Over the past five years, China's economy has achieved an average annual growth rate of 5.4%, serving as a vital source of global growth and a stabilizing anchor. The annual sessions of China's national legislature and political advisory body have concluded, yet global attention remains focused on China. International observers are closely watching China's economy as it strides into the 15th Five-Year Plan period, forming a consensus: through these important meetings, they see a China grounded in reality and focused on high-quality development. In today's turbulent and changing world, China is becoming an indispensable anchor of stability.
Shortly after the sessions, at the 2026 China Development Forum, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated in his letter as international chair, "Innovation, sustainable development, and effective investment in people are the fundamental foundations for achieving lasting and robust growth. In China today, this spirit is visible everywhere and continues to thrive." Also at the forum, following AstraZeneca's announcement of plans to invest over 100 billion yuan in China by 2030 and Eli Lilly's plan to invest $3 billion cumulatively over the next decade, Novartis announced a plan to invest 3.3 billion yuan to launch a large-scale expansion in China. This series of major investment increases signals that multinational pharmaceutical companies' strategies in China have upgraded from "selling drugs in China" to "innovating in China, manufacturing in China, and co-creating with China."
Indeed, the past five years have been a rare period of turbulence in global economic history. The shadow of the pandemic, the impact of trade frictions, the fractures of geopolitical conflicts, and the surge of global inflation... one unexpected shock after another has hit countries worldwide like stormy waves. In stark contrast, China's economy has continued to sail steadily through the turbulence. Over the past five years, China's average annual economic growth of 5.4% has been significantly higher than the global average, and its contribution to world economic growth has remained around 30%. China has become a source of global growth and an anchor of stability.
Beyond these abstract figures, the world has also seen more concrete images of China over the past five years: BYD's cars driving on roads worldwide, DeepSeek's open-source models emerging impressively, Pop Mart's "Labubu" being snapped up by young people in various countries, and Unitree's humanoid robots making a remarkable debut... This list is growing longer, demonstrating that China has become a source of global innovation.
Consequently, a question continues to resonate internationally: in such an uncertain and unstable environment, why has China been able to maintain stable growth and even experience an innovation boom? When China formulated its proposals for the 15th Five-Year Plan last year, the world took note of this unique phenomenon. As this year marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's annual sessions have attracted even greater global attention and scrutiny. The answer to this question is crucial, as many countries hope to learn from China's experience to maintain developmental stability and foresight in the current volatile and uncertain international environment.
Five-year plans not only provide a framework for thinking and action but also reflect continuity in policy implementation. Overseas observers note that a primary reason China has been able to maintain its course through turbulent times is that, unlike some countries where government changes lead to policy swings, China's five-year plans are like a relay race, consistently following a single blueprint. They both continue grand goals spanning decades and clearly outline specific roadmaps for the next five years.
2011 Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent expressed high recognition for the core role of planning in China's economic development. He believes that China's five-year plans not only provide a framework for thinking and action but also demonstrate clear continuity in policy implementation. "This patience and systematic decision-making enable the Chinese economy to remain robust and resilient against the backdrop of increasing global uncertainty." Furthermore, in decision-making and planning, there is no pursuit of short-term effects but rather a greater focus on long-term development. "It is precisely this long-term strategic vision that makes me optimistic about China's future."
Planning provides the blueprint, but more important than the blueprint is persistence—the ability to maintain strategic focus without deviating course even in stormy seas. This unwavering strategic determination is not baseless; it is rooted in the deep institutional resilience of the five-year planning system. This institutional resilience is a structural feature deeply embedded in China's governance system. In today's world full of uncertainty, this institutional resilience gives China the greatest certainty in the world.
The super-large market: the most reliable harbor when external storms hit. Looking back at the turbulent waves of the past five years, the reason China's giant ship has been able to navigate steadily also lies in a high degree of clarity and flexibility. At the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the counter-currents facing economic globalization combined into an unprecedented stress test. Partial fractures appeared in global industrial and supply chains. The environment that relied on "large-scale imports and exports" to sustain growth had changed. Establishing a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other became an inevitable choice to ensure China's long-term stable economic development.
This was a strategic adaptive adjustment, a profound systematic reform, and a rebirth of endogenous development momentum. As the world's largest developing country, with over 1.4 billion people and more than 400 million in the middle-income group, when external storms hit, this super-large market is the most reliable harbor. By focusing on domestic demand and building a strong internal circulation system, China gains sufficient confidence to cope with external shocks and fluctuations. This has been a crucial guarantee for China's stable economic growth through the turbulence of the past five years.
As the external environment changed, the giant had to strengthen its "internal strength," ensuring every part of the body coordinated and functioned smoothly. This is the significance of "building a national unified market"—to organically connect and cyclically flow factors of production through all stages of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption. It also means establishing a fair competitive market environment and removing the barriers between regions. In 2025, systemic governance was achieved for the "involution-style" competition in the automotive industry. Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei launched a "one-time processing" for social security transfer and continuation, promoting smoother movement of people. When the power of resource allocation is returned to the market, it stimulates the endogenous motivation of every market entity, allowing them to accelerate on a fair track.
Expanding domestic demand has been elevated to a primary task in recent years and is a key variable for ensuring economic stability. Institutions for expanding domestic demand are being perfected, suppressed potential is being released, and a complete domestic demand system is being rapidly cultivated. In 2025, China's total retail sales of consumer goods exceeded 50 trillion yuan for the first time, with the contribution rate of domestic demand reaching 67.3%.
On the supply side, new growth drivers are being actively cultivated, and new quality productive forces are developing, reshaping the modern industrial system. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's national R&D expenditure grew at an average annual rate of 10%. Over the past five years, various pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port have continuously advanced open exploration. The negative list for foreign investment access has been progressively shortened. At the regulatory level, China has actively promoted deeper integration with the world and expanded economic ties with Global South countries. In 2025, China's total imports and exports reached 45.47 trillion yuan, an increase of 41.1% compared to 2020, with an average annual growth of 7.1%, becoming an important force stabilizing China's economic growth.
Collaborative innovation and accelerated iteration across industrial chains: the secret to China's innovation explosion. At the end of February 2026, after concluding his visit to China, German Chancellor Merz urgently convened a press conference, conveying a sobering assessment to his nation: "If you return from China, you become more clearly aware that work-life balance and a four-day work week cannot long sustain our country's prosperity. We must now put in more effort." This was a European politician's tribute to the hard work of the Chinese people and a gentle warning bell for a world accustomed to prolonged peace.
Hard work is indeed the answer to the Chinese miracle. Looking at the just-concluded five years of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the solid advancement of high-quality development in China's economy was achieved only after withstanding the severe impact of the pandemic and effectively responding to a series of major risks and challenges. Externally, there were attempts to limit the ceiling for China's industrial ascent. Internally, there were the growing pains of corporate transformation and market changes brought by the decline of old growth drivers. Under this pressure from both inside and outside, the Chinese people chose to adopt the posture of "strivers" to pioneer new prospects.
The reasons for stable economic growth are never found in textbook descriptions, but under the lights in laboratories, in the roar of machinery, on construction sites and farmland, and on the roads traveled. In August 2023, Huawei, having accumulated strength over time, quietly released the Mate 60 series smartphone. It was a day that inspired the Chinese people. This phone represented not just the breakthrough of one company, but a silent yet powerful collective effort. Mobilized by the new national system, enterprises, universities, research institutions, and countless companies across the industrial chain worked together. This unity of purpose and concerted effort is precisely the confidence that allows China to advance steadily in the face of complex challenges.
In the complex market environment with overlapping pressures, China has developed a unique advantage—collaborative innovation and accelerated iteration across the entire industrial chain. This atmosphere of racing against time for the co-evolution of the whole industrial chain is driving more and more Chinese industries from being followers to becoming leaders. The "new three" industries—new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaics—now hold the largest global shares in both output and patents. AI large models are springing up like bamboo shoots after rain, blooming in diversity. Robotics technology is advancing rapidly, and innovative drugs are queuing up to go global. Behind these new growth drivers are the efforts of tens of millions of ordinary Chinese people.
Even in seemingly saturated traditional sectors, Chinese companies have not chosen to retreat but have set sail to international markets to face competition more broadly. Over the past five years, with the composure of a major power and long-term strategic vision, China has transformed the "crisis" of global uncertainty into an "opportunity" to consolidate its own development and promote global shared prosperity. This has created a miracle of the era, a puzzle the world continues to ponder.
In the next five years, transformations unseen in a century will accelerate, the international balance of power will undergo profound adjustments, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation will accelerate breakthroughs, and uncertainty in the world economy will remain high. As China strives to create a new phase of Chinese-style modernization, it will continue to provide certainty for the global economy, becoming an increasingly significant anchor of stability.
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