SHANGHAI — Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday that China’s economy will exceed 170 trillion yuan ($23.87 trillion) by 2030, presenting a big market opportunity for the world as trade restrictions rise globally.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, Mr. Li criticized tariffs and said that China wanted to reform the global economic trading system to make it more reasonable and transparent, especially for developing countries.

Tariffs are “seriously undermining international economic and trade rules and also disrupting the normal operation of enterprises in various countries,” he said, without mentioning the United States.

“In five years, China’s economy is expected to exceed 170 trillion yuan, which will make new and important contributions to global economic growth,” Mr. Li added.

China has said its gross domestic product will top 140 trillion yuan this year, and the projection by 2030 is in line with proposals for its upcoming five-year plan that predicted annual growth of 4.17% over the next five years.

CIIE was launched under President Xi Jinping in 2018 to promote China’s free trade credentials and counter criticism of its trade surplus with many countries.

But the expo has its skeptics, as the country’s trade surpluses with other markets have only grown in the years since.

While China’s supply of manufactured goods to the world is growing, its contribution to global demand is less significant, with imports barely growing — a dynamic economists have said fuels trade tension abroad and deflationary pressure back home.

Global trade this year has been heavily disrupted by tariffs imposed by US President Donald J. Trump and have launched the US and China into a fresh trade war that has ebbed and flowed in tit-for-tat actions through this year.

Last week, Mr. Xi and Mr. Trump met in South Korea to reach a trade truce. The US agreed to reduce some tariffs on Chinese goods and pause some export controls, and China agreed to pause new export restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets and resume purchases of American soybeans.

But analysts say it may be no more than a fragile truce in a trade war with root causes still unresolved.

Mr. Li in his speech said China wanted to increase its imports of high-quality products and repeatedly stressed that it was open to business and trade.

“Let enterprises from all over the world develop in China with more peace of mind, more comfort and more confidence,” he said.

China’s trade surplus is set to exceed last year’s record of roughly $1 trillion as exporters offset a plunge in US sales due to higher US tariffs by selling more to the rest of the world, often at a loss in pursuit of market share.

Exports to the US fell about 27% in September versus the same month a year prior, while shipments for the European Union, Southeast Asia and Africa grew 14%, 16% and 56% respectively.

More than 155 countries, regions and organizations plan to participate in this year’s CIIE, the commerce ministry said. Over 4,100 overseas enterprises will take part, with US companies maintaining the largest exhibition area for the seventh consecutive year. ($1 = 7.1230 Chinese yuan renminbi). — Reuters

WASHINGTON — Democrats swept a trio of races on Tuesday in the first major elections since Donald J. Trump regained the presidency, giving the beleaguered party a shot of momentum as it looks ahead to the congressional midterm elections next year.

In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the mayoral race, capping a meteoric and unlikely rise from an anonymous state lawmaker to one of the country’s most visible Democratic figures. And in Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won the elections for governor with commanding leads, respectively.

Tuesday’s contests offered a barometer of how Americans are responding to Mr. Trump’s tumultuous nine months in office. The races also served as a test of differing Democratic campaign playbooks ahead of 2026, with the party locked out of power in Washington and still trying to forge a path out of the political wilderness.

That said, the midterm elections are a year away, an eternity in the Trump era. And the contests on Tuesday all unfolded in Democratic-leaning regions that did not support Mr. Trump in last year’s presidential election.

All three Democratic candidates emphasized economic issues, particularly affordability. But Ms. Spanberger and Ms. Sherrill hail from the party’s moderate wing, while Mr. Mamdani used a viral video-fueled insurgent campaign to present himself as an unabashed progressive and a new generational voice.

Mr. Mamdani, who will become the first Muslim mayor of the biggest US city, outlasted former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, 67, who ran as an independent after losing the nomination to Mr. Mamdani earlier this year. Mr. Cuomo, who resigned as governor four years ago after sexual harassment allegations that he has denied, portrayed Mr. Mamdani as a radical leftist whose proposals were unworkable and dangerous.

In a sign of how Mr. Mamdani’s campaign had energized many voters, more than 2 million ballots including early voting were cast across the city, according to the board of elections, the most in a mayoral race since at least 1969.

Mr. Mamdani has called for taxing corporations and the wealthy to pay for ambitious left-wing policies such as frozen rents, free childcare and free city buses. Wall Street executives have expressed concern about putting a democratic socialist at the helm of the financial capital of the world.

Republicans have already signaled they intend to present Mr. Mamdani as the face of the Democratic Party. Mr. Trump has incorrectly labeled Mr. Mamdani a “communist” and vowed to cut funding for the city in response to Mr. Mamdani’s ascension.

In a social media post on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump blamed the losses on the fact his name was not on the ballot and on an ongoing federal government shutdown.

TRUMP LOOMS OVER RACES
Ms. Spanberger, who beat Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, will take over from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. New Jersey’s Ms. Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli and will succeed Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.

Both Ms. Sherrill and Ms. Spanberger had sought to tie their opponents to Mr. Trump in an effort to harness frustration among Democratic and independent voters over his chaotic tenure.

“We sent a message to the world that in 2025 Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship,” Ms. Spanberger said in her victory speech. “We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.”

Mr. Trump gave both candidates some late-stage grist during the ongoing government shutdown.

His administration threatened to fire federal workers — a move with an outsized impact on Virginia, a state adjacent to Washington, DC, and home to many government employees. He froze billions in funding for a new Hudson River train tunnel, a critical project for New Jersey’s large commuter population.

In interviews at Virginia polling stations on Tuesday, some voters said Mr. Trump’s most contentious policies were on their minds, including his efforts to deport immigrants who entered the US illegally and to impose costly tariffs on imports of foreign goods, the legality of which is being weighed by the US Supreme Court this week.

Juan Benitez, a self-described independent, was voting for the first time. The 25-year-old restaurant manager backed all of Virginia’s Democratic candidates because of his opposition to Mr. Trump’s immigration policies and the federal government shutdown, for which he blamed Mr. Trump.

Separately on Tuesday, California voters were deciding whether to give Democratic lawmakers the power to redraw the state’s congressional map, expanding a national battle over redistricting that could determine which party controls the US House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.

In an echo of his false claims about the 2020 election, Mr. Trump called the California vote a scam on social media, suggesting the vote was rigged without providing evidence.

For Republicans, Tuesday’s elections served as a test of whether the voters who powered Mr. Trump’s victory in 2024 will still show up when he is not on the ballot.

But Mr. Ciattarelli and Ms. Earle-Sears, both running in Democratic-leaning states, faced a conundrum: criticizing Mr. Trump risked losing his supporters, but embracing him too closely could have alienated moderate and independent voters who disapprove of his policies.

Mr. Trump remains unpopular: 57% of Americans disapprove of his job performance, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. But Democrats are not gaining support as a result, with respondents evenly split on whether they would favor Democrats or Republicans in 2026. — Reuters

BRUSSELS — European Union  (EU) climate ministers were close to agreeing a 2040 climate change target in the early hours of Wednesday, but watered down the goal in last-minute negotiations, a draft EU document showed, as they raced to clinch the deal before the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP30) summit in Brazil.

After more than 16 hours of negotiations, climate ministers from EU countries were debating a compromise to cut emissions 90% by 2040, from 1990 levels, but with flexibilities to weaken this aim. The compromises included the option to buy foreign carbon credits to cover up to 5% of it, according to a draft of their negotiating document, seen by Reuters.

That would effectively weaken to 85% the emissions cuts required from European industries and pay foreign countries to cut emissions on Europe’s behalf to make up the rest.

The draft said the EU would also consider the option, in future, to let countries buy international carbon credits to meet a further 5% of their 2040 emissions reductions — potentially shaving another 5% off their domestic target.

In a further effort to win over skeptical countries, the draft compromise said the EU would weaken other politically sensitive climate policies, including delaying the launch of an upcoming EU carbon market by one year, to 2028.

Poland and the Czech Republic have opposed that policy, citing fears it could raise fuel prices.

Countries’ ministers were still discussing the draft. Diplomats said it was not immediately clear if it would win backing from the “qualified majority” of at least 15 of the 27 member states needed to pass the goal.

EU ministers planned to reconvene for formal talks later on Wednesday morning to vote on it.

Countries including France and Portugal had demanded the 5% carbon credits flexibility, while others including Poland and Italy sought 10%. Spain and the Netherlands were among those opposed to weakening the target further, EU diplomats told Reuters.

The EU is racing to agree its new climate goal to avoid going empty-handed to the COP30 climate summit, where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet other world leaders on Nov. 6.

“We have a lot at stake. We are risking our international leadership, which is fundamental in this extraordinarily complicated context,” Spanish Environment Minister Sara Aagesen told reporters on Tuesday.

OPPOSING VIEWS
The European Commission had originally proposed a 90% emissions-cutting target, with a maximum 3% share of carbon credits.

The dilution of the target reflects a backlash against Europe’s ambitious climate agenda, from industries and some governments skeptical that it can afford the measures alongside defense and industrial priorities.

“We don’t want to destroy the economy. We don’t want to destroy the climate. We want to save both at the same time,” Polish Deputy Climate Minister Krzysztof Bolesta said on Tuesday.

Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic and others opposed the original 90% target as too restrictive for domestic industries struggling with high energy costs, cheaper Chinese imports and US tariffs.

Others, including the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, cited worsening extreme weather and the need to catch up with China in manufacturing green technologies as reasons for ambitious goals.

The EU’s independent climate science advisers have warned that buying foreign CO2 credits would divert much-needed investments away from European industries. — Reuters