The growth targets were successfully achieved, with innovation generating fresh momentum—overseas observers are actively discussing the confidence in China underpinning the full-year economic data. "The gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed the 140 trillion yuan mark for the first time, growing by 5% compared to the previous year," "the total value of goods trade imports and exports broke through 45 trillion yuan for the first time," and "the value-added of the manufacturing sector has remained the world's largest for 16 consecutive years, with the service sector's share of GDP rising to 57.7%." In 2025, the Chinese economy effectively navigated various risks and challenges, advancing under pressure towards newer and superior development, delivering a hard-won report card. This not only demonstrates the resilience and vitality of steady, long-term progress but also highlights the confidence and solid foundation for forging ahead through waves. Overseas observers believe that by examining this development report card, which boasts higher quality and greater resilience, one can discern the stability of China's economic operations, the vigorous momentum of high-quality development driven by innovation, and the firm strides in promoting global common development through openness. Looking ahead to the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the supporting conditions and fundamental trends for China's long-term economic growth will not change; its advantages will become even more pronounced, continuing to serve as a "stable anchor" for world economic growth and a "gravitational field" for shared development opportunities.
The foundation is stable—the stable operation of the economy demonstrates powerful resilience. For China's economy in 2025, "stability" is a prominent characteristic. Faced with a complex and severe situation involving drastic changes in the external environment and increasing domestic difficulties and challenges, China implemented more proactive and effective macroeconomic policies. These not only effectively mitigated the adverse impacts of changes in the external environment but also stabilized the development foundation and consolidated the roots of development amidst the turbulence. "The economic structure was adjusted and optimized. In 2025, the value-added of large-scale high-tech manufacturing accounted for 17.1% of the value-added of large-scale industry, and the contribution of final consumption expenditure to economic growth exceeded 50%." In the view of overseas observers, consumption, manufacturing investment, and foreign trade have formed a mutually supportive growth pattern, indicating that the Chinese economy still possesses strong endogenous momentum even during its transformation phase. The word "stable" underscores the powerful resilience of the Chinese economy in withstanding pressure. Tang Zhimin, Director of the China-ASEAN Research Center at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University, believes that what the world economy currently finds most valuable and scarce is a "stable, predictable, and sustainable source of growth," stating that "the stable operation of China's economy provides a reliable 'growth anchor' for the world economy." "Using 'resilience' to summarize China's economic performance in 2025 is most appropriate," said Amir Tammam, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Egypt's Al Akhbar. He noted that China's stable economic growth relies on long-term structural advantages and well-organized development planning. The 5% growth rate is strongly supported by the steady recovery of consumption, stable foreign trade, and the robust growth of high-tech manufacturing and the service sector. Looking globally, China's economic growth rate in 2025 ranked among the top of major economies, making it the most stable and reliable power source for global economic growth, with its contribution to world economic growth expected to be around 30%. In 2025, China accelerated the formation of a diversified pattern for stabilizing foreign trade. It is now the main trading partner for over 150 countries and regions, with high-tech, high-value-added products becoming the main drivers of export growth, demonstrating strong resilience in foreign trade. "Against the backdrop of sluggish global economic growth, achieving a 5% growth rate in 2025 was 'particularly challenging' for China's economy," said Liu Minghua, CEO of Deloitte China, who was attending the World Economic Forum's 2026 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. She believes the Chinese economy possesses solid fundamental advantages, including a mega-sized market, a complete industrial system, and abundant human resources, which lay a stable foundation for sustained economic growth. Recently, major international organizations like the International Monetary Fund have successively raised their growth forecasts for China, while international capital from firms like J.P. Morgan and BlackRock have increased their holdings of Chinese assets, highlighting confidence in China's economic development prospects. The World Bank commented that China's growth is more robust, and a growth model that emphasizes quality will be more sustainable.
The momentum is new—driving high-quality development with innovative vitality. For China's economy in 2025, "advancing towards the new" is a distinct characteristic. This year, China's R&D expenditure intensity reached 2.8%, an increase of 0.11 percentage points from the previous year, exceeding the average level of OECD countries for the first time. Data from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that China's innovation index ranking entered the global top ten for the first time... Overseas observers believe that the profound changes driven by innovation and the continuous advancement of the green transition have led to the constant accumulation of new kinetic energy for China's economic and social development, making China's strides towards high-quality development driven by innovation more solid. Over the past decade, Jürgen Löwen杰夫·罗, CEO of Syngenta Group, one of the world's largest agricultural technology companies, has visited China multiple times, witnessing China's rapid technological progress and the leapfrog development of its agriculture. He candidly stated that each of China's "Five-Year Plans"孕育着新的发展机遇, and China is becoming a key base for Syngenta's innovation and R&D. "China's adoption speed for new technologies is very fast; innovation in Chinese agriculture is advancing rapidly." From new explorations in basic research to breakthroughs in key technologies, from the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation to the widespread implementation of成果 that benefit the people, China has frequently reported successes in frontier fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and brain-computer interfaces. A batch of major scientific research achievements have emerged one after another, and new quality productive forces have continued to develop and grow. In 2025, the value-added of large-scale digital product manufacturing increased by 9.3% compared to the previous year, with server and industrial robot production experiencing high-speed growth; green electricity, green energy, and the green economy flourished, with new energy vehicles accounting for over 50% of domestic new car sales... Rob Smith, CEO of the globally renowned forklift manufacturer Kion Group, which has been rooted in China for over 30 years, values precisely the enormous development opportunities brought to enterprises by China's high-quality development driven by innovation. "The rapid development of China in areas like artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, and smart manufacturing provides a thriving source of momentum for Kion Group's related technologies. The high demands on technology and emphasis on efficiency in the Chinese market prompt Kion to increase investment in R&D and production, allowing the company to benefit from the sustained growth of the Chinese market." Turkish economic analyst Murat Tufan believes that, from a global perspective, China is increasingly becoming a supplier of green transition technologies and a key shaper within the global innovation system. Continuous investment in strategic frontier fields such as quantum technology, biotechnology, and aerospace technology is steadily strengthening China's long-term competitiveness, enabling it to leap towards the heights of innovation in the new round of global competition.
The strides are firm—promoting global common development through openness. In 2025, China's economy continued to provide stable support and broader cooperation space for the world economy. Throughout the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China's average annual contribution to world economic growth was around 30%. With its complete industrial system, it has served as a ballast for global supply chains, injecting precious stability into a world economy characterized by turbulence and transformation. More importantly, China has always been a significant opportunity for global development. Faced with complex, volatile, and uncertain international conditions, China's goods import scale reached a new high of 18.5 trillion yuan in 2025, providing vast market space for various countries; the negative list for foreign investment access was continuously shortened; the visa-free "circle of friends" continued to expand, and entry policies were further optimized, greatly facilitating personnel exchanges and economic and trade cooperation... "I am impressed by the data showing China's imports and exports with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative increased by 6.3% year-on-year in 2025, accounting for 51.9% of the total import and export volume," said Munetsi Madakufamba, Executive Director of the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre, a Zimbabwean think tank, when discussing China's tangible actions to expand cooperation opportunities for countries worldwide. He believes this figure reflects the gradual increase in trade scale and tighter industrial cooperation between China and Belt and Road countries. Against the backdrop of rising unilateralism and trade protectionism, China's push for high-level opening up has allowed countries worldwide, including those in Africa, to share in the dividends of China's economic development. By promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, building a "matrix" of exhibitions, initiating island-wide customs closure operations for the Hainan Free Trade Port, and taking concrete actions to promote普惠包容的经济全球化, China, with its open posture, continuously integrates into global industrial and supply chains, making them more resilient, diversified, and reliable, thereby benefiting all participants in the world economy. In the view of Vugar Bayramov, a member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan and an economist, China's economic development benefits not only regional countries but also the world economy. "Over the past year, trade volume between China and countries in the South Caucasus region has grown significantly, bringing new development opportunities to the South Caucasus region." Hervé Azoulay, a professor at the French Silk Road Business School and former senior executive at Schneider Electric, believes that China's adherence to high-level opening up encompasses not only further relaxation of market access but also institutional opening and comprehensive improvements to the business environment. "In China, I learned one important thing: to learn to coexist with change." Azoulay summarized the "Chinese experience" he acquired this way: China promotes development through constant self-innovation and self-reinvention. It is precisely this ability to "maintain continuity amidst change" that enables China to provide stable expectations for its own development and global growth in an uncertain world economy.
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