Full text: Remarks by Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the 28th ASEAN Plus Three Summit

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 27 -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Monday delivered a speech at the 28th ASEAN Plus Three Summit.

The following is the full text of the speech:

Remarks by H.E. Li Qiang

Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

At the 28th ASEAN Plus Three Summit

Malaysia, October 27, 2025

Honorable Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim,

Colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to attend today's meeting. I want to thank Prime Minister Anwar and our host Malaysia for the thoughtful arrangements made for this Summit. I also congratulate Timor-Leste for officially joining the ASEAN family.

Over the past year, ASEAN Plus Three cooperation has kept a sound momentum on the whole, demonstrating the resilience and vibrancy of the East Asian economy. Meanwhile, given the complex changes in international economic and trade structure, especially the disruptions from high tariffs, we have a deep feeling that East Asia is faced with mounting difficulties and challenges in its economy and growing instability and uncertainty in its development.

In many Asian countries, we share a similar saying: The past informs the future. In other words, we can draw wisdom and strength from historical experience to meet the current difficulties. Over the past decades, East Asia has been the world's fastest growing region. Since the 1950s, East Asian countries have actively explored paths toward modernization. From Japan's high-speed growth, to the takeoffs of the Four Asian Tigers and the Tiger Cub Economies, and to the rapid development of China since the start of reform and opening up, East Asia has created many economic miracles and witnessed the rise of many modern metropolises, bringing about epoch-making changes to the outlook of our societies. These landmarks in our development still inspire us, and make us proud even today.

Indeed, times are changing, and we East Asian countries have found ourselves in development stages very different from the past. Today we cannot possibly relive our success stories of yesterday, but by reviewing the past, we can find enlightenment and inspiration for the future. As we reflect deeply upon the reasons for East Asian miracles, I believe that one phrase would come to the minds of many: openness and cooperation. Over the past decades, the commitment to openness and cooperation has enabled us to transcend social system and other differences, and realize mutually complementary specialization and collaboration on the basis of our respective endowments and the law of economics. The commitment to openness and cooperation has enabled us to guard against attempts at turning economic and trade issues into political and security hurdles, manage and resolve differences through communication and dialogue, and minimize disruptions to economic development. The commitment to openness and cooperation has enabled us to steadily increase connectivity, fully unleash the vitality of the regional market, and create and share development opportunities together. It is fair to say that openness and cooperation is a valuable experience we gained and refined through hard work. It must be cherished and upheld continually as the distinctive strength and competitive edge of the East Asian economy.

Looking ahead, the center of gravity of the world economy is shifting toward Asia, and the epicenter of the Asian economy is in East Asia. The East Asian miracles are not behind us, but ahead of us as an unfolding reality. China stands ready to work with all parties to seek greater synergy of development strategies, uphold openness and cooperation, take more concrete actions, and jointly renew the glory of East Asia's development.

Colleagues,

ASEAN and China, Japan and the ROK have close economic ties. This region enjoys a vast market, full-fledged and well-developed industrial systems, abundant funding, advanced technologies, and rich demographic and talent dividends. China supports the theme of "Inclusivity and Sustainability" put forward by Malaysia, and stands ready to work with all parties to continue unleashing economic potential and broadening development space through closer and more efficient openness and cooperation.

First, we should foster an environment conducive to regional development. The international landscape has been changing and fluid, and conflicts and confrontation keep flaring up. This has had severe impacts on global development. The peace and stability that East Asia enjoys has not come easily, and must be safeguarded with our utmost efforts. We should properly resolve differences through dialogue and negotiation, oppose external interference, and avoid creating tensions or conflicts. At the same time, we should jointly uphold free trade and the multilateral trading system, oppose all forms of protectionism, and further advance the process of regional economic integration.

Second, we should deepen collaboration on industrial and supply chains. Few regions in the world can match East Asia's comprehensive strengths across the chains, spanning design and R&D, material processing, smart manufacturing, and all the way to market sales. What's more, each economy is in a unique position within the chains, making our industries highly complementary and our interests neatly aligned. We should better leverage our respective strengths, further promote synergy and cooperation, and steadily improve the level of our specialization and collaboration, thereby making the flow of production factors more efficient. China welcomes the adoption of the Statement on Strengthening Regional Economic and Financial Cooperation, and stands ready to carry it out with all parties, and step up practical cooperation in finance, trade, food security and other areas, so as to create more cooperation highlights and growth engines, and foster greater development momentum for our region from within.

Third, we should jointly cultivate new drivers of development. Seizing opportunities from the latest round of technological revolution and industrial transformation -- particularly in fields like AI, robotics, and biomedicine that are seeing an explosive surge of innovations -- the 10+3 countries should intensify support for sci-tech innovation and collaborative research. We need to enhance our capacity for generating "zero-to-one" breakthroughs and efficiently scaling them into "one-to-N" successes, making innovation a powerful driver of our development. China will continue advancing cooperation with all parties in areas like the digital economy, electric vehicles, and clean energy, joining hands to seize opportunities for development.

With the concerted efforts of the 10+3 countries, I am confident that we will create a brighter future for East Asia and make greater contributions to lasting peace, prosperity and stability of the world.

Thank you.