Communists are fascinated by contradictions. China faces a big one

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On past form, boasts of China’s openness to the world will come thick and fast when President Xi Jinping addresses the Second China International Import Expo in Shanghai on November 5th. Speaking at the inaugural edition of that trade fair last year, Mr Xi cast China as a champion of free trade and mutually beneficial co-operation. Openness brings progress while seclusion leads to backwardness, he declared. Slipping into fluent Globalese, the blandly uplifting argot used at gatherings of world leaders, billionaires and ceos, Mr Xi beamed that it was natural to share the fruits of innovation “in our interconnected global village”.

China’s leader has every reason to offer warm words at the upcoming event. Even as his country grows richer and more powerful, it is dependent on the world in ways that it cannot control. China has ambitions to become a standard-setting technology superpower. For all its talk of self-reliance, it needs foreign know-how to get there. In the short term, China is anxious for a truce in its trade war with America. It wants to show other countries that it is a team player, unlike that rule-breaking bully in Washington. Further ahead its economy will need growing room. China is running out of useful places to build shiny airports and high-speed railway lines at home, and wants its own global brands to vie with Boeing or Apple. That will require new markets overseas.