Unified market upgrades biz environment

Editor's Note: As China launches its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), policymakers are strengthening coordination between the "Export to China" and "Shopping in China" campaigns. The effort signals a clear commitment to expanding imports while promoting high-quality consumption. To explore what this means for global business, we invited executives from multinational corporations to share their perspectives on the opportunities in China's vast market, the role of their China operations in global strategy, and their outlook for the years ahead.

Q1 China's GDP grew 5 percent in 2025, reaching 140.19 trillion yuan ($20.29 trillion). For 2026, the government targets growth of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent, with a planned deficit ratio of around 4 percent. How do you assess the credibility and policies backing this target? Amid moderating global demand, what does China's relative growth certainty mean for your company's global capital allocation, earnings outlook and investor expectations? Does the combination of proactive fiscal policies and accommodative monetary measures reinforce your confidence in sustaining or expanding operations in China?

YIN: The growth target set at the two sessions this year demonstrates the stable economic resilience and strong growth potential of China's economy. It not only injects greater certainty into high-quality development, but also encourages multinational enterprises like Schneider Electric to increase investment in China, working together to achieve the ambitious goals. As a major engine of world economic growth, China boasts a vast market, a complete industrial system, and vibrant innovation momentum. The accelerated development of new quality productive forces is continuously expanding the landscape of strategic emerging industries and driving the large-scale transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

ZHANG: As the global economy navigates significant structural headwinds, China's economic framework is acting as a stabilizing force through its immense scale, proactive policy adjustments and resilient industrial base. China's growth target embodies an anchor for corporate planning and capital allocation at a time when global volatility remains elevated. We see among our clients how this shapes global capital flows, which translates into rising demand for cross-border financial solutions and capital markets access. Last year, we successfully helped Chinese enterprises raise nearly $40 billion in international capital markets, underscoring our commitment to the local market, as well as our global capabilities.

LIN: The current global economic landscape is complex and volatile, and global industrial and supply chains are still undergoing profound adjustments. However, the Chinese economy has consistently demonstrated its unique resilience and vitality. The steady growth of the Chinese economy in 2025 attests to its strong resilience and highlights the precise support of policies for high-quality development. This is closely related to a package of policy measures that China has actively promoted for high-quality development. As the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, 2026 sees China setting an economic growth target that is both stable and developmental, aligning with the core demand of foreign enterprises for development certainty and injecting firm confidence into Corning's deep growth in China.

LI: China's 2026 GDP growth target of 4.5–5 percent is credible, supported by both structural policy shifts and proactive fiscal and monetary measures. In 2025, the economy demonstrated resilience, achieving 5 percent growth and strong export performance despite external volatility and trade friction. The 15th Five-Year Plan prioritizes high-quality, innovation-driven growth over scale. Policy support is evident with proactive fiscal measures to bolster consumption and domestic demand, and accommodative monetary policy with further interest rate cuts anticipated. While de-stocking remains real estate developers' top priority in 2026, policies to stimulate legitimate housing demand underpin broader stability.

Q2 In 2025, China's exports rose 6.1 percent, newly established foreign-invested enterprises increased by 19.1 percent, and research and development intensity reached 2.8 percent of GDP. Against the backdrop of global supply chain reconfiguration, is China's role in your global strategy expanding? How do you evaluate China's integrated advantages — manufacturing depth, innovation capacity, infrastructure and market scale — in supporting your production networks and supply resilience? Does China function primarily as a market, a production base, an innovation hub, or increasingly all three within your corporate architecture?

YIN: As a major engine of global economic growth, China is not only a vast open market and a key part of the global supply chain, but also a hub of world-class innovation. In particular, China is advancing its energy transformation to fuel the development of new quality productive forces with abundant impetus, while accelerating the rollout of its "AI +" initiative to equip all industries with advanced technological tools. We believe that to invest in China is to invest in the future. Under the "China Hub" strategy, Schneider Electric has built an agile mechanism that integrates R&D, production and sales forces. Driven by innovation, we have established five R&D centers and an AI innovation lab in China, making it the only country where we boost full R&D capabilities across all of our business lines.

ZHANG: China holds a long-term strategic position in Citi's global network and for many of our clients. We have established a track record since 1902 when we first set up a presence in the country. The market presents an integrated economic system where immense consumer scale, a profound manufacturing base, and a rapidly advancing innovation ecosystem converge. Today, we proudly serve 70 percent of the Fortune 500 companies in China, more than 300 leading local enterprises, and a growing number of innovative new economy companies. In this dynamic environment, Citi's commitments to connecting global investors and corporate clients to strategic opportunities in China stay unwaveringly strong.

LIN: Corning regards China as one of its most important strategic markets globally. China is the only market outside the United States where all five business segments and emerging businesses operate. With 46 years of development in China, Corning has been deeply involved in and benefited from China's modernization process. In 2025, Corning China achieved strong growth in its performance. We have focused on not only building a strong local footprint, but also supporting the growth of key Chinese industries into global leaders. Corning firmly believes that truly sustainable innovation cannot be achieved without clear rules, respect for innovation achievements, and long-term, stable investment.

LI: China's integrated advantages — manufacturing depth, innovation capacity, robust infrastructure and vast market scale — strongly underpin both global and domestic production networks and supply resilience. As the world's largest manufacturing base, China offers comprehensive industrial supply chains spanning 41 major sectors, which streamlines procurement and production for global companies. Its sustained growth in high-tech manufacturing, supported by significant R&D investment and a growing number of innovation clusters, enhances its capacity for technological upgrades and resilience. Advanced infrastructure — transport, logistics and digital connectivity — facilitates timely, cost-effective movement of goods.

Q3 China is advancing the unified national market, with an urbanization rate of 67.9 percent and total retail sales surpassing 50 trillion yuan. As domestic demand expands, what structural opportunities does this vast, increasingly integrated market present for your portfolio, distribution channels and localization strategy? Does deeper market unification reduce operational fragmentation and compliance costs? How do you position your brand and product mix to capture demand from both top-tier cities and fast-growing lower-tier markets?

YIN: The super-large market is a prominent advantage of China, and the vigorous development of the consumer market is inseparable from the support of key sectors such as power grids, data centers, infrastructure, industry and buildings, all of which are industries that Schneider Electric has long served and is deeply rooted in. As one of the most local foreign companies, Schneider Electric has steadily increased its R&D investment in China and established a series of R&D institutions to power industrial upgrading and energy transformation. These investments have not only consolidated our innovation and manufacturing capabilities to better serve the Chinese market, but also enabled the export of more "Chinese innovations" to the world.

ZHANG: The continued development of a unified national market will help improve market efficiency, facilitate the movement of capital and resources, and support greater integration of supply chains across regions. This market development trend reduces fragmentation and creates a more predictable and transparent operating environment. As Chinese companies are expanding internationally at an unprecedented pace, and multinational corporations are deepening their engagement in China's economy, demand for sophisticated cash management and cross-border financial services continues to grow. Citi's global network and expertise in treasury and trade solutions well position us to support companies as they scale and integrate their operations.

LIN: China is accelerating its transformation into a globally significant demand center. The super-large unified market has generated a strong demand for innovative technologies and products. Expanding domestic demand not only drives the upgrading of terminal consumption, but also brings new development opportunities to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. This has created a broad space for Corning's development in China. Corning has always closely followed the demands of the Chinese market. Through the cooperation with our customers, it continuously integrates more core technologies and materials capabilities into local products, enhancing the performance and added value of partners' products and expanding the space for more long-term meaningful cooperation.

LI: The development of a unified national market is critical to further improve the business environment for both domestic and foreign companies, regardless of whether they are State-owned or private. In 2025, the number of new foreign invested enterprise setups in China totaled more than 70,000, up 19 percent year-on-year. FDI into advanced manufacturing industries, such as medical equipment and aerospace vehicle manufacturing, registered an over 20 percent increase. Expanded market capacity, enhanced industrial efficiency, a thriving innovation ecosystem, and the free movement of talent have cultivated a favorable business environment. CBRE's recent client activities underscore this trend.

Q4 China's trade-in program generated over 2.6 trillion yuan in sales in 2025, alongside the "Shopping in China" and "Export to China" initiatives. China's exports grew 6.1 percent year-on-year. How is your company aligning its China strategy to capture both domestic consumption upgrades and export-oriented opportunities? Do you see China increasingly as a global production and innovation base serving international markets? How are you balancing local demand expansion with China's role in your global export ecosystem?

YIN: China has steadily advanced its opening-up and embraced high-quality goods and services from around the world. This not only unlocks broader development opportunities for Schneider Electric, but also empowers us to leverage China's technological and industrial strengths to bring more Chinese innovations to the global market for the benefit of the world. Our "China Hub" strategy has closely integrated R&D capabilities with resilient, agile local supply chains, and together with seamless collaboration with upstream and downstream partners, this integration enables us to rapidly launch cutting-edge products and solutions with global competitiveness.

ZHANG: Today, China is deeply entrenched as a critical, systemic node in the global commercial ecosystem. While still a massive exporter, China is transitioning to an integrated hub of innovation, advanced manufacturing and strategic supply chain management — a role that often involves defining technical standards, leading in green technologies, and acting as a vital partner in complex, high-tech and sustainable industrial networks. Efficient and effective cross-border financial services are essential in this framework. Citi's global network enables us to support clients with trade finance, cross-border liquidity management and capital markets access, helping facilitate trade and investment flows between China and the rest of the world.

LIN: Corning focuses on strategic national fields, implementing core projects around key areas such as new-generation information technology and intelligent connected new energy vehicles. It promotes the cluster development of multiple industries, including display, optical communications, and automobiles, providing core materials for key industries with local manufacturing and R&D capabilities, and empowering the upgrade of terminal products. At the same time, it extends the value of this layout to a global dimension, serving as a solid support for China's industrial exports. Corning, with its global patent and compliance capabilities, provides reliable "global passports" for Chinese enterprises.

LI: The "dual circulation" provides even wider opportunities for CBRE's business in China. China's huge consumption market and increasingly open policy environment are pivotal for the "In China for China" strategy for our multinational clients. At the same time, with the global supply chain reconfiguration and Chinese brands gaining popularity in overseas markets, we are helping more and more Chinese retailers and manufacturers go abroad. Domestically speaking, cross-border e-commerce and export activities are generating opportunities in the logistics and warehousing sectors. As Chinese exporters diversify beyond the US toward Europe and Southeast Asia, demand for logistics infrastructure — especially high-standard warehouses — remains robust, even amid tariff frictions and changing regulations. The expansion of China's "visa-free" policy will also inject new vitality into the domestic consumption market this year.

Q5 China last year reduced energy intensity by 5.1 percent, raised the nonfossil energy share to 21.7 percent, and expanded new-type energy storage capacity beyond 130 gigawatts. Artificial intelligence and advanced technologies remain at the forefront globally. Where do you see the strongest partnership potential in China's green transition and AI-driven industrial upgrading? Are you expanding investment in renewables, digitalization, smart manufacturing, or carbon management solutions? How central is China to your global sustainability roadmap and next-generation technology deployment?

YIN: Fostering new quality productive forces requires a solid foundation of efficient, green energy, and the rapid development of AI brings both challenges and opportunities for energy transformation. It is believed that China has emerged as the world's first major "electrostate" and a global highland for the AI industry. These two strengths complement each other, forging exceptional competitive edges and broad development prospects, and further positioning China as a pivotal pillar of Schneider Electric's global layout. Schneider Electric is committed to integrating advanced digitization, electrification and automation technologies across all industries, and driving the large-scale application of AI to deliver greater efficiency and sustainability.

ZHANG: The next chapter of global growth will be written at the intersection of sustainability and technology, and China is playing a major role in both. For the financial sector, this opens the door to new norms of collaboration within the real economy — from transition finance to digital innovation. Citi has long been committed to supporting clients in its sustainability goals through green financing, sustainable bonds and transition finance solutions. At the same time, digital technologies and AI are transforming financial services including risk management, payments and corporate treasury management. We look forward to working closely with clients and partners in China in these promising fields while contributing to sustainable economic growth.

LIN: China's achievements in green and low-carbon transformation and the deepening of AI applications are remarkable. Corning has broad and deep cooperation spaces with the Chinese industry in fields such as optical communications and intelligent connected new energy vehicles. Glass is a foundational material for AI development, spanning key links such as AI data centers, advanced chip manufacturing, and high-definition interactive displays. Corning will leverage its global technology and full business segment capabilities to fully support the development of China's AI industry on a global scale. In the field of green and low-carbon, we continue to expand the production capacity of substrates and filters related to "China 6" regulations in China, helping Chinese automakers achieve green upgrades and technical compliance.

LI: Sustainability in China's real estate sector is advancing, driven by regulatory mandates and market demand. During the 15th Five-Year Plan, the aging office stock and influx of new supply are compelling landlords to upgrade existing buildings with green features and obtain green building certifications, a trend expected to intensify as the 2060 carbon peak target approaches. Tenants increasingly prioritize amenities like dining, parking and sustainable operations, making operational services just as crucial as physical upgrades. For investors, these imperatives create opportunities in retrofitting older assets, developing green buildings and forming partnerships for service enhancement.