By He Yin, People’s Daily
China has unveiled a 2025 action plan to stabilize foreign investment, outlining 20 policy initiatives across four strategic priorities: phased expansion of autonomous market opening, enhanced investment facilitation, functional upgrades to open-economy platforms, and service system optimization.
International observers have largely interpreted the move as reinforcing China’s commitment to institutional opening-up, with analysts noting its alignment with global investors’ calls for predictable regulatory frameworks.
Opening up is a fundamental national policy of China and a defining feature of Chinese modernization. It profoundly enriches the path and unlocks new frontiers of Chinese modernization.
This trajectory builds on four decades of calibrated openness – from the experimental zones of the 1980s to today’s network of 21 pilot free trade zones and cross-continental BRI corridors. Each phase has systematically addressed structural bottlenecks while creating new value chains, aligning with the trend of economic globalization and shaping new models of international cooperation.
Since the start of the new era, China has pursued more proactive opening up policies, achieving historic milestones and transformations. The country has advanced a broader agenda of opening up across more areas and in greater depth.
According to the Global Soft Power Index 2025 released by British consultancy Brand Finance, China has ranked first globally for four consecutive years in “easy to do business with” and “future growth potential.”
Through continuous opening up, China’s economy has become deeply integrated with the global economy, serving as a major engine for global growth. Over the past five years, China has contributed around 30 percent to global economic growth, being the largest driver of global development.
Research by the International Monetary Fund indicated that China’s economic growth has a spillover effect — when China’s growth rate rises by 1 percentage point, growth in other countries increases by around 0.3 percentage points.
China’s strategic pursuit of high-level economic openness is transforming its colossal domestic market into a catalyst for global growth. Recent corporate expansions underscore this shift: Tesla has commenced operations at its inaugural overseas energy storage Gigafactory in Shanghai; Siemens Healthineers is developing a cutting-edge medical equipment research and production hub in Shenzhen; while Yum China aims to nearly double its mainland outlets to 20,000 within two years.
The nation’s expansive, multi-dimensional consumer base continues to fortify foreign enterprises’ long-term commitments. Notably, China’s December 2024 implementation of zero-tariff access for 98% of imports from eligible least-developed nations triggered an 18.1% monthly surge in procurement from these economies. This policy framework not only enhances trade reciprocity but systematically integrates emerging markets into value chains.
China now serves as the principal commercial partner for more than 150 nations and regions globally, cementing its position as a pivotal node in global commerce. This trajectory of openness positions China’s growth as an accelerant for worldwide economic advancement.
The nation’s commitment to elevated openness transcends conventional economic policies, encompassing the sharing of developmental frameworks, institutional innovations, and transnational public goods. Amid a global climate of escalating unilateralism and protectionist measures, China persists as a stabilizing force—methodically deepening international collaboration through its domestic progress while championing structural reforms to fortify an inclusive global economic architecture.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), conceived as a transnational public good, originated from China’s drive for enhanced openness in its contemporary era. It has catalyzed deeper global economic interdependence and reciprocal growth, garnering international acclaim as a “revitalized paradigm of economic globalization.”
By pursuing elevated openness, China not only disseminates the dividends of its progress but also assumes a proactive role in recalibrating global governance frameworks—advancing the realization of a community with a shared future for mankind through institutionalized cooperation. This approach underscores an alignment of national development with multilateral imperatives, reinforcing China’s stewardship in shaping equitable international systems.
Spanning infrastructure interconnectivity, trade liberalization and facilitation, financial harmonization, regulatory alignment, and cultural exchange, China is systematically propagating the ethos of open development and reciprocal collaboration across nations. This multidimensional engagement not only fosters collective prosperity among emerging economies but also advocates for an equitable, rules-based multipolar world order—advancing an inclusive model of economic globalization that prioritizes broad-based dividends.
Guided by a novel paradigm of universal benefit, China positions openness as a conduit and mutual advancement as the connective tissue of international relations. By synchronizing its institutional reforms with global developmental imperatives, the nation is poised to propel sustained momentum into worldwide growth trajectories, architecting a future where cooperative frameworks underpin shared prosperity. This calibrated strategy reaffirms China’s role as both participant and innovator in redefining 21st-century economic governance.
