China is both the "global factory" and "global market." With the world's biggest and fastest-growing middle income groups, China enjoys huge potential for consumption growth, said President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF).

To meet people's growing material and spiritual needs and increase the available options and benefits for consumers, we need to further reduce tariffs and remove non-tariff barriers, opening the Chinese market wider to the world and embracing high-quality goods from all over the world. We do not seek trade surplus and will import more high-quality farm produce, manufactured goods and services in a bid to promote balanced trade, President Xi stated.