To master the challenges of cooperation, China chooses internal strengthening and membership in global standards.
Wind equipment for export to the port of Lianyungang (Jiangsu) on June 23, 2025
The global economy is going through a period of profound upheavals and turbulence, marked by the rise of protectionism and recurring speeches on “decoupling”. In this context, it is crucial to clarify the intrinsic logic of globalization, to grasp the universal scope of the development and opening of China, and to explore the paths of future coexistence guided by the wisdom of modern civilization.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has reminded her many times: “The door of China will not close, but it will always open more widely”. Much more than a strategic choice for its development, this opening represents a promise of stability that China offers to a world plagued by uncertainties. Now engaged in a new phase, the opening of China has the essence of transforming global economic relations, making them evolve from a dominant logic of complementarity towards a new normality based on cooperation and the win-win.
An irreversible trend
If external opening and globalization have been able to release such productive power, it is because they rely on three immutable economic laws. First, the free circulation cross -border of the factors breaks the territorial obstacles weighing on resources, capital and talents, allowing production factors to circulate towards optimal yield zones, in order to considerably increase the effectiveness of the allocation of global resources.
Second, the in -depth international division of labor allows companies in each country to find the best positioning within ever more complex value chains according to their comparative advantages, jointly creating more competitive products and services thanks to specialized collaborations and economies of scale.
Third, global technological cooperation is accelerating the dissemination of knowledge, the confrontation of ideas and the overflow of innovation. In our time, no country can be a closed “innovation island”: assimilation, integration and reinvention now constitute the standard of scientific and technological progress. These three mechanisms form together the solid basis of an open global economy, and found the unshakable confidence of China in its commitment to openness.
Intelligent company robot presented at the AI World Conference in Shanghai, July 27, 2025
A precious certainty
If the economic principles draw a plan, the open development of China for the last forty years brings realistic and lively colors to it. Since its entry into a new high -quality development phase, China, carried by its principles of innovation, coordination, ecology and sharing, has brought lasting growth to the global economy despite uncertainties.
With innovative development, China becomes one of the “global sources of innovation”, while providing public goods to the planet. In 2024, the country’s R&D expenses reached 3,600 billion yuan, representing 2.68 % of GDP. This massive investment results in remarkable achievements: pierced in the fields of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), biomedicine and new energies. Above all, China remains attached to the spirit of open science and readily shares its innovations. For example, the open-source generative model Deepseek offers researchers from around the world, especially in developing countries, access to advanced AI technologies, drastically reducing technical obstacles. A living illustration of its contribution to the sharing of global knowledge through innovation.
With coordinated development, China plays a stabilizing role in the world economy thanks to its immense domestic market. Its population of 1.4 billion inhabitants, including more than 400 million intermediate income (expanding group), forms a single consumer market. In recent years, the Chinese government is trying to fluidify national economic circulation, making stimulation of domestic demand a major lever of growth. In a context of sluggish global demand, a dynamic Chinese market offering global companies a large, stable and predictable growth space represents a precious certainty.
Committed to green development, China provides decisive support for the fight against climate change and global sustainable development, thanks to its unshakable determination and its industrial power. It leads its energy transition with unprecedented intensity: clean energies now represent more than half of the growth of its electricity consumption. Most importantly, China produces the overwhelming majority of photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and world electric vehicle batteries, thanks to its full industrial channel and its scale advantages. Responding to its internal needs while reducing, via its massive exports, the cost of the global energy transition, it makes clean energy affordable for many countries. Its green production capacities thus become an essential accelerator for achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
With shared development, China actively promotes an inclusive and balanced global economic landscape. Despite currents opposed to globalization, she defends multilateralism and concretely honors her commitments in favor of openness. Its manufacturing industry is already entirely open to foreign investments, while modern services, such as finance, telecommunications, health and education, accelerate their level of opening. China deepens its economic ties with developed countries and extends development opportunities to its southern partners via platforms such as the “Belt and Road” initiative.
A new normality
With the significant improvement in the Chinese industrial technological level, China’s economic relations with the world, in particular with developed countries, are experiencing a deep structural change. It must be recognized that the economic and commercial relations of the last decades, characterized by vertical complementarity, are a product of a specific historical period. Today is established a new normality of cooperation where horizontal competition coexists with in -depth cooperation.
The accelerated race of emerging countries to catch up with advanced economies is a recurring phenomenon since the industrial revolution. The rapid growth of China in the past forty years has necessarily strengthened its competitiveness in the face of developed countries, which can arouse discomfort, even misunderstandings and worries in some. If this distrust is intentionally amplified or distorted, it may cause antagonistic behavior.
However, this cannot correspond to the civilizational standards of modern international relations. The essence of modern civilization lies precisely in the recognition of differences, respect for competitors, the search for cooperation within the competition and the realization of a win-win situation. Always, advanced economies have cultivated extensive cooperation despite fierce competition, representing the standard of successful market relations.
Faced with this new normality, China has chosen not to flee it but to kiss it with increased determination. We are fully aware that these challenges require internal improvement and alignment to international standards. Thus, China proposes to expand its institutional opening, actively committing to adhere to demanding international economic and commercial rules. It promotes the integration of rules, systems, control and standards in key fields such as intellectual property, fair competition, environmental standards, public procurement and cross -border flowers.
*Jiang Xiaojuan is president of Chinese industrial economy society.
(Text based on the author’s speech during the ministerial conference on global dialogue between civilizations.)
