HE Cao Xiaolin
At the opening plenary of 17th Summer Davos last month, Chinese Premier Li Qiang summarised the good start of China’s economy at the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) with four keywords: “Stability, innovation, dynamism and integration”. These four keywords present a comprehensive outlook of China’s economy, sketching out both the current picture and future trajectory.
Following the meeting, the international community has widely discussed the “China Opportunity 2.0”. More and more countries have come to realise that seizing “China opportunity 2.0” is a pressing priority and win-win cooperation holds the key to future success.
“Stability, innovation, dynamism and integration” outline a new landscape for China’s economy.
First, stability. China’s economy grew by five percent in the first quarter and has maintained a sound momentum in the second quarter with corporate profits increasing, prices rebounding moderately, and people’s life continuing to improve.
Despite the multiple shocks of global energy shortages and severe supply-chain disruptions, China’s economy, with its massive volume of RMB140 trillion ($20.6 trillion), has maintained steady and healthy growth, bringing much needed certainty to this increasingly uncertain world and playing vital role as a safe harbor.
Second, innovation. After years of endeavor and accumulation, China has become a hub of rapidly emerging new technologies, new products, and new business models. In the first half of this year, multiple types of commercial rockets have been successfully launched, and technologies such as quantum information, integrated circuits, and nuclear fusion have been advancing at an accelerated pace.
Most notably, the artificial intelligence (AI) sector has seen explosive growth. Several major AI models have reached new milestones in performance, daily token usage has hit several hundred trillion and ranked first in the world by the end of May, and embodied intelligence has moved into large-scale commercial application. With brilliant frontier innovations quickly sparking off a sweeping transformation of growth drivers, China’s economy has taken on a new look and gained renewed energy.
Third, dynamism. China’s supersized market continues to unleash demand potentials, especially in services, green and new types of consumption. Tourism, performing arts, and sports events easily draw large crowds, with tickets often sold out in seconds. Consumer favorites such as smartwatches, smart glasses, and other smart devices have seen sales multiply.
Flows of people, goods, information, and capital are highly vibrant. Over 550 million express deliveries are handled per day, more than the total of all other countries combined. These are all vivid footnotes to the surging vitality of China’s economy, and true reflections of the dynamism of the Chinese market, embodying the rich diversity and high growth potential of China’s domestic demand.
Fourth, integration. At a time of rising unilateralism and protectionism, China remains as committed as ever to opening up further. China has extended zero-tariff policies to 63 countries, stayed as the world’s second-largest import market in the past 17 years, and recorded an import growth of 20.5 percent in the first five months of this year, significantly higher than export growth. China has also launched “Export to China” promotional events to make available more channels for high-quality foreign products to enter the Chinese market, which has been well-received by countries around the world.
In pursuing development, China does not seek to move faster by going alone. Rather, we want win-win cooperation with all in the world so that we can go far together.
“China Opportunity 2.0” benefits the world. Many foreign institutions and media have been talking about “China Opportunity 2.0” recently. Apart from its huge market, China is also offering more innovation dividends to the world through its technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrade. What these combined dividends generate for the world are greater opportunities and potentials of development.
For enterprises worldwide, “China opportunity 2.0” means across-the-board innovation-driven empowerment and high-return investment prospects. A growing number of foreign enterprises have come to China to set up research centers and regional headquarters, and become deeply integrated into China’s innovation and industrial chains. In 2025, 14,000 foreign-funded enterprises were established in the fields of scientific research and technological services, up by 27.2 percent year-on-year. Enterprises from various countries can quickly find whole-process partners from R&D to prototyping, and to mass production, making innovation easier and more efficient in China. This not only helps companies succeed in the Chinese market but also boosts their global competitiveness. At the same time, fast-growing Chinese innovative enterprises can also generate returns for investors across the world that could be several, or even dozens, times the original capital.
For global development, “China opportunity 2.0” means more accessible advanced technologies and widely shared outcomes. China is committed to an open approach to innovation. Much of its innovation is open-source. This enables more countries, particularly developing countries, to access affordable new technologies and new products, which has enhanced their development capacity and can help address many difficulties holding back global development. Today, China’s large open-source AI models have been downloaded by over 10 billion times globally in cumulative terms, large-scale scientific facilities in controlled nuclear fusion, quantum technology and other areas are open to the world, and the Tiangong space station is set to welcome foreign astronauts. These are proofs that what China’s technologies and products in emerging areas bring to the world are not shocks or threats, but opportunities and empowerment.
Embracing China is embracing opportunities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised upward its 2026 economic growth forecast for China to 4.6% in its latest World Economic Outlook report. China stands among the few major economies to receive an upgraded growth outlook. At a time when the global economy faces headwinds in recovery and unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, China continues to serve as a key stabiliser for the world economy with its commitment to expanding high-level opening-up, a robust industrial foundation, and strong innovation capabilities. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development. We warmly welcome investors from all countries, including Qatar, to invest in China, so as to share more new opportunities in China’s development and create a better future together.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Peninsula’s editorial policy.
