China Unveils Comprehensive Strategy to Boost Consumption and Expand High-Standard Opening-Up

Minister Wang Wentao Outlines Key Economic Directives

Beijing, China – China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao has unveiled a comprehensive strategy to vigorously boost domestic consumption and expand high-standard opening-up, aiming to support the country's high-quality development. The announcement, made in recent interviews on December 5 and 6, 2025, aligns with the recommendations of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), which identifies a strong domestic market as strategic support for Chinese modernization.

Driving Domestic Consumption Growth

To unlock the potential of its ultra-large market, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, China plans a multi-faceted approach to stimulate consumer spending. Key initiatives include:

• Enhancing Consumer Environment: Building an internationalized consumption environment and expanding the supply of high-quality consumer goods and services.
• Targeted Promotion: Continuing successful consumption promotion activities and encouraging the consumption of major durable goods, such as expanding automobile consumption across the entire industrial chain and promoting the upgrading of home appliances.
• New Consumption Drivers: Relaxing market access and integrating business formats for services consumption, channeling resources into new areas like cruise trips and sports events.
• Green and Smart Goods: Unlocking consumption potential in areas like green and smart goods.
• Inbound Consumption: Cultivating international consumption center cities and effectively implementing the departure tax-refund policy to expand inbound consumption.
• Strategic Sectors: By 2027, China aims to form multi-trillion-yuan consumption sectors in areas such as elderly care products, intelligent connected vehicles, and consumer electronics, alongside fostering ten 100-billion-yuan hotspot consumer goods categories.

Expanding High-Standard Opening-Up

Minister Wang emphasized that expanding high-standard opening-up is a vital driver for advancing reform and propelling development. The measures are designed to create a more attractive and predictable environment for foreign investment and trade.

• Market Access and Rules: Proactively aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, broadening market access, and opening more sectors, particularly in services like the Internet, culture, telecommunications, healthcare, and education.
• Investment Environment: Fostering a transparent, stable, and predictable institutional environment to attract foreign investment.
• Free Trade Zones: Comprehensively implementing the strategy to enhance pilot free trade zones, expanding the network of high-standard free trade areas, and advancing the high-standard construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
• Trade Facilitation: Promoting the innovative development of trade, including market diversification in goods trade, improving the management system for negative lists in cross-border service trade, and steadily expanding openness in digital trade.
• Visa Policies: Expanding unilateral visa waivers and optimizing visa policies for foreigners to facilitate communication, accommodation, and payment options in China, encouraging more overseas visitors to spend in the country.

Underpinning High-Quality Development

These initiatives are integral to China's broader goal of achieving high-quality development, which signifies a shift from merely seeking growth to prioritizing better growth, efficiency, equity, sustainability, and security. This approach focuses on innovation-driven growth, moving from quantity to quality in economic development. Key areas for this transformation include new information technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), biotechnology, new energy, intelligent connected vehicles, and aerospace. The ultimate purpose is to bring stability and harmony to society and better meet the growing needs of the people for a better life.