Tax data from a July 28 press conference on the "15th Five-Year Plan' revealed a clear picture of China's high-quality development, characterized by a shift toward practical, innovative, premium, and green growth.
Trillions of yuan in tax cuts have precisely nourished the market, fueling business vitality and accelerating industrial upgrades. This signals that in the first year of the "15th Five-Year Plan," the economy is steadily entering a new development track.
The stability of the economy hinges on the solidity of the real economy. The "practical" shift was the primary signal from the tax data. In the first half of the year, industrial enterprise sales revenue grew 7.1% year-on-year, with manufacturing sales revenue up 7.3%. The share of industrial enterprise sales revenue in total corporate sales revenue reached 36%, up 2.2 percentage points from the same period last year, and equipment investment in industrial enterprises surged 9.8% year-on-year. The real economy is the ballast of the national economy, and manufacturing is the foundation for building a modern industrial system. The willingness of businesses to increase equipment investment and expand production reflects a recovery in market expectations and a gradual release of domestic demand. The sharp rise in the number of active business entities, with hundreds of millions of them rooted in the real economy, forms the most solid foundation for China's economy to withstand headwinds.
The strength of innovation is reflected in the growth of new productive forces. The "innovative" shift outlines a clear path for industrial upgrading. In the first half of the year, sales revenue from three industries closely related to new productive forces—equipment manufacturing, information transmission, software and IT services, and technology services—accounted for 23.5% of total corporate sales revenue, up 2.2 percentage points from the previous year. This share has been rapidly rising annually. The revenue share of high-tech industries and the digital economy core industries also increased. Innovation is no longer a "private track" for a few high-tech companies but is gradually permeating all links of the industrial chain. Tax cuts, fee reductions, and tax rebates supporting technological innovation and manufacturing development expanded in the first half of the year. Policies like the additional deduction for R&D expenses, tax incentives for high-tech enterprises, and the VAT super-deduction for advanced manufacturing have channeled massive tax savings into corporate labs, equipment, and R&D funding. This helps strengthen the industrial chain, overcome "bottleneck" challenges, and accelerate the transformation of new productive forces from a concept into tangible sales revenue and market competitiveness.
The quality of development is gauged by the optimization of corporate benefits. The "premium" shift marks a profound transformation in the growth model—from "competing on scale" to "improving efficiency." In the first half of this year, millions of key tax-paying enterprises reported a year-on-year increase in declared profits, with value-related indicators improving. This suggests the industrial value chain is moving upward. The improvement in corporate profitability stems from two factors: ongoing industrial structure optimization, with higher value-added from high-end manufacturing and digital industries, and sustained tax and fee reductions that lower operating costs and broaden profit margins. Improved profits will eventually trickle down to employment, wages, and investment, creating a virtuous cycle of "increased corporate efficiency, higher household incomes, and expanded consumption," making economic growth more resilient and sustainable.
Long-term potential is determined by the pace of green transformation. The "green" shift represents a change in development philosophy. In the first half of the year, sales revenue from clean energy power generation surged, and its share of total power generation increased. Revenue from the ecological and environmental protection industry grew steadily. Wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power are accelerating their replacement of traditional energy sources, while green manufacturing and energy-saving industries are entering a development window. Green transformation is no longer an "optional choice" that requires extra cost but a "must-answer" question that breeds new growth points. Tax policies are increasingly tilted toward green industries, guiding capital toward low-carbon pathways and driving continuous reform of production methods and energy structures. This achieves a two-way effort between development and environmental protection, accumulating ecological momentum for long-term growth.
At the critical juncture of the "15th Five-Year Plan's" launch, the positive signals from tax big data represent structural and trend-based improvements. The direction of "toward the practical" builds a solid foundation, "toward innovation" cultivates growth drivers, "toward premium" enhances efficiency, and "toward green" focuses on the long term. Continued precise tax policies, improvement of the tax system to support innovation, manufacturing upgrades, and green development, and ongoing optimization of the tax business environment will empower the hundreds of millions of diligent businesses. Together, they will drive China's economy steadily forward, achieving a new atmosphere for the start of the "15th Five-Year Plan."
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