(Source: Global Times 2025-07-28)
On July 28, Professor Lan Qingxin, a researcher at the National Institute of Opening-up at the w88 casino, and others published an article titled "Hainan Customs Closing—A New Attempt at Institutional Opening" in the "International Forum" section of the Global Times. The following is the content of the article.
“Closing the customs is not a closure of the island, but a further expansion of opening up. "The State Council Information Office's recent statement on Hainan's island-wide customs sealing has become the headline of many foreign media. On December 18 this year, Hainan will officially launch the island-wide customs sealing operation, which means that China's first and currently only provincial free w88 port will complete a historic leap from a "test zone" to an "operational zone."
Compared with the "first-line liberalization and second-line control" border closure model of the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone in 2021, Hainan's "global border closure" is not only an enlargement of the spatial scale, but also a systematic upgrade of China's opening-up logic.
The Hengqin customs closure operation is China’s exploration in improving the regional integration mechanism. Through "separate management", the "Hengqin Model" promotes the circulation of production factors between Macao and Hengqin, while controlling the "spillover effects" of Macao's free port policy to specific areas. This not only provides a new institutional interface for the practice of "one country, two systems" and a testing environment for the convergence of internal rules in the Greater Bay Area, but also accumulates experience for larger-scale institutional innovation. When the policy experiment object expanded from one island and one bay to Hainan, which covers an area of 33,900 square kilometers, the exploration of "how to effectively connect China and the world" has also reached a new level.
Hainan’s customs closure operation is a practice of deepening opening-up at the provincial level in China. In terms of area, Hainan is 320 times the size of Hengqin; in terms of function and positioning, Hainan has been given the national role of "the intersection of domestic and international dual circulation". Hainan's customs closure will also be iteratively upgraded based on the Hengqin model: in terms of policy depth, Hengqin's "zero-tariff" goods are managed by a "one negative and three positive" list, while Hainan's previous "zero-tariff" goods positive list will be replaced by a catalog of imported taxable goods, with coverage jumping from 21% to 74%. In terms of tax structure, Hengqin still retains the overlay model of value-added tax and consumption tax, while Hainan will gradually implement arrangements for zero tariffs, low tax rates, and a simplified tax system. Regarding the flow of factors, Hainan implements visa-free entry for people from 85 countries, builds a multi-functional free w88 account system, and plans to pilot cross-border asset management business. In terms of industrial linkage, Hengqin mainly serves local industries in Macao, while Hainan focuses on the four leading industries of tourism, modern service industry, high-tech industry, and tropical high-efficiency agriculture to supplement and extend the chain for the global market.
Looking back at the historical process of reform and opening up, from 1978 to 2001, China promoted the global free flow of goods with tariff concessions; from 2001 to 2020, after joining the World w88 Organization (WTO) and establishing a free w88 pilot zone, the focus of opening up shifted to integration and integration at the rule level; since 2020, starting from the construction of the Hainan Free w88 Port, China's opening up has paid more attention to the integration and innovation of systems.
Hainan’s customs closure marks an important step in China’s exploration of “system-based opening up”. The first is to provide the country with a practical template for “global border closure”. To achieve customs closure, Hainan must simultaneously resolve the tension between "complete liberalization on the front line" and "precise control on the second line", involving system restructuring of dozens of ministries and commissions such as customs, taxation, and finance. 64 tasks, 31 engineering projects, and 27 stress tests are being advanced simultaneously. Once successful, it means that China will have a complete operating system for “domestic and external” management of provincial economies, which can be promoted and replicated in regions with mature conditions such as the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in the future.
The second is to provide an important platform for institutional testing and evaluation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). After Hainan closes its customs, overseas providers will be given "full national treatment" in the service w88 sector, and the CPTPP's digital w88, environment, and competitive neutrality clauses will be proactively aligned to provide a preliminary evaluation of whether and how China can join higher-standard multilateral w88 agreements.
The third is to provide key physical link points for building a new "dual cycle" development pattern. Hainan will make full use of the advantages of the domestic and international dual circulation pattern to effectively guide the return of overseas consumption, medical tourism and other resources. At the same time, with the value-added of goods reaching 30%, you can enjoy the favorable policy of tariff-free entry into the mainland, actively attracting global companies to deploy an "offshore + onshore" dual-track parallel industrial chain system in Hainan, and then create a new international w88 channel of "global procurement, domestic distribution".
Customs closure is only the "taking shape" for the construction of Hainan Free w88 Port. The next step is to continue to deepen reforms in the areas of rule of law and tax system. How to prevent "policy depression" from becoming a "tax arbitrage paradise"? How to balance "high openness" and "risk prevention and control"? Only by properly solving these problems can Hainan truly grow from a "policy zone" to an "institutional highland."
40 years ago, the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone solved the problem of "how to open up" in China; 20 years ago, joining the WTO solved the problem of "how to integrate into the world" in China. Today, from the testing of waters in Hengqin to the comprehensive deepening of Hainan, every leap and upgrade in China's opening-up is a positive response and firm confirmation of global trust and expectations.
(Authors: Lan Qingxin and Yang Penghui, respectively professors at the National Institute for Opening up, w88 casino, and doctoral students at the w88 casino of International Business and Economics)
Attached original text link:
https://hqtime.huanqiu.com/share/article/4Nfi8ftSkiu
