International Review | "China Opportunities" in the Economic Half Year Report

On the 15th, after the official release of China's economic performance report for the first half of the year, many foreign media outlets paid attention to and discussed the issues of "demonstrating resilience," "exceeding expectations," and "achieving the annual economic growth target smoothly. According to preliminary calculations, China's gross domestic product in the first half of the year reached 69570.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7% at constant prices, ranking among the top economies in the world. This not only lays a solid foundation for achieving the annual expected goals in the first year of the 15th Five Year Plan, but also injects confidence and momentum into world economic growth.

Since the beginning of this year, the international situation has been turbulent and intertwined, and the overall growth of the world economy has slowed down. The International Monetary Fund recently slightly lowered its forecast for world economic growth in 2026 to 3.0%, while raising its forecast for China's economic growth to 4.6%. The latest semi annual economic report has confirmed and even exceeded external expectations: the Chinese economy has withstood pressure and continued its overall stable and new oriented development trend.

Where did this extraordinary achievement come from? Sang Baichuan, Dean of the China Open Economy Theory Research Institute at the University of International Business and Economics, exchanged views with "International Sharp Review" and said that since the beginning of this year, China has focused on promoting high-quality development, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, implementing more proactive and effective macro policies, and effectively responding to external shocks and challenges; At the same time, enterprises take the initiative and are committed to innovation, coupled with the strong resilience, great potential, vitality, and broad space of the Chinese economy, thus promoting the effective improvement of the quality and reasonable growth of the economy.

Upon closer inspection of this transcript, the characteristic of 'stability' is prominent. At present, the size of China's economy has exceeded 140 trillion yuan, and achieving a growth rate of 4.7% on this huge scale is commendable. Moreover, compared with the first half of last year, China's GDP has increased by 3.6 trillion yuan, the largest increase in the same period in the past five years. Some people have also noticed that China's economic growth rate has slowed down in the second quarter, mainly due to short-term factors and external influences, such as the petrochemical industry being affected by some external factors, and coal production being affected by domestic short-term factors. Some international institutions predict that the growth rates of major economies will decline to varying degrees in the second quarter.

In the long run, the fundamentals of China's stable economic operation and the trend towards innovation and excellence have not changed. In the first half of the year, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size in China increased by 5.4% year-on-year, the total retail sales of consumer goods and services increased by 2.7% year-on-year, the overall employment situation remained stable, and prices rose moderately... China's overall macroeconomic operation is stable, and it remains the "stabilizer" of the global economy. The US Consumer News and Business Channel cited relevant analysis that better than expected retail and industrial output data will give China "greater room for adjustment" in short-term stimulus policies.

The stability of the Chinese economy brings stable development expectations to global enterprises. Taking consumption as an example. Recently, China released the "15th Five Year Plan" for expanding consumption, deploying 28 key tasks and measures for expanding consumption in the next five years. Zhu Fuming, CEO of Accor Greater China, the largest hotel group in Europe, communicated with International Review that the requirements proposed in the Plan to expand service consumption and upgrade product consumption are highly consistent with Accor's deep cultivation strategy in China. The company plans to further expand its presence in China in the future.

The stability of the overall economy once again demonstrates the resilience of development. Taking import and export as an example. In the first half of the year, geopolitical conflicts occurred frequently, and global trade growth slowed down. However, China's import and export of goods increased by 16.9% year-on-year, with imports exceeding 10 trillion yuan for the first time in history, an increase of 22.1%, showing strong resilience. At present, China has implemented zero tariff policies on 63 countries, and its import scale has ranked second in the world for 17 consecutive years. The phrase 'China's big market, world's big opportunities' is constantly shining into reality, providing deterministic support for the global supply chain and cross-border trade.

To observe a country's economy, we should not only look at the "quantity" of growth, but also at the "effectiveness" of transformation and the "quality" of development. Nowadays, the new driving force of China's economy is accelerating its growth. On average, over 1.5 billion integrated circuits are produced per day, the number of lighthouse factories ranks first in the world, and the daily average number of word element calls reaches millions of billions... In the first half of the year, the added value of China's equipment manufacturing industry and high-tech manufacturing industry were 3.9 and 7.9 percentage points faster than the added value of all industries above designated size, respectively; New driving forces represented by high-end manufacturing, digital economy, and modern services contribute over 40% to economic growth. International media such as the Kenyan Capital FM website pointed out that "China's innovation dividend is an opportunity rather than an impact"; The Chinese economy is injecting new momentum into the world economy, which is experiencing sluggish growth.

For multinational corporations, this also brings them more innovation dividends. The relevant person in charge of Procter&Gamble stated that as the company's largest innovation center in Asia, the Beijing Innovation Center supports the launch of over 100 new products on average every year, continuously exporting the innovative achievements of the Chinese market to the world.

At present, there are many external unstable and uncertain factors, and the contradiction between strong domestic supply and weak demand is prominent. However, the long-term positive fundamentals of the Chinese economy have not changed, providing solid support for achieving the expected annual economic growth target. As China advances the implementation of the 15th Five Year Plan, the endogenous driving force of the economy will further burst forth. It is not difficult to understand why the outside world is discussing "China Opportunity 2.0" and why more and more global CEOs are listing mainland China as one of the top three investment destinations, because facts continue to prove that China is a stable anchor and driving force for world economic growth. (International Sharp Commentator)