BEIJING, (Xinhua): The year 2025 has been pivotal, as China, standing at the threshold of a new five-year plan cycle, has seen high-standard opening up emerge as a core driver of Chinese modernization.
From the accelerated development of Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) to broader institutional reforms nationwide, China’s opening up has scaled new heights in scope, depth and breadth, forging a two-way win-win trajectory that benefits both China and the world amid complex international headwinds.
Amid rising global challenges such as protectionism and unilateralism, expanding high-standard opening up, upholding multilateralism and free trade, and deepening cooperation across global industrial and supply chains not only help China gain strategic initiative in intensifying international competition, but also enable it to advance shared global opening up through its own efforts and promote more inclusive economic globalization, according to Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
China’s commitment to open cooperation is evident in concrete actions. It has signed 24 free trade agreements with 31 countries and regions, granted zero-tariff treatment on all products across the entire tariff line for all least-developed countries with which it has diplomatic relations, and announced in September 2025 that, as a responsible major developing country, it will not seek new special and differential treatment in current or future World Trade Organization negotiations.
“In the past, China’s opening up was about following others’ footsteps, and now, it is about taking the lead,” Wang said.
OPEN COOPERATION ON INDUSTRIAL CHAIN
As a linchpin in global industrial and supply chains, China has actively welcomed international enterprises to integrate into its market through deepened cooperation, generating fruitful outcomes and helping drive global economic recovery.
The year 2025 marks a milestone for German tech firm Heraeus Group, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its joint venture, Heraeus (Zhaoyuan) Precious Material Co., Ltd., established with a local state-owned enterprise in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province. The partnership struck gold from the outset, combining Heraeus’ technological expertise with Zhaoyuan’s abundant gold reserves to produce bonding wires for the technology and home appliance sectors.
Over three decades, Heraeus has deepened its roots in China through supply chain and talent localization, noted Frank Stietz, Heraeus CEO. “China’s opening-up policy is crucial; without it, our joint venture and growth would not have been possible. It has allowed Heraeus to integrate into the Chinese economy,” Stietz said, adding that China’s large population and strong demand from strategic sectors, including semiconductors, make the country a key market for Heraeus.
The World Bank noted that roughly one-third of the new foreign direct investment inflows into China have gone to high-tech sectors, reflecting foreign investors’ growing interest in the country’s advanced technology industries.
Data from the commerce ministry shows that in the first 11 months, a total of 61,207 new foreign-invested enterprises were established nationwide in China, a year-on-year increase of 16.9 percent. By industry, foreign capital inflows reached 221.26 billion yuan (about 31.45 billion U.S. dollars) in high-tech sectors, with e-commerce services, medical device and aerospace equipment manufacturing growing 127 percent, 46.5 percent and 41.9 percent year on year, respectively.
China is intensifying its opening-up efforts. The negative list for foreign investment was further trimmed, and access in service sectors such as telecom and healthcare was expanded. Last week, the 2025 Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment was unveiled, laying out bold measures to boost China’s attractiveness to foreign capital and steer more investment toward advanced manufacturing, high-tech sectors and beyond.
Multinationals are casting a vote of confidence with their feet in 2025. FAW-Volkswagen rolled off its 30 millionth vehicle in October, Tesla’s Shanghai Megafactory — the first outside the U.S. dedicated to energy-storage battery production — kicked off operations in February.
British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in November announced an additional investment of 136 million U.S. dollars in its manufacturing base in Qingdao, just months after unveiling a plan of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars to establish a global strategic R&D center in China’s capital, Beijing.
Reaffirming China’s commitment, Vice Premier He Lifeng said at the 3rd China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in July that China will uphold division of labor, openness and inclusiveness, and promote win-win outcomes in global industrial and supply chains.
DOMESTIC PLAYERS MAKING GLOBAL STRIDES
China’s growing role in global value chains is driving its exports and overseas investment to bring more technologies and expertise to the global stage, Elitza Mileva, the World Bank’s lead economist for China, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
According to customs statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, China’s exports have increasingly shifted toward new areas and higher-quality products. High-end equipment featuring new quality productive forces increased by 22.4 percent year on year, while the growth rates of green products such as wind turbine generators and parts reached double digits.
Against the backdrop of green and low-carbon development, many countries have a demand for China’s new energy products, and the going global initiative of Chinese enterprises will help empower local green development, said Wang Yaohui, former counselor for the State Council, at a recent forum held by China News Services.
A 2025 report released at the forum noted steady growth in overseas expansion of Chinese brands, with manufacturing, tech and consumer sectors leading the charge. Brand value and cultural expression are becoming important pillars for Chinese enterprises to accelerate their globalization process, according to the report.
Notable examples in 2025 include Pop Mart’s Labubu figurine, which gained global popularity and highlighted how Chinese enterprises are building their international image through innovation and IP globalization. The gaming industry also stood out: “Black Myth: Wukong” attracted players worldwide, while “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai: Star Rail” remained top downloads in more than 100 countries and regions.
Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows the country’s steady overseas direct investment growth. In the first 11 months, China’s outbound direct investment (ODI) hit 1.13 trillion yuan, up 7.5 percent year on year. Meanwhile, non-financial ODI grew by 3.2 percent to 944.64 billion yuan in more than 10,000 overseas firms across 153 countries and regions.
Policy support is increasing to bolster this global push. He Yadong, commerce ministry spokesperson, told a press conference that China will implement trade-stabilizing policies, improve services for enterprises exploring overseas markets, promote balanced import-export development, and support new trade forms such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehousing.
INSTITUTIONAL OPENING UP AS A STRATEGIC DRIVE
Taking opening up as a strategic driver for Chinese modernization, China has stepped up institutional innovation in 2025, unlocking growth opportunities for global trade and economic cooperation.
The island-wide special customs operations, officially launched in the Hainan FTP earlier this month, exemplify the world’s highest standards of opening up. Through institutional innovation, alignment with high-level international economic and trade rules, and policy optimization, the initiative is building a business environment with international competitiveness, and attracting more and more domestic and international enterprises.
Official data shows that China’s new frontier of institutional opening up is also emerging as a hotspot for regional cooperation. Since 2020, more than 9,600 foreign-invested enterprises have been newly established in Hainan, with investors from 176 countries and regions. In 2024, the total volume of Hainan’s goods imports and exports reached 277.65 billion yuan, up 20 percent year on year and nearly 200 percent compared to 2020.
Beyond Hainan, China’s other institutional opening-up “test fields” — national pilot Free Trade Zones (FTZs) — have deepened policy innovation under the national elevation strategy. In July, the Ministry of Commerce told a press conference that all 80 institutional opening-up reform measures in the Shanghai Pilot FTZ have been fully implemented, with 77 — covering trade, digital economy and IP protection — to be replicated nationwide or in other FTZs. Since their establishment, China’s 22 pilot FTZs have contributed about one-fifth of the country’s total foreign investment and import-export volume, according to official data.
Efforts to facilitate personnel exchanges are also paying off. Foreign nationals made 7.246 million visits to China in the third quarter of 2025 under visa-free policies, a 48.3 percent year-on-year increase, according to the National Immigration Administration. Visa-free entries accounted for 72.2 percent of all foreign entries during the period.
China has also advanced trade and investment liberalization and facilitation to safeguard an open, stable and predictable international trade environment. In May, China and 10 ASEAN countries fully concluded negotiations on the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) Version 3.0, sending a strong signal in support of free trade and open cooperation, the commerce ministry said. Launched in 2010, CAFTA is the world’s largest FTZ among developing countries.
Additionally, China announced in June that it would grant a zero-tariff treatment to 100 percent of tariff lines for 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations. China’s trade with African countries surged by 18.7 percent year on year in the first 11 months of this year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Zhuang Rui, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said that by leveraging China’s super-large market, aligning with its own development needs and proactively advancing opening up in a phased, scope and tier-defined manner will help China work hand in hand with all parties to achieve mutual success.
The importance of further opening up is outlined in the recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030). Amid both strategic opportunities and risks, advancing reform and high-quality development through high-standard opening up is key to boosting the interaction of domestic and international markets and resources, and driving qualitative improvement and quantitative growth of the economy, Wang Wentao said.
During the period, China will actively expand opening up, promote innovative trade development, broaden two-way investment space and advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, he added.
