Pedestrians check out the splendid urban scenery on the North Bund of Shanghai on November 13, 2025. Photos on this page: VCG
Standing at the intersection where the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) is approaching its successful conclusion and the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) is about to embark on a steady start, the Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday provided guidance for China’s economic direction and also offered the world an authoritative “window” to observe China. Since the beginning of this year – from international capital increasing investment in China’s new quality productive forces to the recent wave of financial institutions around the world lifting China’s growth forecasts – a growing consensus of “trust in China” is steadily taking shape and gaining momentum. What exactly is the world optimistic about and what kind of “opportunity list” has China presented to the world?
2025, which is about to end, has been a truly extraordinary year. In the context of rising uncertainty in the external environment and heavy tasks of structural adjustment at home, China’s economy has forged ahead under pressure and continued progressing toward new and higher quality development. In the first three quarters, the country’s GDP grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year; in addition, the main targets for economic and social development are expected to be successfully achieved. Against the backdrop of deepening impacts from the changes in the external environment and the prominent contradiction at home between strong supply and weak demand, this itself reflects the resilience and potential of the Chinese economy.
In summarizing this year’s work, the Central Economic Work Conference pointed out that the building of a modern industrial system has continued to advance, reform and opening-up have taken new steps forward, positive progress has been made in resolving risks in key areas and livelihood guarantees have become stronger. Recently, multiple international institutions – including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank – have raised the forecasts for China’s economic growth in 2025. What the world is optimistic about is the development momentum and cooperative opportunities brought by China’s economy, which possesses strong growth resilience. It is also optimistic about the institutional strengths and governance effectiveness demonstrated in continuously resolving “long-standing issues” and “new challenges” to enhance the level of modern economic and social governance.
What the world is optimistic about is a China that continues to unleash its development potential. The Central Economic Work Conference emphasized maintaining domestic demand as the primary driver and building a robust domestic market. On the demand side, the country should deepen the implementation of targeted initiatives to boost consumption and formulate plans to increase the income of urban and rural residents. It needs to enhance connectivity across production, distribution, circulation and consumption on a larger scale – forming a virtuous cycle of rising incomes and upgrading consumption. From the supply side, the focus is on expanding the supply of high-quality goods and services. China should propel the manufacturing sector from isolated breakthroughs toward system-wide upgrades, boost the capacity and quality of the services sector and accelerate the development of advanced producer services. These efforts will steadily enhance the supply system’s ability to meet the needs of China’s ultra-large domestic market and to support high-end global demand. This gives China’s economy broad room for structural upgrading and technological progress over the medium and long term, which will make it a crucial engine for global economic growth.
China is transforming the dividends of its opening-up into development opportunities for the world to share. The Central Economic Work Conference emphasized steadily enhancing institutional opening up, expanding voluntary opening-up in the services sector, optimizing the layout and scope of pilot free trade zones, promoting integrated development of trade and investment and of domestic and foreign trade and fostering high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. China’s high-standard platforms for opening-up provide smoother channels for the cross-border flow of capital, technology and talent. The principle of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit offers support for countries at different development stages to broaden common interests and cultivate shared growth drivers. The world’s confidence in China fundamentally stems from its virtuous cycle of enhancing development quality through greater openness and expanding shared interests through deeper cooperation. It reflects confidence in a major economy with a sense of duty as a major country that combines scale with vitality, remains consistently open to the world and is committed to sharing development opportunities with all nations.
What the Central Economic Work Conference outlines is not only a “construction blueprint” for China’s development in the coming year, but also a “list of opportunities” for the world. A major economy with clearer growth expectations, a more stable macro environment and more predictable policy directions enables all countries to find certainty amid global uncertainties. Against the backdrop of intensifying competition over global stock resources, they can tap into the incremental gains brought by China’s vast market, new growth drivers and high-standard opening-up. In achieving mutual success, countries can deepen the convergence of interests, cultivate new momentum for growth and jointly open new horizons for humanity’s path toward prosperity and development.