Photo: Xinhua

The Chinese economy has shifted toward a stage of high-quality development and is currently at a critical period of transforming its economic development model, optimizing its economic structure, and changing its growth momentum.

As the world's second-largest economy and the largest manufacturing country, China's economy is undergoing transformation, surmounting obstacles and navigating waves to form sustainable endogenous growth momentum and forge strong resilience.

The extraordinary resilience of the Chinese economy is not only reflected in its ability to withstand shocks, but also in its capacity for regeneration. While achieving reasonable growth, the economy also ensures improvement in quality.

Sustained resilience

In terms of size, after experiencing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth of the Chinese economy has shown a strong recovery, with the economic aggregate growing from 98.65 trillion yuan ($13.9 trillion) in 2019 to over 126 trillion yuan in 2023. In 2020, China became the only major economy in the world to achieve positive economic growth, making a significant contribution to the stability and growth of the global economy amid the pandemic.

Regarding quality, China's digital economy is flourishing, with new industries, new forms, and new models reshaping the core of the Chinese economy. From "Made in China" to "China Innovation" and now to "China Intelligent Manufacturing," it has become a shining symbol of high-quality development in the Chinese economy.

From a demand perspective, consumption has become the main engine driving economic growth, with its contribution to economic growth continuously increasing. Although the contribution of investment has seen some decline, the direction and structure of expenditure are constantly being optimized, with a focus on key areas related to national welfare and long-term development. This not only plays a role in countercyclical adjustment, but also realizes the significant positive effects on the macroeconomic balance.

From the supply side, through deepening structural reforms, China is gradually transitioning from traditional manufacturing to high value-added, high-tech industries. Key areas such as the digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI) are growing rapidly, with increasing investments in green and low-carbon initiatives leading to the rise of green industries. In 2023, driven by new-energy vehicles, China surpassed Japan for the first time to become the world's largest exporter of automobiles.

China's economy is undergoing a transition from old to new growth drivers. Guided by the principle of establishing the new before abolishing the old, China persists in using development as a means to solve emerging issues through the process. This has led to a revival of traditional industries under the traction of new industries and technologies. 

In 2022, the value added by China's "three new" economy, a collection of economic activities with new industries, new business formats, and new business models as the core content, exceeded 21 trillion yuan, indicating that China's economy has embarked on a path of replacing traditional factor-driven and investment-driven growth with innovation-driven development.

Sources of new strength

Facing the unprecedented major changes in the world and the accelerated evolution, the Chinese economy still possesses strong development potential with the super-large scale of domestic market built on a-1.4 billion strong population. In the face of numerous risks and challenges, the Chinese economy can continuously unlock its potential as long as it remains committed to promoting high-quality transformation and leverages the advantages of its vast population in terms of market and innovation.

The new momentum of development stems from the urgent needs to drive high-quality development. The increasing demands of the people for a better life are leading to the emergence of new personalized, diversified, and customized needs. China leverages the diverse and original advantages of technological innovation to overcome the limitations of decline in returns from traditional factors like population and capital. By maximizing the potential of traditional elements, broadening their scope, and integrating innovative elements, the Chinese economy can adeptly navigate challenges with confidence.

The development of new momentum stems from the enormous power gathered by millions of business entities. Whether in terms of market size or human resource stock, whether large enterprises or tens of millions of small and micro-enterprises, they are all important driving forces for the advancement of the Chinese economy. Both original innovation and integrated innovation cannot do without China's massive market scale, vast human capital, and rich application scenarios.

The development of new momentum stems from the innovative drive generated by the new industrialization. The new industrialization incorporates requirements such as informatization, digitalization, and better utilization of human resources. The innovative drive that the new industrialization can foster is significant. By categorizing data as a production factor and the continuous emergence of high-quality labor force, it has propelled a series of changes in production organization, employment patterns, business models, among others. This is conducive to nurturing emerging industries and future industries, providing strategic support for China's economic advancement.

The development of new momentum stems from the powerful synergy formed by macroeconomic policies. China adheres to creating a top-notch business environment, treating all types of business entities equally, fostering a fair competitive market environment, and promoting the growth of the private economy. With the strong magnetic force of the market and the warm influence of policies boosting market confidence, supported by tangible good policies and excellent services, China's private economy is embracing new development opportunities.

Continuous driving force

The Chinese economy's new momentum has strong potential and driving force, specifically manifested in seeking opportunities in opening-up, leveraging human resources for dividends, exploring new opportunities in new industrialization, and gaining momentum in technological innovation.

In recent years, there has been a rise in anti-globalization sentiment in the West. However, China still steadfastly advocates comprehensive, multi-level, and wide-ranging opening-up, deeply engaging in international scientific and economic cooperation and competition. China consistently strengthens its capacity to coordinate and effectively utilize a wide range of international and domestic resources. By embracing high-level openness, China is able to broaden its economic development horizons.

Although the aging population poses challenges, the vast human resource base is a significant advantage, with each individual serving as a source of innovation. By continuously increasing investment in education and seizing the opportunities presented by the new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, China can continue to create demographic dividends by effectively utilizing its human resources.

The new industrialization is key to accelerating the construction of an innovative country and forming new quality productive forces, as well as an important lever for China to seize the technological high ground in the competition of the new round of technological revolution. With digital technology applied across various production and every day settings, digitization has reshaped the intrinsic logic of China's industrial development. The new opportunities brought about by the initiation of new industrialization not only help to comprehensively enhance the modernization level of the industrial system, but also ensure that high-quality supply always remains at the forefront of the world.

After years of exploration, China has established an innovative system that combines government-led initiatives from the top down and enterprise-driven efforts from the bottom up. The government plays a crucial role from the top down by increasing support for basic research, applied basic research, and cutting-edge research. Enterprises play an important role from the bottom up by strengthening their position in technological innovation. As key players in technological innovation, enterprises collaborate with universities, research institutes, and other entities to form industry-academia-research innovation alliances and establish open innovation platforms, which help maximize innovation vitality across society.

Yuan Lei is deputy chief of the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Zhang Peng is an associate research fellow of the Institute of Economics of the CASS. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn