meetings, including a Digital Ministerial will focus on ensuring AI adoptions benefit all and leveraging data for economic growth and innovation.  In APEC’s digital economy workstream, China will pursue a leader-level document on innovation-led growth in the digital economy and AI, building on the 2025 APEC AI Initiative.

In the APEC finance workstream, China will pursue deliverables on “Digital Infrastructure Financing,” aligning with their larger goals for Chinese tech to facilitate digital infrastructure development. At the first set of APEC meetings in February this year, China presented on their Silk Road E-commerce Cooperation Mechanism, emphasizing  the framework’s role in promoting tech applications and innovative models to cultivate growth drivers in e-commerce, a high priority in China’s Five-Year Plan.

Cooperation:

Highlighting Global Leadership at the APEC Leaders’ Meeting – November 18–19 (Shenzhen)

President Xi’s hosting of APEC Leaders in Shenzhen will be a critical opportunity for China to highlight its role as a stability-providing “growth-oriented partner” and to show that it can deliver a “more vibrant and resilient Asia Pacific cooperation.”  These themes will drive China’s objectives for APEC Leaders’ Week where, as host, it bears the responsibility for achieving consensus on joint communiques from APEC leaders and ministers. Its success in this endeavor will reflect the extent to which China is able to live up to the aspirations of the ‘cooperation’ pillar of APEC 2026.

China’s choice of Shenzhen—or “China’s Silicon Valley”—as the host city for the 2026 Leaders’ Week and CEO Summit also reinforces its efforts to highlight its technological prowess. As home to drone maker DJI, Tencent and other tech majors, Shenzhen provides a ready stage to showcase China’s leading digital and technological innovations.

Conclusion

Following the pattern established by past APEC hosts, China is contributing to robust and impactful outcomes for the APEC agenda while advancing domestic priorities  to demonstrate the value of APEC engagement to internal stakeholders. China’s APEC priorities and projects announced so far in 2026 show clear connections with the strategic direction outlined in the recommendations for its 15^th Five-Year Plan, particularly with regard to the need to foster new growth drivers and strengthen its domestic market.

Ultimately, we expect China to use its APEC 2026 host year to:

• Reinforce itself as a champion of multilateral trade systems amid global turbulence through encouraging development of regional FTAs and advancement towards the FTAAP
• Advance regional connectivity and improve market access, especially in the services sector and cross-border E-commerce
• Elevate its leadership in technology and AI through digital standards in regional economic architecture and fostering homegrown innovation
• Leverage digital tools to enhance supply chains and eliminate bottlenecks in trade

Overall, China’s host year will serve not only as a platform for economic cooperation, but as a strategic opportunity to advance its innovation and development goals and to shape the systems that underpin the future of growth in the Asia-Pacific.

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At the APEC Summit last November, Leaders signed off on an agenda aimed at modernizing trade rules, speeding cross-border commerce, and focusing the organization on a forward-looking approach to AI adoption.

The declaration spotlights growing momentum to revitalize and update the WTO, while urging economies to move faster on practical steps that reduce friction for business. Ministerial communiqués, shaped by input from ABAC and PECC, underscore a stronger role for companies in tackling supply chain challenges and building resilience.

In business-facing outcomes, Ministers endorsed the ABAC-led APEC Centre of Excellence for Paperless Trade, signaling a push to scale digital trade tools that can cut red tape and streamline documentation across borders. Ministers also flagged the need to identify ways to use AI to facilitate trade, pointing to opportunities to improve trade efficiency through smarter processes, risk management, and compliance.

APEC Leaders also endorsed two headline deliverables from Korea focused on the region’s next wave of economic challenges and opportunities:

APEC AI Initiative (2026–2030): A multi-year plan to coordinate APEC work on AI, centered on:

• supporting successful AI adoption and transformation,
• building AI capacity across economies and workforces, and
• fostering investment conditions for resilient AI infrastructure.

APEC Collaborative Framework for Demographic Changes: A region-wide effort to respond to aging populations and shifting labor markets by:

• strengthening resilience to demographic change,
• modernizing human resources development,
• advancing technology-supported health and care systems,
• expanding inclusive economic participation,
• and deepening regional cooperation.

APEC China 2026 Planning and Priorities

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs convened APEC Senior Officials on December 11–12 in Shenzhen for preparatory meetings ahead of the APEC 2026 host year. The city will also serve as the site of next year’s APEC Leaders’ Meeting on November 18–19, 2026.

China selected Shenzhen to underscore its APEC 2026 themes of openness, innovation, and cooperation. Over the past 40 years, it has grown from a fishing village into one of China’s largest GDP-producing cities. To reinforce this narrative, China organized site visits to showcase major technology firms, including drone manufacturer DJI and tech behemoth Tencent.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu opened the ISOM plenary on December 12 with remarks that set the context for China’s APEC 2026 agenda which will focus on the following priorities and sub-themes:

• Openness – WTO reform, regional economic integration, connectivity
• Innovation – AI, digital economy, capacity-building, services
• Cooperation – inclusion, sustainability, technical cooperation

Charged with leading the execution of APEC 2026, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking guidance from President Xi Jinping’s written submission to the APEC CEO Summit in Korea (available here), which calls on APEC to refocus on its original mission of building an Asia-Pacific community. China will further develop its plans for specific 2026 deliverables during SOM 1. At the same time APEC will be reviewing or renewing several ongoing initiatives on topics including connectivity, services, digital economy and supply chain connectivity.

China is also planning to host several sectoral ministerial meetings beginning mid-year, including Trade, Women and the Economy, Digital and AI, Tourism, Food Security, SME, Energy, Human Resources Development, Forestry, and Finance. NCAPEC looks forward to working with partner organizations in China to hold engagement opportunities for the private sector on the margins of many of these meetings.

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