by Ma Shengkun, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Ukraine

1. Economy of China has maintained overall stability amid a complex environment

At present, the recovery of the world economy remains weak. Unstable and uncertain factors have increased markedly. Against this background, China’s economic performance has drawn widespread attention. An objective look at China’s economic development shows clearly that amid a complex environment China’s economy has remained overall stable with steady progress. The long-term sound fundamentals of the country’s economy have not changed.

According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on 19 January 2026, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached 140.1879 trillion yuan in 2025 and grew 5% over the previous year at constant prices. It exceeded 140 trillion yuan for the first time and hit annual target. Achieving this growth rate while the overall economic size continued to expand shows that the economy operated within an appropriate range, and the macro policy measures continued to be effective. From the full-year trajectory, economic performance was steady and orderly, with no systemic fluctuations, laying a solid foundation for sustained and sound development.

2. The economic structure has continued to improve, and the quality of growth has steadily enhanced

China’s economy has not only maintained a reasonable growth rate of 5%, but has also continued to improve in both structure and quality. In 2025, the value added of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries grew by 3.9%, 4.5% and 5.4%, respectively. The tertiary industry grew faster than overall level, and its share in GDP increased further. The service sector, modern manufacturing and emerging industries continued to play a stronger supporting role in economic growth.

This change shows that China is accelerating the shift from factor-driven growth to innovation-driven development, from relying on traditional growth drivers to transforming old growth drivers into new ones. Optimizing the industrial structure has effectively enhanced the stability of economic performance as well as strengthened the economy’s resilience and ability to withstand risks, providing more reliable support for medium- and long-term development.

3. Domestic demand potential continues to be unleashed, and the advantages of China’s super-large market are becoming more evident

 Domestic demand has always been a main driver for China’s economic growth. China has a population of over 1.4 billion and the world’s largest middle-income group. Its market space is vast and its demand is diversified across multiple levels. With people-centered new-type urbanization advancing steadily, residents’ consumption structure continuing to upgrade and public services being further improved, consumption’s fundamental role in economic development has been further strengthened.

In 2025, the total retail sales of consumer goods exceeded 50 trillion yuan, up by 3.7% over the previous year. Service consumption, digital consumption and green consumption grew rapidly, services consumption expenditure accounted for 46.1% of per capita consumption expenditure. The value added of digital product manufacturing enterprises above the designated size increased by 9.3% over the previous year. Production and sales of new energy vehicles maintained the top position in the world for 11 consecutive years. Investments in infrastructure, technological upgrades in manufacturing as well as in strategic emerging industries remained at an appropriate scale, providing important support for steady economic performance. A new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other has strengthened China’s economic autonomy and stability.

4. Industrial upgrading as well as scientific and technological innovation are strengthening development drivers

Continuously strengthening endogenous driving force is a source for China’s bright economic future. China is the only country in the world to obtain all the industrial categories listed in the United Nations industrial classification, with a complete industrial system and strong supporting capacity. In 2025, high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing maintained relatively fast growth. Industries such as new-generation of information technology, new energy and new materials expanded steadily, while traditional industries accelerated transformation and upgrading. China has continued to increase R&D input, strengthened enterprises’ position as the main role of innovation and promoted the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation. China entered the global top 10 of the Global Innovation Index for the first time, and the value added of high-tech manufacturing industries above the designated size grew at an average annual rate of 9.2%.

The “AI Plus” initiative was promoted with greater intensity throughout the year. In 2025, the value added of smart unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturing and smart vehicle-mounted equipment manufacturing enterprises above the designated size increased by 57% and 26.2% respectively. The value added of integrated circuit manufacturing and optoelectronic device manufacturing increased by 26.7% and 18.8% respectively. More and more Chinese companies have become active in new frontiers such as large AI models, quantum technology and embodied intelligence. The steady enhancement of innovation capability provides solid support for China’s economy to maintain competitiveness and growth potential over a fairly long period, and creates broader space for international science-and-technology cooperation as well as industrial cooperation.

5. Coordinated macro policies help to keep the development environment stable

Amid a complex and evolving domestic and international environment, China’s macro policies have maintained continuity, stability and right focus. A proactive fiscal policy has been strengthened and made more effective, with financial expenditure prioritized for areas such as sci-tech innovation, green development, coordinated regional development and improvements in people’s wellbeing, thereby effectively helping to stabilize growth and optimize the economic structure. Over the year, retail sales of goods covered by the consumer-goods trade-in program increased by 4.1% year-on-year, 2% faster than the previous year, contributing 0.6 percentage points to the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods. Investment in the purchase of equipment and instruments rose by 11.8%, contributing 1.8 percent points to overall investment growth.

A prudent monetary policy focused on targeted support and structural optimization is guiding financial resources to better serve the real economy and boosting the confidence of market entities. By the end of 2025, the amount of outstanding aggregate social financing stood at 442.12 trillion yuan, marking an 8.3% year-on-year increase. RMB loans extended by financial institutions to the real economy increased by RMB 15.91 trillion over the year. By leveraging financing support tools for private enterprise bonds and launching the "sci-tech board" in the bond market, China stepped up support for sci-tech innovation and private enterprises. The consistency and predictability of macro policy orientation is an important reason why China’s economy has been able to maintain stable performance in the face of external shocks.

6. High-standard opening up continues to deepen, creating broad prospects for China–Ukraine cooperation

Opening up is an important feature of China’s economy and a key underpinning of its bright prospects. The 15th Five-Year Plan underscores that adhering to open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results is an inevitable requirement for Chinese modernization. China will remain steadfast in advancing high-standard opening up, steadily expand institutional opening-up, uphold the multilateral trading system, expand international circulation and use openness to promote reform and development, sharing opportunities and pursuing common development with all nations.  In 2025, China’s trade in goods demonstrated strong resilience, continuing to retain its position as the world’s largest goods trading nation, with its share of the international export market remaining stable at over 14%. By the end of December 2025, China’s foreign exchange reserves totaled USD 3.3579 trillion, staying above USD 3 trillion for many consecutive years and providing a solid foundation for financial security.

Looking ahead, China’s economy is at a critical stage of structural adjustment and the cultivation of new growth drivers.   A super-large market, a complete industrial system, sustained innovation capacity and a stable policy environment together form a solid underpinning for China’s long-term sound growth, creating valuable opportunities for all countries to commonly share China’s development results, and providing a reliable source of strength for the world economy to counter the headwinds against globalization and address risks and challenges.

China’s sustained positive economic momentum provides a realistic basis for deepening China–Ukraine trade and economic cooperation. China and Ukraine enjoy a sound foundation and strong complementarities for economic cooperation. China has retained a status of Ukraine’s largest trading partner. China stands ready, on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, to explore more practical ways of cooperation with Ukraine in areas including agriculture, food security, infrastructure building, energy, manufacturing and the digital economy so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results through complementing each other’s strengths. A stable, open and steadily upgrading Chinese market will create enormous demand for Ukrainian businesses and products and deliver substantial benefits, helping Ukraine realize national prosperity and development, and making a positive contribution to the stability and prosperity of the world economy.