A drone photo taken on Dec. 4, 2025 shows containers waiting for transshipment at the Qianwan Container Terminal of Qingdao Port in east China's Shandong Province. With nearly 240 foreign trade routes, Qingdao Port connects over 700 ports in more than 180 countries and regions worldwide. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

China's economy continues to demonstrate stability, progress, and resilience, providing much-needed confidence to the world economy.

The Central Economic Work Conference was held recently, reviewing this year's economic performance and laying out a series of important plans for next year. It charts the course for China's economy, while also offering stable expectations, innovative momentum, and growth opportunities for the world economy. By strengthening confidence, leveraging advantages, and tackling challenges head-on, China will continue to consolidate and expand its sound economic momentum, ensuring a successful start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.

Not long ago, the world's largest port, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in East China's Zhejiang Province, handled over 40 million TEUs for the first time, becoming the third port globally to reach this milestone. The bustling scene at the port reflects the resilience and vitality of China's economy. 

Amid profound and complex changes both domestically and internationally, China's economy has forged ahead under pressure, pursuing innovation and high-quality development. In the first three quarters, China's GDP grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year, and the total economic output for the year is expected to reach around 140 trillion yuan ($19.85 trillion), with the major economic and social development targets set to be successfully met. 

In the first 11 months of this year, China's total imports and exports of goods reached 41.21 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent, setting a new record for the same period in history. 

Recently, several international institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, have successively upgraded their growth forecasts for China's economy in 2025, noting that despite challenges, China's economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience. 

Since the beginning of this year, many foreign companies have continued to increase their investments in the Chinese market, with "confidence in China" becoming a consensus and "optimism toward China" gaining further momentum. China's economy continues to demonstrate stable performance, dynamic progress, and growing resilience, injecting valuable confidence into the global economy.

The burgeoning development of new quality productive forces is driving China's economy to achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth. The Central Economic Work Conference emphasized "adhering to innovation-driven development and accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new growth drivers," further unleashing the momentum and vitality for high-quality development. 

Some foreign media have highlighted the strong surge in China's innovation momentum and the continued acceleration of its green transformation. The Global Innovation Index 2025 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization showed that China's ranking has entered the global top 10 for the first time, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in terms of innovation. It has held the top spot globally for three consecutive years in terms of the number of world-leading innovation clusters. China has achieved the largest and fastest development of new energy globally, with the country's new renewable energy generation capacity accounting for 60 percent of the global total increase in 2024. 

The East Asia Forum said in an article that with its vast industrial scale and technological ingenuity, China is uniquely positioned to drive breakthroughs in critical emerging clean technologies - from green hydrogen to negative-emissions solutions and smart grids - that could reshape both its economy and the planet's future.

In 2025, the global economy has struggled to advance against headwinds, and its volatile and unstable trajectory has fully demonstrated that only open cooperation can create greater growth space and promote win-win outcomes for all parties. 

China has always been a steadfast practitioner and promoter of open cooperation, adhering to the principle of "joining hands" rather than "letting go" and "extending supply chains" rather than "breaking supply chains." 

The Central Economic Work Conference outlined a series of measures, including "expanding self-initiated opening up in the service sector in an orderly manner," "advancing integrated development of trade and investment as well as domestic and international trade," and "promoting the signing of more regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements," further signaling China's unwavering commitment to expanding opening-up. 

Since the beginning of this year, from the entry into force of the China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement to the official signing of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) 3.0 Upgrade Protocol, from the implementation of the strategy to enhance pilot free trade zones to the replication and promotion of 77 pioneering measures from the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, China has taken various measures to deepen win-win cooperation with various countries. The Hainan Free Trade Port is about to enter a new phase of island-wide independent customs operations, exploring viable solutions and contributing Chinese wisdom to global trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

In an uncertain world, China represents the greatest certainty and will continue to serve as a crucial engine for global economic growth. With a robust economic foundation, strong innovation-driven momentum, and a steadfast commitment to opening-up, China will work with all parties to achieve mutual success and foster shared development, injecting greater stability into the global economy.

This was compiled from an article that was originally published on page 3 of the People's Daily on December 15, 2025.