People's Daily: Assessing China's Economy—Focus on Stability Alongside Speed

Adhering to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability is an important principle in our Party’s governance and a key methodology for conducting economic work.

Observing China's economy requires multiple perspectives. We must look at aggregate volume and growth speed, but also excel at assessing quality and efficiency from the perspective of "stability."

An economic growth rate of 4.7% falls within a reasonable range; an economic increment of 3.6 trillion yuan marks the largest increase for the same period in nearly five years... China's economy in its "mid-year report" has been described by foreign media as "showing resilience."

Not long ago, the International Monetary Fund lowered its global economic growth forecast for 2026, while simultaneously raising China's economic growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points.

As a super-large economy, facing various external shocks and internal difficulties, China's role as a "global economic stabilizer" has become even more prominent.

In a world intertwined with change and turmoil, the ability to "remain calm amidst change" and the potential to "adapt and drive change" are particularly valuable.

On July 30, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee proposed "adhering to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability" and "promoting steady and long-term high-quality development."

Stabilizing employment, enterprises, markets, and expectations is the key to maintaining China's economic "steadiness." From this, we gain greater composure and confidence in "promoting the continuous new, optimized, and improved development of the economy."

(I)

Stabilize employment to reassure the public.

"More consciously make high-quality full employment a priority goal of economic and social development, making the process of high-quality development one of improving employment quality and expanding capacity, thereby enhancing employment's driving force for development."

From the strategic height of the "three major concerns," General Secretary Xi Jinping requires that "employment work be placed in a prominent position in governance" and that "employment be treated as the top priority for people's livelihood."

Promoting high-quality full employment is the new positioning and mission for employment work in the new era and on the new journey. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made significant deployments in this regard.

In the first half of the year, the average surveyed urban unemployment rate in China was 5.2%. Whether in international comparison or trend analysis, stable employment is a distinct highlight of China's economy.

New kinetic energy continuously creates new jobs.

Intelligent connected vehicle testers, embodied AI robot application technicians... New quality productive forces are spawning new professions. Currently, the job-to-applicant ratio for some new professions remains above 3, indicating strong demand for related talent.

In the first half of the year, new kinetic energy contributed over 40% to economic growth, continuously expanding the employment "reservoir."

Good policies improve supply-demand matching.

Starting with solving the problem of "jobs with no workers," we address the issue of "workers with no jobs."

Changde, Hunan, turns vocational training into "gold-touching skills"; Tiantai, Zhejiang, incorporates "job content" into the evaluation mechanism for major projects; the Ministry of Education adds a batch of "urgent-use-first" new vocational education majors...

Employment, industrial, and educational policies are deeply integrated, constructing an employment-friendly development model where people and jobs are better matched.

Optimize the environment to make employment more decent.

Creating warm stations for new forms of employment, building friendly business districts, and expanding pilot programs for occupational injury protection nationwide... Targeting pain points and removing blockages, 84 million workers in new employment forms feel more secure.

The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan deploys the "in-depth implementation of the employment-first strategy" and the "promotion of high-quality full employment."

Problems arising during development are solved through development.

(II)

Stabilize enterprises to invigorate the economy.

Enterprises are the main force of innovation and creation, and the micro-foundation for high-quality economic development.

The implementation of various reform measures and policies benefiting enterprises has effectively stimulated their vitality.

In the first half of the year, China's total import and export volume exceeded 25 trillion yuan for the first time in the same period historically, with private enterprises accounting for 57.0% of the total, serving as the veritable "main force."

With increasing external uncertainty, why is the development of private enterprises trending positively?

"The prospects for the development of the private economy in the new era and on the new journey are broad and promising."

Deep integration of innovation chains and industrial chains brings emerging opportunities.

Wus Printed Circuit targets the supporting field of AI chips, investing 22.4 billion yuan in 18 months; Changxin Memory Technologies set multiple records including the largest fundraising scale on the STAR Market; Moonshot AI released the world's largest open-source model, with a valuation reaching $35 billion...

The certainty, growth potential, and leading nature of China's economy provide a stage for enterprises to showcase their capabilities.

In the first half of the year, investment in intellectual property products increased by 9.4% year-on-year, a growth rate 1.5 percentage points faster than in the first quarter. The tilt of corporate investment towards innovation links reflects stable operations and sufficient confidence.

The visible hand and the invisible hand join forces to release dividends.

200 billion yuan in funds for equipment updates were allocated to continuously stimulate vitality; a 1.91 trillion yuan tax and fee "red envelope" provided precise relief and empowerment; the Private Economy Promotion Law continues to show effects, creating a fairer and more predictable environment... Real financial support and strong legal safeguards give all market entities greater confidence and vitality.

The endogenous power bursting from countless market entities converges into a majestic force for overcoming difficulties and climbing the peaks of innovation. China's economy has the solid confidence to traverse cycles and forge ahead through waves.

(III)

Stabilize markets for strong magnetic appeal.

A powerful domestic market is the strategic support for Chinese-style modernization. Accelerating the construction of a new development pattern has further forged the resilience of China's economy.

An increasing number of global products having their "China debut" is a major highlight of China's current economy.

From "Made in China" to "Created in China," how does China possess such strong magnetic appeal?

"Market resources are a huge advantage for our country. We must fully utilize and leverage this advantage, continuously consolidate and strengthen it, forming a robust support for constructing a new development pattern."

A complete industrial system and rich application scenarios provide a "gym" for enterprise innovation.

Producing over 1.5 billion chips daily, with daily token calls reaching hundreds of trillions, firmly standing in the first tier of global AI innovation... The AI industry reflects the mutual promotion between the industrial system and the super-large market, showcasing the charm of a global source of innovation.

Improving infrastructure and optimizing the business environment create a "highway" for factor circulation.

Interviewing platform enterprises, penalizing monopolistic behaviors, regulating competition order in the auto industry, and deeply rectifying "involutionary" competition; strengthening the planning and construction of "six networks" including water networks, new power grids, and computing power networks, and accelerating the improvement of the modern infrastructure system...

Building a unified national market that is both "flexible" and "well-regulated" solves a "world-class problem in economics."

Markets will always have storms, but the Chinese market always has the ability to weather them.

Facing one of the "largest shocks in modern history" in the global energy market, China grasps independent production with one hand and diversified imports with the other, ensuring stable and orderly energy supply and mild, controllable price levels.

Safeguarding high-quality development with high-level security is the key code for China's economy to overcome difficulties and forge ahead.

"Seeking our country's development in a more unstable and uncertain world," the market, as the "scarcest resource," represents the greatest potential and confidence.

(IV)

Stabilize expectations for sufficient confidence.

Concentrating on doing our own things well, China's high-quality development injects more certainty and stability into the world.

Investors dare to invest only when there are good expectations.

In the first half of the year, the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises nationwide increased by 5.3% year-on-year, and foreign investment attraction in high-tech industries grew by 33.2%, with the proportion hitting a record high. Multinational corporations are actively seizing Chinese opportunities.

The "World Investment Report 2026" released by UNCTAD in July believes that in a challenging global investment environment, China's attraction of foreign capital has shown signs of stability.

With rising global trade protectionism, why is foreign capital increasing bets on China?

Because of the "large stage for business, broad market prospects, stable policy expectations, and good security situation," the "innovation dividend" constructs "China Opportunity 2.0." Some enterprises frankly state that there is no "other China" in the world today.

Consumers are willing to spend only when there are good expectations.

Premium performances and sports events are "hard to get a ticket for"; health and wellness tourism and lifelong learning are gradually becoming trends... This year, the indicator of "total retail sales of consumer goods and services" was released for the first time, highlighting the prominent status of service consumption as an important engine.

Why do people have more confidence in consumption?

The optimization and implementation of policies for trading in old consumer goods for new ones, and the gradual landing of the "15th Five-Year Plan" for Expanding Consumption... High-quality development and high-quality life are moving towards each other.

A market economy is also an economy of confidence.

Two Chinese young mathematicians winning the Fields Medal confirms that "our country's basic education has advantages in the world."

The scale of core industries in the intelligent economy exceeds one trillion yuan, and the cumulative global downloads of China's open-source large AI models have exceeded one billion, stirring up the determination and fighting spirit to "win the initiative in global technological competition."

On July 30, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee emphasized, "Implement more proactive fiscal policies and moderately loose monetary policies, fully unleash the effectiveness of existing stock policies, timely plan and introduce practical and effective incremental policies, increase counter-cyclical adjustment efforts, strive to expand domestic demand and optimize supply, effectively guarantee and improve people's livelihoods, enhance development momentum, stimulate social vitality, promote the continuous new, optimized, and improved development of the economy, and strive to achieve a good start to the '15th Five-Year Plan'."

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