Understanding the certainties of China's high-quality development

In today's world, where the global landscape faces turbulence and uncertainty, certainty has become a scarce resource. As President Xi Jinping has stressed, facing these external challenges requires firm confidence, focusing on our own development, expanding high-level opening-up, and ensuring stability in jobs, enterprises, markets, and expectations. China is, indeed, responding to global uncertainties with the certainty of high-quality development.

Despite headwinds, China's economy is continuously growing with resilience and composure and the country's modernization is advancing steadily, making China both a major contributor to global growth and a stabilizing anchor for the world economy.

Strategic certainty is at the core of this trajectory. China's modernization is being realized step by step, through consistent planning. Through successive five-year plans — 14 till date — the country has demonstrated patience and endurance: it is not chasing instant success, but delivering steady progress. In contrast, some Western countries often reverse course, abandoning globalization after once championing it, or backtracking from climate pledges after making them. China's strategic direction, by comparison, is consistent and predictable.

Macroeconomic policy certainty further ensures stability. China adheres to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, keeping fiscal and monetary policies consistent while making timely adjustments as needed. Even these adjustments are guided by long-term considerations, not short-term political expediency. By contrast, electoral cycles frequently interrupt policies in some Western economies, undermining continuity. China's approach, free from the influence of narrow interest groups, gives businesses and markets a true sense of reassurance.

Market certainty underscores China's vast potential. With a population of 1.4 billion — including over 400 million middle-income earners — China is rapidly becoming the world's largest consumer market. It possesses the most complete industrial system globally and serves as a testing ground for cutting-edge technologies. In artificial intelligence, for example, Chinese firms such as DeepSeek are competing head-to-head with counterparts in the United States but at lower development costs. Meanwhile, urbanization still offers room for expansion by more than 10 percentage points — meaning hundreds of millions will continue to move to the cities, creating sustained demand for infrastructure and social services. To believe in China is to believe in the future; investing in China is investing in tomorrow.

Resilience gives China confidence to withstand storms. China's economy is a giant vessel — capable of weathering shocks — not a fragile skiff. Despite technological restrictions and punitive tariffs imposed by the US, China has pressed ahead, delivering 5.3 percent growth in the first half of 2025 despite shrinking external demand and rising protectionism. China has shown the world that its "economic aircraft carrier" cannot be toppled by pressure or blockade.

Investment certainty makes China a fertile ground for global business. With opening-up as a national policy, China continues to refine a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment. Foreign enterprises enjoy strong legal protections. By the end of 2024, more than 1.23 million foreign-invested firms were established in China, with actual FDI inflows reaching 20.6 trillion yuan ($2.89 trillion). In contrast, some Western societies face entrenched social instability — from gun violence to racial tensions — casting shadows on investment security. China, by maintaining long-term stability and safeguarding investor rights, offers a safe harbor for businesses both now and in the future.

In an era of global volatility, certainty is a rare asset. China's strategic consistency, policy reliability, vast market, resilience, and open investment environment ensure that its economy remains a driver of global confidence and growth.

The article is an abridged translation of an article appearing in People's Daily. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.