Second Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC China 2026 opens in Shanghai

The opening session of the Second Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC China 2026 opened in Shanghai on Monday, with high-level officials from APEC member economies gathering to review APEC cooperation in the first half of this year and make preparations for the leaders' meeting and other events throughout the rest of the year.

The meeting also aims to lay a solid foundation for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting which will be held in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in November.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu attended the senior officials’ meeting and addressed the opening ceremony, calling on APEC members to focus on economic growth and people's wellbeing.

"We shall firmly leverage APEC as a regional economic cooperation platform, focus cooperation on economic growth and people's wellbeing, deliver tangible benefits to all peoples across economies, and foster deeper solidarity for an Asia-Pacific community," said Ma Zhaoxu.

Peru's APEC General Coordinator Julio Chan praised China's longstanding support for trade liberalization and facilitation, and said China's role has become increasingly important over time.

"China has to be praised because [it] always has been very supportive of opening trade, liberalizing trade and facilitating trade, and over time China's role has been more and more important. Of course, being host this year is a great opportunity and China is doing very well in promoting this aspect," he said.

Santo Darmosumarto, Director General of Asia, Pacific, and Africa at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighted China's commitment to strengthening the multilateral trading system and expressed Indonesia's full support for China as APEC host.

"I think one of the things that we've seen [is] China's commitment towards strengthening the multilateral trading system, and of course in this regard, Indonesia is very much in support of China as the host of APEC, and also our common eagerness to continue supporting this vision of a stronger and freer trade cooperation in the region," he said.

This senior officials' meeting, which will run through Tuesday, is the second such gathering this year. The first was held in Guangzhou in February, and the next will take place in Dalian in August.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng has called on multinational companies, including the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), to seize China's development opportunities during a meeting with the company's President and CEO Lisa Su in Beijing on Monday.

He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, noted that the heads of state of China and the United States have reached a series of important consensus last week and the two countries' economic and trade teams produced generally balanced and positive outcome.

The vice president extended welcome to multinationals including AMD to seize China's development opportunities and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation.

Su expressed AMD's willingness to continue expanding business in China and increasing investment in the country.