Vice Minister of Commerce Yan Dong: Making China the best export destination for more countries

Source: Securities Times Net Author: He Jueyuan

Recently, in a keynote speech at the 2026 annual meeting of the China Development High-Level Forum titled “Addressing Uncertainty: Global Risks, Growth Opportunities and Cooperation,” Yan Dong, Deputy Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, said that economic globalization remains an unstoppable historical trend. China’s high-quality economic development injects certainty into a world of intertwined disruptions and complexities. The Ministry of Commerce will build more connection and matching channels and create scenarios that promote consumption of imported goods, making China the best export destination for more countries.

Yan Dong pointed out that while the international economic and trade order is changing, the overall historical trend of economic globalization has not changed. Research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that economic fragmentation may lead to a 7% loss of global GDP, but economic globalization still moves forward amid twists and turns. According to calculations by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in 2025 global trade volume surpassed $35 trillion, up 7%, reaching a record high; global foreign direct investment (FDI) reached $1.6 trillion—while even excluding channeling financial flows related to global financial centers, it still grew by 5% in real terms; the average cross-border business index of the world’s top 100 multinational corporations shows an upward trend. Practice has proved that even when the world faces a reversal, economic globalization remains an unstoppable historical trend.

While the track of technological innovation is changing, the development law of openness enabling innovation has not changed. In recent years, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation has been advancing in depth. In particular, frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence have made rapid breakthroughs, creating new historical opportunities and also bringing rule conflicts, social risks, governance challenges, and other issues. A few countries have even attempted to impose technology lockdowns, widen the technology divide, and decouple development. But open innovation is still the better choice—for example, open-source AI models lower the R&D threshold, enabling more people to participate.

While considerations of security and resilience are changing, the broad demand for win-win cooperation has not changed. In economic and trade cooperation, efficiency was previously the priority; now security considerations account for more. Economic and trade issues are being politicized, instrumentalized, and weaponized. Trends toward localization, decentralization, and group-based restructuring of production and supply chains are evident, and the world’s openness index continues to fall. However, win-win cooperation is still what people want—for example, over the past five years, the number of regional trade agreements increased by nearly 50; cooperation among the Global South has been continuously strengthened, and “the Greater BRICS cooperation” is going deeper and becoming more substantive.

Yan Dong said that China’s high-quality economic development injects certainty into a world of intertwined disruptions and complexities. The “15th Five-Year Plan” outline sketches a grand blueprint for China’s economic and social development over the next five years and makes important arrangements to expand high-level opening-up. We will firmly implement these plans, adhere to promoting reform and development through opening-up, and work to provide more opportunities for all countries, including opportunities from “Buy in China,” “Export from China,” and “Invest in China,” as well as opportunities brought by innovative cooperation and open, win-win outcomes.

Regarding the opportunities of “Buy in China,” Yan Dong said that last year China’s total retail sales of consumer goods (social retail value of consumer goods) exceeded 50 trillion yuan. If calculated on a purchasing power parity basis, China’s consumer market is already the No. 1 in the world, and sub-sectors such as automobiles, mobile phones, and home appliances are all the largest markets globally. As China as a whole moves into the ranks of high-income countries, the public’s diverse demand for high-quality life will continue to grow.

Launching brand activity for “Buy in China” is intended to attract international tourists to come in and spend, while also enabling domestic consumers to purchase high-quality products from around the world, achieving “In China, buy globally.” “We will continue to unleash the potential of the large market, promote expansion and upgrading of goods consumption, and implement the action to improve service consumption quality and benefit people.”

Compared with goods consumption, service consumption has characteristics such as high consumption frequency, large multiplier effects, and sustainable growth, making it a key focus for boosting consumption. The Ministry of Commerce will advance the pilot construction of new formats, new models, and new scenarios for consumption, and vigorously foster new growth points in service consumption. “We believe that China’s super-large market will provide broad development space for companies in all countries,” Yan Dong said.

Regarding the opportunities of “Export from China,” Yan Dong said that over the past five years, China’s cumulative imports exceeded $1.5 trillion. During last year’s China International Import Expo (CIIE), the Chinese side announced the launch of the “Shared Big Market · Export from China” series of activities to support more high-quality global goods and services entering China’s market. This year, the Ministry of Commerce has already held Export from China activities in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and other places, and more than 100 events will be held throughout the year.

The Ministry of Commerce will promote coordinated efforts across both online and offline channels, build more connection channels and scenarios that use imported goods to promote consumption, and focus on helping relevant countries improve their export capacity. “We welcome companies from all countries to seize the opportunities of ‘Export from China’ and make China the best export destination for more countries,” Yan Dong said.

Regarding the opportunities of “Invest in China,” Yan Dong noted that in recent years, China has orderly expanded its independent opening-up, proactively aligned with international high-standard economic and trade rules, and implemented the strategy to upgrade free trade pilot zones. Over the past five years, China has cumulatively absorbed more than $750 billion in foreign investment. “Many multinational companies say, ‘Investing in China means investing in the future.’ We will continue to polish the ‘Invest in China’ brand, fully implement national treatment for foreign investors, build a world-class business environment, and turn companies’ ‘requirements lists’ into our ‘service lists.’”

The Ministry of Commerce will work to expand capacity and improve quality in the services sector. With services as the focus, it will expand market access and the scope of opening-up, improve the management system for negative lists of cross-border services trade, and coordinate the development of both productive services and living services. It will vigorously develop services trade, and the open development of China’s services sector will bring new business opportunities for companies in all countries.

Regarding the opportunities for innovation cooperation, Yan Dong said that in recent years, China has become a global testing ground, an application ground, and a profit ground for innovation. China will accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, share original technologies and innovative scenarios with the world, support international joint R&D and the promotion of applications, and work to build an open innovation ecosystem. “We will optimize the implementation of policies on replacing the old with the new, focusing on green and intelligent products and offline brick-and-mortar retail, so as to ‘swap’ space and vitality for new industries and new tracks—there are many opportunities for both domestic and foreign-funded enterprises in this regard.”

Regarding the opportunities for open, win-win cooperation, Yan Dong emphasized that China firmly safeguards the multilateral trading system, and announced that in the current and future negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO), it will not seek new special and differential treatment. “We will participate constructively in global economic governance and push for positive outcomes from the 14th Ministerial Conference of the WTO.”

“Now Beijing is full of spring charm and vitality. After going through the winter, you know how precious spring light is. The more uncertainty and risks there are, the more precious trust and cooperation become.” Yan Dong said that the Ministry of Commerce is willing to work with all of you to come up with more sincerity and practical measures, expand opening-up and cooperation, join hands to address challenges, and promote shared development.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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