APEC Second Senior Officials' Meeting held in Shanghai to advance Asia-Pacific Community

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Second Senior Officials' Meeting convened in Shanghai on May 18-19, 2026, marking a key milestone in China's year as APEC host. Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu delivered the opening remarks, emphasizing that China will respond to the era's development trends, listen to member voices, and work with all parties to build an Asia-Pacific community, injecting new momentum into peace and development in the region and the world.

China has outlined four pillars to guide cooperation: trade, connectivity, innovation, and development. These pillars directly align with APEC's 2026 meeting theme of "Building an Asia-Pacific Community, Promoting Common Prosperity" and support the establishment of the "four pillars and eight beams" framework for the community. The country plans to leverage the APEC Leaders' Shenzhen Declaration as a platform to chart a roadmap for realizing the Asia-Pacific community goals. In pursuit of this vision, China is preparing concrete outcomes across multiple areas: exploring free trade arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region, upgrading connectivity blueprints, fostering digital and intelligent growth through an artificial intelligence and digital economy innovation roadmap, and advancing livelihood improvements through energy security, food resilience, small business development, and anti-corruption cooperation.

Prior to the main meeting, APEC committees and working groups held nearly 40 sessions from May 11-17, covering trade and investment, economic and technical cooperation, women's empowerment, telecommunications, and food safety. More than 1,000 representatives from member economies, the APEC Secretariat, and observer organizations participated. All participating parties praised APEC's progress across sectors in 2026 and commended China's hosting role, expressing commitment to achieving substantial outcomes during China's term as chair.

The Shanghai meeting serves as a connecting point between earlier progress made at the Guangzhou First Senior Officials' Meeting—where Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended—and the forthcoming Shenzhen Leaders' Informal Meeting. Ma Zhaoxu highlighted that while international circumstances present challenges including unilateralism, protectionism, geopolitical conflicts, and energy and food crises, the Asia-Pacific region continues to maintain faster development momentum and remains the global growth engine. China emphasized specific initiatives to be advanced, including discussions on the Asia-Pacific free trade area pathway at the upcoming Suzhou APEC Trade Ministers' Meeting, smart customs and smart transportation solutions, tourism facilitation, digital economy policy dialogues, and partnerships on technology standards and innovation outcomes.