Zooming into China's super-large market

BEIJING -- What is the charm of China's super-large market?

In every 24 hours, an average of 27,000-plus new businesses are registered, over 80,000 vehicles roll off the assembly line, products worth 35 billion yuan (nearly $5 billion) are sold online, and some 300 million parcels are delivered nationwide.

Over the past decade, China as the world's second-largest economy has fostered a resilient and vibrant domestic market that owns great potential and brings benefits to the world.

ENORMOUS ADVANTAGE

Analysts believe the Chinese market nowadays has a larger scale, better market structure, more complete rules and institutions, and stronger international influence and attraction.

China has the world's largest middle-income group and the second-largest consumer market, which provides enormous opportunities to businesses in various sectors from auto manufacturing to food and cosmetics across the globe.

With the robust domestic market, China contributes over 30 percent of the global economic growth. As China is the major trading partner of over 140 countries and regions, every 1 percentage point of its economic growth will be translated into a 0.3-percentage-point increase in the output of other economies.

As the world's major producer, the country owns all industrial categories and its manufacturing added value accounts for 30 percent of the world's total. China has remained as the top goods trading country for years, and its railway and expressway networks are also unparalleled.

The market is still evolving and progressing, with vigor and momentum offered by 180 million business entities and 170 million people who have received higher education or have professional skills.

Lured by the market opportunities, global businesses have been increasing their presence here in the past decades, with the number of foreign-funded enterprises in China accumulating to over 1.18 million. Products from Apple's iPhone to Tesla's electric cars have proved the unalienable role of the Chinese market in the global supply chain.

Foreign investors on the hunt for growth potential do not need to look too far for "the next China" because "the next China is China," said Joe Ngai at McKinsey & Company in Greater China.

BREEDING INNOVATION

It took China 27 years from 1995 to 2022 to see its new-energy vehicle (NEVs) output rise from none to 10 million, whereas reaching the second 10-million output goal took only 17 months from February 2022 to July 2023.

Wang Yiming, vice chairman of China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said China's super-large market significantly improves the international competitiveness of its manufacturing sector and vigorously promotes the development of new industries, new business formats and new business models, among others.

Over the years, China's super-large market has fast-tracked the development of new infrastructure and emerging industries.

Currently more than half of the world's NEVs are running on the roads of China and the country's digital payment in terms of value accounts for almost half of the global total.

The total scale of China's computing power ranks second in the world, and the number of artificial intelligence (AI) enterprises in China exceeds 4,400, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In a move to map out the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries, China has recently made developing new productive forces a catchphrase in its policymaking.

By underscoring this concept, China aims to foster advanced productivity through revolutionary technology breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors and deepened industrial upgrading.

"In the face of unprecedented changes in the world, scientific and technological innovation has become a center of China's economic and social development," said Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University.