China will continue to provide momentum for the world economy

Editor's note: Liu Chunsheng, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an associate professor at the Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics. The article reflects the author's opinion and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum 2025, held in Beijing from March 23 to 24, 2025, focused on "Fully Unleashing Development Momentum and Jointly Promoting Stable Growth of the Global Economy." Numerous global business leaders, international organizations, and scholars from China and abroad came together to explore the coordinated development paths of the Chinese and world economies. This gathering underscores China's significant economic standing and profound influence on a global scale.

On Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang reiterated China's commitment to openness and global collaboration, announcing that China will further expand market access to foreign investors across various sectors.

The world economy is currently struggling with weak growth, increased trade protectionism, frequent geopolitical conflicts, and many intertwining uncertainties, creating a challenging landscape for global economic development. Nevertheless, China's economy, characterized by resilience and vitality, has provided a decisive and essential new impetus for the world economy's growth.

Expanding domestic demand: Stabilizing the anchor of global economic stability

At the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress held on March 5 this year, the government work report pointed out that in 2025, it is necessary to vigorously boost consumption, improve investment efficiency, and comprehensively expand domestic demand, making domestic demand the main driving force and stabilizing anchor for economic growth. This strategic deployment is particularly crucial in the context of increased global trade risks. Compared with 2024, the importance of expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption has been further enhanced. This year, China will implement a unique action to boost consumption, covering a series of extraordinary measures such as enhancing consumption capacity, increasing high-quality supply, and improving the consumption environment to release diversified and differentiated consumption potential and promote upgrading consumption quality. The focus will be on developing service consumption fields such as health, elderly care, childcare, and housekeeping, as well as new types of consumption such as digital, green, and intelligent consumption.

Technological innovation: Leading the world economy to new heights

Technological innovation has always been the core driving force for economic development. In recent years, China has achieved fruitful results in technological innovation. In 2024, China's production of new energy vehicles exceeded 10 million units for the first time. The prototype of the CR450 high-speed train unit, the world's fastest high-speed train with a commercial operation speed of 400 kilometers per hour, was released. The artificial intelligence model DeepSeek emerged, and humanoid robots represented by Unitree robots were gradually mass-produced. According to the "Global Innovation Index Report 2024" released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China's global innovation index ranking rose to 11th place in 2024, and it is one of the economies with the fastest improvement in innovation ability in the past 10 years. China attaches great importance to innovation, continuously increases investment in the R&D field, constantly breaks through key core technologies, and new productive forces keep emerging. China's efforts in technological innovation not only provide the impetus for the optimization of its own economic structure but also offer references and cooperation opportunities for the innovative development of the world economy, leading the world economy to new heights.

Optimizing the business environment: A strong magnet for global investment

In recent years, China has been continuously optimizing the business environment. From continuously reducing the negative list for foreign investment access and eliminating restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector to steadily promoting the opening up of the service industry and promoting the expansion of pilot openings in fields such as telecommunications, healthcare, and education, China has been continuously relaxing market access and actively attracting foreign investment. In the first two months of 2025, 7,160 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established in China, a year-on-year increase of 34.9 percent, reaching the highest level in nearly five years. This data fully demonstrates that the attractiveness of China's business environment is continuously increasing.

The active participation of many senior executives of multinational enterprises in the Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum 2025 also reflects their recognition of China's business environment and their emphasis on investment and development in China. China's measures to optimize the business environment not only create good conditions for the development of domestic enterprises but also provide broad development space for global enterprises, promote the optimal allocation of global resources, and inject new vitality into the growth of the world economy.

Expanding opening-up: A promoter of building an open world economy

China has always been unswervingly expanding, opening up and actively promoting the construction of an open world economy. In 2024, China's total imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road Initiative accounted for more than 50 percent of its total foreign trade for the first time. This positive signal indicates that China is committed to promoting the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, continuously improving economic and trade cooperation with countries along the route, and effectively promoting mutual benefit and win-win results.

Against the backdrop of the rise of global trade protectionism, China actively hosts international economic and trade events such as the China International Import Expo and the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), providing a platform for global enterprises to display their products and technologies and promoting the smooth flow of international trade. China also actively participates in regional economic cooperation, promotes the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and strengthens economic ties with neighboring countries and regions. China's opening-up measures provide more market opportunities and development space for countries worldwide, promote the stability and development of the global industrial chain and supply chain, and become a firm promoter of building an open world economy.

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