Persist in opening up to the outside world and promote win-win cooperation in multiple fields (seeking progress while maintaining stability, improving quality and efficiency, and achieving a good start to the 15th Five Year Plan)
Expanding high-level opening-up to the outside world is an important tool for promoting reform and development.
Currently, the world's century long changes are accelerating, with major power relations influencing the international situation, and the evolution of the international situation profoundly affecting domestic development. The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2025 explicitly stated in deploying this year's economic work that it is necessary to "better coordinate domestic economic work and international economic and trade struggles". In this context, firmly opening up to the outside world is a key decision to grasp the trend and break through the waves.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "As a major contributor to world economic growth and a stable anchor, China will steadfastly expand high-level opening-up, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, continue to share its development opportunities with the world, and inject more positive energy and certainty into global development
As we enter 2026, the international economic and trade landscape will undergo a profound restructuring. Each region and department must rationally and dialectically analyze the complex and ever-changing external environment, actively recognize and adapt to changes, and respond to various uncertainties with a high level of certainty in opening up to the outside world, in order to win strategic initiative in fierce international competition.
Steadily promote institutional opening-up
The level of openness, the quality of development, and the depth of reform complement each other.
The higher the quality of development, the deeper the reform, and the higher the requirements for openness. Both the "15th Five Year Plan" proposal and the Central Economic Work Conference have identified "institutional opening-up" as a key direction for expanding opening-up.
Experts say that unlike traditional commodity and factor flow based openness, institutional openness focuses on international integration of rules, regulations, management, and standards, which is a key measure to break through deep-seated institutional barriers and shape new advantages in international competition.
The focus of institutional openness is to align with international high standard economic and trade rules, and pilot free trade zones and free trade ports are key carriers for early experimentation.
Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao stated that during the 14th Five Year Plan period, we will use the pilot free trade zones as experimental fields for institutional openness, and have launched a series of landmark and pioneering measures, achieving a series of breakthrough and demonstrative results. At present, 22 pilot free trade zones are distributed in the east, west, north, south, and central regions of China, contributing about 1/5 of the country's total foreign investment and import and export volume.
On December 18, 2025, Hainan Free Trade Port, an important gateway for China to promote high-level opening up to the outside world, officially launched the island wide customs operation. On that day, Siemens Energy held a groundbreaking ceremony for its gas turbine assembly base and service center in Danzhou City, Hainan Province. Hainan Free Trade Port has an excellent institutional framework, providing a stable and efficient platform for cooperation, which helps Siemens Energy build an industrial ecosystem covering the entire industry chain, "said Jon Schmuck, Senior Vice President of Siemens Energy Global.
The CEO of the World Free Zone Organization, Anguni, stated that Hainan Free Trade Port is becoming a "testing ground" for global high standard trade rules, efficient customs models, and a favorable business environment. Its accumulated experience in development and construction will also promote China's institutional opening-up to take new steps forward.
Reform never stops, opening up never stops. Assistant Minister of Commerce Yuan Xiaoming stated that the Ministry of Commerce will continue to fully support the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, focusing on deepening institutional innovation such as trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, expanding market opening, and promoting fair competition in the market. We will promote the compatibility of rules, regulations, management, and standards, and create a first-class business environment.
Promote the improvement of quality and efficiency in foreign trade
Foreign trade is an important engine driving economic growth and a crucial hub for promoting domestic and international circulation.
In 2025, facing a complex and severe external environment, China's foreign trade will rise against the trend, achieve stable quantity and quality improvement, and demonstrate abundant vitality with steady growth. In the first 11 months of 2025, China's total import and export value of goods trade was 41.21 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%.
How to further promote the improvement of foreign trade quality and efficiency in 2026? The Central Economic Work Conference has pointed out the direction of promoting the integration of trade and investment, as well as the integration of domestic and foreign trade. Encourage and support service exports, actively develop digital trade and green trade.
Promoting the integration of trade and investment, as well as the integration of domestic and foreign trade, is a strategic move to proactively respond to the profound changes in the global economic and trade landscape.
Trade and investment integration, as the name suggests, emphasizes the synergistic linkage between trade and investment.
Previously, many companies went global in a single way, but now more and more companies are combining commodity and service trade with cross-border capital investment, driving trade growth through investment layout, and deepening investment roots through trade networks, forming a virtuous cycle of 'investment for market, trade for investment', "said Huang Xiwei, director of the China Financial Transactions Research Center at the University of International Business and Economics.
The integration of domestic and foreign trade emphasizes the smooth integration of domestic and international markets.
In 2025, the integration of domestic and foreign trade in China will continue to accelerate, and relevant policy measures will continue to be implemented. The sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission held in July emphasized the need to promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade and smooth the path of export to domestic sales.
Our country has a huge market size and vast market space. The domestic market has always been a strong backing for foreign trade enterprises, "said Wang Xuekun, the director of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce." We need to better leverage the advantages of a super large market, promote the deep integration of domestic and foreign trade rules and systems, effective connection of standard certification, smooth docking of market channels, and improve the efficiency of domestic and foreign trade conversion.
Actively develop service trade, digital trade, and green trade, and cultivate new drivers of foreign trade.
In recent years, China's service trade has developed rapidly and its scale has remained among the top in the world. However, the proportion of China's total service trade to its total foreign trade is still lower than the global average. With the changes in the external environment and the adjustment of China's industrial structure, accelerating the innovative development of service trade must be placed in a more important position.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce stated that they will support demonstration cities in the eastern region to leverage their advantages in gathering high-end factors, and eligible resource-based cities in the central and western regions to develop cloud computing, supercomputing, intelligent computing, artificial intelligence and other related service outsourcing businesses, cultivating new growth points.
Promote all-round cooperation and win-win outcomes
At the end of November 2025, a photovoltaic special train loaded with 35 vehicles and 70 standard containers of photovoltaic glass panels will slowly drive out of Jiangsu Hai'an Commercial Logistics Park and leave the country from Yunnan Mohan Railway Port, seamlessly connecting China Laos Railway and heading directly to Laos Vientiane South Station.
This batch of goods is transported southward through the main railway line, with a total transportation time of only about 7 days, which is nearly half of the traditional sea transportation time. "The person in charge of Nantong Customs introduced that the opening of the" Nantong Wanxiang South "China Laos freight train has added new vitality to the economic and trade cooperation between the Yangtze River Delta region and countries in the Indochina Peninsula.
In 2025, China will unwaveringly expand opening up, promoting reform and development through opening up internally, and promoting win-win cooperation through opening up externally. The pattern of opening up to the outside world on a larger scale, in a wider range of fields, and at a deeper level will accelerate. In 2026, the more complex and ever-changing the environment becomes, the more it is necessary to promote all-round and multi field cooperation and win-win results.
——Deepen the reform of the system and mechanism for promoting foreign investment, share opportunities and grow together with global enterprises.
The first CIIE Quality Fair will be held from December 19th to 21st, 2025 at the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai). Sanofi showcased multiple "from booth to market" CIIE star exhibits at this exhibition. Xingshuping, which made its global debut at the 8th CIIE, was approved by the National Medical Products Administration for use in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in just over a month, achieving a "global first" in China.
The Ministry of Commerce stated that it will continue to enhance the "Invest in China" brand, shape new advantages in attracting foreign investment, implement the "access and operation" policy, and create a transparent, stable, and predictable institutional environment.
——We will work together to build high-quality development along the the Belt and Road, and strengthen friendship, mutual trust, and convergence of interests with other countries.
The "the Belt and Road" is not a "monologue", but a "chorus". In the first 11 months of 2025, China's import and export to countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" totaled 21.33 trillion yuan, up 6% year on year.
Wang Xuekun believes that China must rely on the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" countries, adjust and optimize the strategic layout of international economic and trade cooperation, and expand new space for China's international circulation. We need to strengthen strategic docking, deepen the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure, the "soft connectivity" of rules and standards, and the "heart connectivity" of jointly building the country and its people. We need to improve the layout of the three-dimensional interconnection network, and coordinate the construction of major landmark projects and "small but beautiful" livelihood projects.
——Promote the signing of more regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements, and expand new spaces for win-win development.
Expanding the global network of high standard free trade zones is an important measure for China to promote higher-level opening-up and accelerate the construction of a new development pattern under new historical conditions. Currently, China has signed 24 free trade agreements with 31 countries and regions.
Wang Wentao stated that we need to use multiple multilateral platform mechanisms to accelerate the process of regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements, and expand the network of high standard free trade zones. By signing the Economic Partnership Agreement for Common Development, we will implement a 100% tariff free policy for all 53 African countries with diplomatic relations, and flexibly and pragmatically sign more bilateral and small multilateral trade and investment agreements.