From 2021 to 2024, during the first four years of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China's economy grew at an average annual rate of 5.5 percent, higher than the global average. Its contribution to global economic growth remained around 30 percent, playing a crucial role in stabilizing the world economy.

Five-Year Plans, formally known as Five-Year Plans for National Economic and Social Development, are key guiding documents for China's medium-to-long-term progress. They outline the country's overall goals, key tasks and policy orientations across all sectors over five-year periods. 

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, global cooperation has been increasingly undermined by protectionism and the normal functioning of the multilateral trading system faces serious challenges. Despite these difficulties, China has instilled confidence in the world through its technological innovation and the sharing of opportunities arising from its reform and opening up.

Driving global innovation 

China is one of the world's fastest-growing economies in terms of innovation capacity. The country has risen to the 10th position in global innovation for 2025, up one spot from the previous year, according to a ranking released by the World Intellectual Property Organization in September. The Innovation Scoreboard released by the European Commission in July showed that China's score has increased by 31.6 percentage points since 2020—a rise significantly higher than that of Europe and the United States. The annual report assesses the innovation performance of countries.

At the Mingde Strategic Dialogue 2025, hosted by Renmin University of China in Beijing on October 17, John Ross, former Director of Economic and Business Policy for the Mayor of London, said China made a major technological breakthrough during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. At the event, more than 30 Chinese and foreign representatives from the international strategic academic community exchanged ideas under the theme Chinese Modernization: New Drivers of Globalization. 

Ross told the participants that China has transformed from a technological follower not expanding the global technological frontier into a technological leader in major industrial sectors that, in turn, transforms its relations with the world economy.

The industries in which China has already achieved technological leadership are far from peripheral, according to Ross. They include key sectors such as telecommunications, electric vehicles, solar panels, wind power, pharmaceuticals and the mass production of cameras for industrial control systems—as well as, in certain areas, consumer Internet services and AI. These fields will continue to be decisive arenas of global competition in the decades ahead, he added.

For example, as the world shifts from fossil fuels to renewable energy, a process expected to take several decades, China has already established technological leadership in the critical industries that underpin the transformation. This positions China to further consolidate and expand its role in the global technological landscape. "It is no longer merely a producer of technologies that can easily be replaced by other countries, but rather a key provider of indispensable infrastructure and industrial systems—such as power supply and transportation networks—that cannot be replaced," Ross said. "This places China, with its strong emphasis on openness, even more centrally within the global system." 

Shared by all 

China is the top trading partner of more than 150 countries and regions. As of January, it has signed 23 free trade agreements (FTAs) with 30 countries and regions across five continents, while continuing to expand and enhance its FTA network. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the country has offered the world broader and more diversified opportunities in markets, investment and growth. 

In recent years, China has continued to share the opportunities of its vast domestic market with the world. For example, effective from December 1, 2024, China has given zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent of tariff lines to all of the least developed countries with which it has diplomatic relations, aiming to expand unilateral opening to these countries and achieve joint development. Additionally, over seven editions since its launch in 2018, the China International Import Expo, the world's first import-themed national-level expo, held annually in Shanghai, has recorded a cumulative intended transaction volume exceeding $500 billion.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China has also steadily expanded institutional opening up while continuously improving its business environment. The country has removed all market access restrictions for foreign investors in the manufacturing sector. The pilot programs for opening up service industries such as telecommunications, healthcare and education have advanced steadily. By the end of 2024, the cumulative number of foreign-funded companies established in China had exceeded 1.24 million, with paid-in foreign capital reaching 20.6 trillion yuan ($2.83 trillion).

As of June, the China-Europe Railway Express had surpassed 110,000 trips, with the cumulative value of goods transported surpassing $450 billion. The international rail freight service currently reaches 229 cities across 26 European countries and over 100 cities in 11 Asian nations. It is without a doubt a key engine of Eurasian trade.

China's modernization presents tremendous opportunities for the world, Uwe Klußmann, a senior German journalist and historian, said at the Mingde Strategic Dialogue, adding that it offers global partners the chance to collaborate in areas ranging from technology to sustainable development, the green economy, and the digital economy—helping all sides better benefit one another and unlock greater potential.

China is entering a period of profound transformation, striving to shift its economy toward high-quality development that drives modernization through a stronger focus on innovation and sustainability. Klußmann told the event that this aligns with the shared interests, and he looks forward to seeing even deeper cooperation in the future.

(Print Edition Title: Benefits Beyond Borders) 

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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