Opinion

Charting a new course for high-quality development in complex domestic and external environment

China achieved 5 percent growth in 2025 with GDP surpassing RMB 140 trillion mark. In the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China's economy delivered hard-won results, writing a new chapter of high-quality development amid complex changes. This demonstrates its strong resilience, development stability, and endogenous momentum.

What stands out is the steadiness and progress achieved while sailing against headwinds. A stable economic performance is the greatest confidence in weathering risks. Currently, global economic growth lacks momentum, with strong "headwinds" such as geopolitical conflicts and rising protectionism, while domestic difficulties and challenges are also increasing. Under such complex and severe circumstances, China's economy has maintained growth rates leading among major economies, contributing around 30 percent of global economic growth for many consecutive years, serving as a stabilizer and driving force for world economic growth.

The drive for higher quality and efficiency is marked by innovation and tangible results. The most striking feature of China's economy in 2025 is the development of new quality productive forces. On the industrial front, progress is driven by innovation: China has become the first country in the world with over 5 million valid domestic invention patents, and its new energy vehicle production and sales have ranked first globally for 11 consecutive years, with "Intelligent Manufacturing in China" becoming a popular label in the global market. The consumer sector is vibrant with innovation: trade-in programs have brought more high-end, green, and smart consumer products into people's lives, while live commerce and instant retail continue to gain traction, with the silver economy, ice-snow economy, and debut economy seeing rising momentum.

Policy support has been distinguished by its precision and people-centered focus. In the face of difficulties and challenges in economic operations, efforts have been made to implement more proactive and impactful macroeconomic policies, aiming to stabilize employment, enterprises, markets, and expectations, effectively ensuring stable and positive economic performance. Macroeconomic policies feature both large-scale moves —projects in advancing national strategies, strengthening security in key areas, supporting equipment upgrades and trade-ins, deepening the unified national market, and curbing rat-race competition—and people-centered measures that ensure livelihood security, such as an annual subsidy of RMB 3,600 per child under three years old, employment-first policies firmly safeguarding the baseline of people's livelihoods, and the growth of per capita disposable income keeping pace with economic growth.

Policy

1. The action plan for promoting high-quality development of industrial internet platforms (2026–2028) was recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The plan proposes that by 2028, the number of influential industrial internet platforms will exceed 450, connected devices on major industrial internet platforms will surpass 120 million units, and platform adoption rate will reach over 55 percent.

2. Guidelines to build "zero-carbon factories" were jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the National Energy Administration recently. The initiative aims to deeply tap into the potential for energy conservation and carbon reduction in the industrial and information technology sectors, drive carbon reduction, efficiency improvement, and green low-carbon transformation in key industries, and foster the development of new quality productive forces.

Data

1. On January 15, the 2025–2026 water transfer work of the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project officially commenced. The project plans to supply an additional 1.638 billion cubic meters of water to receiving areas, setting a new historical record.

2. According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China completed 127 million mu (about 8.47 million hectares) of land greening in 2025, including 53.45 million mu of afforestation and 73.9 million mu of degraded grassland restoration and management.

3. According to Shanghai Customs, Shanghai achieved a total foreign trade import and export value of RMB 4.51 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent in 2025. Among this, exports amounted to RMB 2.02 trillion, showing a significant growth of 10.8 percent, while imports reached RMB 2.49 trillion, increasing by 1.8 percent. The total import and export value, export value, and import value all hit record highs.

4. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the quality and efficiency of state-owned enterprises in China saw comprehensive improvements. The total assets of enterprises supervised by the state-owned assets system grew from RMB 235 trillion to RMB 387 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 10.5 percent, providing strong support for the sustained and healthy development of China's economy and society.

5. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, customs oversaw an average of 5.2 billion tons of imported and exported goods annually, with a total value of RMB 42.3 trillion—the largest scale globally—while maintaining overall safety. A total of 19 new comprehensive bonded zones were established, and 41 ports were newly opened or expanded, accelerating the pace of openness and cooperation.

6. China's total electricity consumption reached a milestone in 2025, surpassing 10 trillion kilowatt-hours for the first time, the National Energy Administration (NEA) announced on January 17. Total power use in China hit 10.4 trillion kilowatt-hours last year, representing a year-on-year increase of 5 percent. This volume also makes China the first country to surpass the 10-trillion-kWh mark in annual power use, more than doubling that of the United States and exceeding the combined power consumption of the EU, Russia, India and Japan, said the NEA.

7. Data shows that the penetration rate of virtual production processes in the film industry has increased from 15 percent in 2023 to approximately 45 percent in 2025, with new quality productive forces accelerating their integration into the film sector.

8. The number of foreign trade entities registered in south China's Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) has surpassed 100,000, according to customs data released on January 14. On Dec. 18 last year, China launched island-wide special customs operations in the Hainan FTP, allowing freer entry of overseas goods, expanding zero-tariff coverage, and introducing more business-friendly measures. Since Dec. 18, 2025, 5,132 new entities were registered, reflecting a rapid expansion.

9. China-Central Asia economic and trade cooperation made considerable progress in 2025, with the total value of trade in goods reaching 106.3 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The trade volume between China and Central Asia exceeded the 100-billion-U.S.-dollar mark for the first time in history, maintaining positive growth for five consecutive years. China became the largest trading partner of Central Asian countries for the first time last year.

10. South China's Guangdong Province saw its foreign trade hit a record high of RMB 9.49 trillion (about 1.36 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, rising 4.4 percent year on year. This has secured Guangdong's position as China's leading provincial-level region in terms of total trade volume for a 40th consecutive year, according to the provincial branch of the General Administration of Customs of China. Guangdong's foreign trade accounted for approximately one-fifth of the national total, contributing 24.1 percent to the growth of China's overall foreign trade.

(Source: Economic Daily)