欧

The Third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM3) of APEC 2026 and related meetings were held from August 17 to 28 in Dalian, in China's northeastern Liaoning province. It was the largest and busiest senior-official-level gathering yet held under this year's APEC "China Year," drawing more than 2,300 delegates from APEC member economies, the APEC Secretariat, the ABAC business advisory council and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, who took part in nearly 130 thematic meetings and side events. Delegates held in-depth discussions on a wide range of issues including trade, transport, food, customs, science and technology, energy, health, disaster risk reduction and anti-corruption, and visited local industries and historic neighborhoods in Dalian to learn about the latest progress in the revitalization of Northeast China. The Dalian meeting is seen as a pivotal link in this year's process, with its outcomes expected to build consensus and lay the groundwork for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting to be held in Shenzhen, Guangdong, this November.

Since China formally unveiled the theme and priority areas of its 2026 APEC host year at an informal Senior Officials' Meeting in Shenzhen in late 2025, "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together" has served as the through-line for this year's meetings, with "openness, innovation and cooperation" designated as the three priority areas. This is the third time China has hosted APEC, after Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014, and the first time the year's leaders' meeting has been held in Shenzhen, a city known for technological innovation and an outward-looking economy. The year's APEC process had earlier held its first and second Senior Officials' Meetings and related meetings in Guangzhou and Shanghai respectively; Dalian, the first city in Northeast China to host an APEC Senior Officials' Meeting, took over to host the third round, marking the sprint phase of preparations for the "China Year."

In terms of structure, this round of meetings continued APEC's "1+24" work-plan framework, under which the SOM plenary is supported by committee meetings, roughly fifteen dedicated working-group meetings and various seminars covering trade and investment, transport, food security, customs cooperation, science and technology, energy, health, disaster risk reduction and anti-corruption, among other areas. Nearly 130 meetings and side events took place in quick succession, making it the busiest and broadest-ranging Senior Officials' Meeting in APEC's history. The meetings also held dedicated consultations on specific policy issues such as digital innovation, trade facilitation, food security and disaster resilience, aiming to set direction and a roadmap for practical cooperation among Asia-Pacific economies in these fields.

The Dalian meeting drew particular attention partly because its scale set a new record for APEC Senior Officials' Meetings — in terms of the breadth of issues covered and the number of participating economies and observer organizations — and partly because of the complicated state of international trade. In recent years, rising unilateralism and protectionism, tariff barriers and geopolitical friction have repeatedly disrupted global trade and the stability of industrial and supply chains, adding to uncertainty around the multilateral trading system. Against this backdrop, delegations from multiple economies, including the United States, took part: according to the U.S. State Department, the U.S. delegation was led by Casey Mace, the U.S. Senior Official for APEC, and focused on advancing an "America First" trade and economic agenda in sectors including agriculture, energy, transport, fisheries, health and food security. Analysts note that, with China-U.S. economic and trade relations still marked by disagreement and the global trade order in flux, China, as this year's APEC host, is using platforms such as the Dalian meeting to present itself as a steady advocate for free trade and multilateral cooperation. The Second Senior Officials' Meeting held in Shanghai this past May had already been read by foreign media as a sign that China and the United States remain far apart on specific trade issues such as tariff levels and market access, which has heightened attention on whether the Dalian meeting can produce any substantive progress in narrowing those gaps at the working level.

As host city for this round of meetings, Dalian also used the occasion to showcase to the international community the latest achievements in revitalizing Northeast China's old industrial base. Dalian arranged multiple itineraries for delegates and media, covering the preservation and renewal of historic neighborhoods and the cultivation of new quality productive forces, including a visit to a science and technology exhibition hall run by the Liaoyu Group, where delegates saw firsthand how local companies are transforming and upgrading traditional industries such as marine fisheries. As a major port city and window to the outside world in Northeast China, Dalian is charting a new development path in tandem with the drafting of its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), aiming to play a leading role in the comprehensive revitalization of the region. Showcasing regional development achievements around the APEC Senior Officials' Meeting is also seen as a signal China is sending to Asia-Pacific economies about improvements to the business environment and expanded space for open cooperation in Northeast China.

Under the current schedule, the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will take place November 18-19 in Shenzhen, Guangdong — the third time China has hosted this highest-level Asia-Pacific economic cooperation gathering, after Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014. Choosing Shenzhen to host this year's leaders' meeting is widely read as an effort to draw on the city's standing as a pioneer of China's reform and opening-up and a global hub of technological innovation to showcase, to the Asia-Pacific and the wider world, the practical achievements of Chinese modernization and high-quality development. As home to the headquarters of drone maker DJI, tech giant Tencent and other companies, Shenzhen has already built replicable, scalable experience in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, new-energy vehicles and the digital economy, and China has stated it will vigorously push regional cooperation on AI and the digital economy during the summit. From Dalian to Shenzhen, this year's APEC meeting series traces a picture of China's diverse economy, from a traditional industrial base to an emerging hub of technology and innovation, laying groundwork for consensus and a leaders' declaration at the November summit. The Second Senior Officials' Meeting held earlier in Shanghai had already shown that major economies including China and the United States still have significant differences on some specific trade issues, leaving open the question of whether the Shenzhen summit can achieve substantive results.

Viewed more broadly, the Dalian meeting comes at a pivotal moment when the global trading system faces mounting pressure. Tariff frictions among major world economies, supply-chain restructuring and the fragmentation of regional trade rules are all testing the cohesion of APEC, a regional economic cooperation mechanism founded in 1989 that is built on voluntary, non-binding cooperation. For Asia-Pacific economies, including China and ASEAN members, whether this year's "China Year" meeting mechanism can produce further consensus on trade facilitation, supply-chain resilience, the digital economy and green transition will matter not only for the substance of the year-end Shenzhen summit but also for the broader trajectory of Asia-Pacific regional economic integration in the period ahead. The international community will continue watching how China, as host, seeks to balance China-U.S. rivalry with multilateral cooperation, and will be watching closely whether the Shenzhen summit can inject new momentum into global trade talks that have otherwise stalled. For many Asia-Pacific economies, including China and Thailand, each preparatory meeting before year's end offers an important window onto the prospects for multilateral trade cooperation.