CGTN Poll: Understanding China's position in the global economic landscape is crucial

A stable and reliable growth trajectory, fast-evolving innovative momentum and a steadily expanding openness jointly define a new place for China's economy on the map of the global economy. High-quality development and high-level opening-up are not only key drivers of China's economy, but also reflect the global trend of shifting growth engines. An online survey conducted by CGTN shows that respondents generally believe China's economy has maintained overall stability with steady progress, injecting valuable certainty into the world economy. China's economic philosophies and practices offer important insights for addressing global economic challenges.

Innovation-driven development is an inevitable trend for the future of the global economy. A major source of confidence for China's economy lies in the new quality productive forces that are rapidly emerging through innovation. In the latest Global Innovation Index 2025 rankings, China entered the top ten for the first time and remains the highest-ranked among the 36 upper-middle-income economies.

The survey shows that 93.6 percent of respondents believe innovation is playing an increasingly significant role in driving China's high-quality economic development. Meanwhile, 96.6 percent believe China is leading profound changes in industrial patterns and economic structures through scientific and technological innovation, and 93.2 percent of respondents believe that China's efforts to deeply integrate scientific and industrial innovation offer useful reference for other countries pursuing high-quality economic development. Moreover, 88.3 percent believe China's development model – driven by technological innovation and grounded in the real economy – represents an important trend in the transformation and upgrading of the global economy.

As the world's second-largest consumer market, China has the largest middle-income group globally, holding enormous investment and consumption potential. China's proposal to "prioritize domestic demand and build a strong domestic market" brings important opportunities for expanding global aggregate demand. In recent years, China has continued to shorten the negative list for foreign investment, ensured national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises and continuously builds a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and globally competitive.

The survey shows that 82.3 percent of respondents believe that foreign enterprises can fully leverage their strengths and capabilities in China's vast market to gain a competitive edge globally. Meanwhile, 86.7 percent believe that China's continued efforts to boost domestic consumption will bring significant opportunities for international companies. Additionally, 90.1 percent think that a healthy, stable and sustainably growing Chinese economy will provide greater momentum and stability for the struggling global economy.

Promoting reform through openness and pursuing win-win outcomes through cooperation, China continues to promote an open world economy in response to the rise of unilateralism and protectionism, offering effective solutions for improving global economic governance. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, free trade zone construction, the annual China International Import Expo and expanding visa-free access, China's determination to pursue high-level opening-up remains firm, with doors opening wider than ever.

In the survey, 89.1 percent of respondents believe China's continued expansion of opening-up will bring more development opportunities to the world; 90.5 percent believe an open world economy is an inevitable trend in global economic development; 70.7 percent think economic globalization is an objective requirement of social productive forces and a necessary outcome of technological progress, as well as an important driver of global economic growth; 84.1 percent believe that some countries' practices of building "small courtyards with high walls," imposing tariff barriers, and politicizing, instrumentalizing, militarizing, or securitizing trade issues violate economic principles and contradict market rules and the trend of openness; and 90.4 percent believe that promoting an inclusive and universally beneficial economic globalization should be done together with the broader Global South to safeguard the common interests of developing countries.

The survey was published on CGTN's English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian platforms, and within 12 hours, a total of 4,289 people participated in the poll and shared their views.