APEC Shanghai 2026: China's Trade Vision in Fragmented World
APEC Shanghai 2026: China's Vision for Asia-Pacific Trade Meets a Fragmenting Global Order On May 18-19, more than 1,000 delegates from 21 APEC member economies gathered in Shanghai for the second Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM2) of 2026. China, serving as APEC chair for the third time after 2001 and 2014, used the moment to push an ambitious vision: an "Asia-Pacific community" built around trade liberalization, digital connectivity, and shared prosperity. Roughly 40 preparatory working-group sessions fed into the agenda, spanning trade and investment, economic and technical cooperation, women's empowerment, telecommunications, and food safety. That's a lot of meetings. Whether they add up to more than communiqué language is the real question — and one I've been asking myself every time an APEC summit wraps up. The backdrop couldn't be more complex. The US Federal Reserve is stuck at 5.25-5.50% — a 22-year high — with core PCE inflation still...