When China's decades-long opening-up met a pandemic on a scale unseen for over a century, the country chose not to slow down or postpone steps to connect its economy further with the rest of the world. The world's second-largest economy has raised hopes for a global recovery with its own accelerating economic rebound.

China has continued to seek greater synergy between the domestic and global economies in 2020, rather than lapsing into de-globalization or an economic decoupling.

In a year many would prefer to have skipped, China has stayed strong despite the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and has upheld its commitment to boost economic connectivity as a major global growth engine.

NEW OPENING-UP HEIGHTS

In December 2019, the Annual Economic Work Conference that outlined China's development priorities and targets for 2020 stressed the importance of greater opening-up. It concluded that the country's opening-up should continue to develop on a larger scale and at a deeper level; foreign investment should be facilitated and better protected; and the country should further shorten its negative list for foreign investment and lower its overall tariff level.

On the first day of 2020, the foreign investment law took effect to better protect foreign investors' interests.

In May, the country unveiled moves to pursue a new development paradigm of "dual circulation," which allows the domestic and overseas markets to reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.

In September, the country unveiled three pilot free trade zones amid efforts to accelerate the formation of the new paradigm through a higher level of opening-up.

In November, the third China International Import Expo sealed greater deals than its previous iteration and saw face-to-face trading boost much-needed confidence in the global flow of goods and services.

Also in that month, China signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which launched the world's biggest free trade bloc to date.

Earlier this month, the country removed further items from its negative list for market access -- a boon to foreign investors.

And this year's Annual Economic Work Conference put opening-up high on the agenda: The country will aim for more open and inclusive growth that can be shared by all around the world.