On December 18, Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, officially launched an island-wide independent customs operation. The new governance framework can be summarized as follows: "freer access at the first line, regulated access at the second line, and free flow within the island." The "first line" opens Hainan further to the world with a range of opening-up and facilitation measures for cross-border flows, while the "second line" safeguards the domestic market through effective risk control. The most immediate change lies in the tariff schedule. After the customs closure, the scope of zero-tariff goods expands from around 1,900 tariff lines to about 6,600, covering nearly three-quarters of imported goods.

Together with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), Hainan forms a "dual engine" powering China's opening-up strategy. "Ideally, this would create a virtuous cycle in which Hainan takes the lead in piloting new rules, and the GBA then scales them up and puts them into wider use," said Wang Yanting, Director of the Institute for Economic and Social Development of the South China Sea, Hainan Academy of Social Sciences. She explained that Hainan will take the lead in piloting new rules for trade, finance, and cross-border data flows; Hong Kong, leveraging its highly internationalized and mature systems, will amplify these institutional gains; and the extensive industrial base of the GBA's mainland cities will play a central role in technology commercialization and advanced manufacturing.

On the eve of the island-wide customs closure, Hainan's first wholly foreign-owned hospital opened, bringing advanced medical technologies from Europe, Australia, and beyond. Wang noted that after the closure, Hainan will be competing directly with the world's top free-trade ports. What determines competitiveness will no longer be a single "policy lever" such as tariff rates, but the overall quality of the institutional environment, including policy stability, government transparency, judicial credibility, and data availability. Only when global market players develop a stable expectation that "rules outweigh personal connections and institutions matter more than approvals" will international capital truly take root, rather than merely seeking short-term gains.

海南自贸港今起全岛封关运作：“港”“湾”联袂，谱写开放新交响

12月18日，中国最大的经济特区——海南，正式启动全岛封关运作。 “‘一线’放开、‘二线’管住、岛内自由”，12个字勾勒出全新的治理框架。“一线”向世界敞开怀抱，实施一系列自由便利的进出举措；“二线”为国内市场守住底线，实现风险的有效管控。最直接的变革体现在关税清单上。封关后，“零关税”商品范围由约1900个税目扩大至约6600个税目，覆盖近四分之三的进口商品。

它与粤港澳大湾区共同构成国家开放战略的“双引擎”。“理想状态下，应形成‘海南先行试，湾区集成用’的协同闭环。”海南省社会科学院南海经济社会发展研究所所长王艳婷描绘了这样的图景：海南在贸易、金融、数据跨境流动等新规则上先行先试；香港凭借高度国际化的成熟体系，放大这些制度成果；粤港澳大湾区内地城市广阔的腹地则承载着科技成果转化和先进制造的主体功能。

海南全面封关前夜，海南首家外商独资医院落地，欧洲、澳大利亚等地区先进医疗技术纷至沓来。王艳婷直言，封关后，海南将直接置身于与国际一流自贸港同台竞技的赛场。届时，决定胜负的将不再是税率等单一的“政策筹码”，而是整体“制度环境”的成色——政策的稳定性、政府的透明度、司法的公信力、数据的可获得性。唯有当全球市场主体在此形成“规则高于人情、制度重于审批”的稳定预期，国际资本才会真正扎根，而非短暂套利。

文 | 记者 孙绮曼 陈泽云
图 | 记者 蔡嘉鸿 黄城栋
译｜曾敏
英文审校｜林佳岱