On April 25, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting to assess the current economic situation and outline economic priorities. The meeting stressed the imperative to “coordinate domestic economic work and endeavors in the international economic and trade field, unswervingly manage the country’s own affairs well, stay committed to expanding high-standard opening up, focus on keeping employment, businesses, markets, and expectations stable, and deal with the uncertainty of drastic changes in the external environment with the certainty of the country’s high-quality development.”

Discussing these arrangements, scholars emphasized that in the face of dual pressures—both domestic and international—the principle of “pursuing progress while maintaining stability” remains fundamental to sustaining steady economic growth.

Since the beginning of 2025, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has responded to external volatility by strengthening high-quality development. This approach has helped maintain overall economic stability while supporting steady progress.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in March 2025, the national surveyed urban unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points over the previous month; the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reached 50.5%, marking a continuous increase for two months; and the total retail sales of consumer goods in the first quarter grew 4.6% year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points faster than the growth recorded for all of 2024.

Innovation is also a bright spot. In the first quarter of 2025, the added value of high-tech manufacturing enterprises above the designated size increased 9.7% year-on-year—well above the average for large-scale industrial output. Regionally, major economic provinces continued to leverage their advantages, the central region showed strong growth momentum, and the northeastern region gave notable performance. Regarding green development, the production of new energy vehicles and 3D printing equipment soared 45.4% and 44.9% year-on-year, respectively. In terms of openness, the export of electromechanical products expanded 8.7% year-on-year, while imports and exports by private enterprises increased 5.8%. In shared development, the per capita disposable income of urban residents grew 4.9% year-on-year, while that of rural residents increased 6.2%.

Numerous data points indicate that China’s high-quality economic development is gaining steam and making new progress. Fang Ying, vice president of Xiamen University, explained that China’s innovation-driven development is steadily advancing, with stronger regional coordination, effective green transformation, optimized trade structures, increased openness, and a consolidated foundation for shared development. A series of policy measures have not only stabilized employment and enhanced market confidence but also stimulated consumption vitality.

“Faced with uncertainty in the external environment, our traditional industries, as key sectors for stabilizing employment and foreign trade, still have considerable room for improving quality and efficiency, as well as for accelerating digital and green transformation,” said Yang Danhui, a research fellow from the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. At the same time, he noted, strategic emerging industries are expanding rapidly, epitomizing China’s evolving international competitiveness.

Wu Weixing, president of Capital University of Economics and Business, pointed out that “dealing with the uncertainty of drastic changes in the external environment with the certainty of high-quality development” essentially aims at reshaping economic resilience by fostering endogenous growth momentum.

“Coordinating domestic economic work and endeavors in the international economic and trade field” reflects threefold strategic thinking, Wu noted. The first is bottom-line thinking—facing the unexpected impact of the US’s substantive tariff hikes, the meeting stressed “preparing for worst-case scenarios with sufficient planning,” requiring a more resilient policy toolkit.

The second is systems thinking—viewing domestic and international circulation as an organic whole to lay a solid economic foundation by “keeping employment, businesses, markets, and expectations stable” and hedge against external uncertainties with internal certainties, Wu continued. Meanwhile, further opening up the service sector and establishing new policy-based financial instruments, among other measures, are essential to expanding new spaces amid openness.

The third is long-termism—China is prioritizing technological self-reliance and strength to reconstruct its competitive edge in dynamic games through institutional innovations such as the “Artificial Intelligence+” campaign and the launch of a “sci-tech board” in the bond market, Wu added.