優進優出 (yōujìn yōuchū): Quality imports and exports

On April 3, Premier Li Keqiang presided over a Go Global strategy meeting for Chinese manufacturers. He stressed the transition of China's foreign trade from "massive imports and massive exports" to "quality imports and quality exports" in order to form a new economic pattern.

Li said that massive imports and exports had been an important strategy since the 1980s, and it supported the high speed development of the Chinese economy over the past three decades, and made China the "world's factory", but the international situation had changed remarkably, and China needs to adapt to the change. For a long time, he said, the pattern of massive imports and exports had promoted domestic employment and propelled China's industrialization, but most of the profits hadn't stayed in China.

Li pointed out that facing rising labor costs and limited resources, Chinese manufacturers need to follow a Go Global strategy and promote international capacity cooperation, in order to achieve the transition to "quality imports and exports". By which he meant selectively importing advanced technology, equipment and components and parts based on China's long-term and essential interests, and exporting high-end, high added-value products, technologies and services.