A new engine for globalization
At a time of fragmentation, 'China Opportunity 2.0' shows that inclusive cooperation will address global challenges
At a time when the global economy and trade are undergoing profound systemic restructuring, China — under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which marks its 105th anniversary this year — is advancing national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization and pursuing high-standard opening-up to bring certainty to a volatile world.
Elsewhere, deglobalization undercurrents, resurgent trade protectionism, populism and economic nationalism have fragmented industrial chains, while new rules governing services, digital trade and green trade are being rewritten worldwide.
At the Summer Davos forum in Dalian in June, China introduced "China Opportunity 2.0", showcasing how China's consistent reform and opening-up has turned it from a key participant of globalization to a leading player in helping reform the global economic order, laying out a new blueprint for mutually beneficial globalization.
The first phase of China's global opportunity revolved around low-cost manufacturing dividends. After the end of the Cold War, there was a vertical division of global value chains on a global scale, and China integrated into global production networks relying on its demographic and scale advantages to become the world's factory. This phase boosted global productivity, stabilized consumer prices worldwide and became a core driver of globalization. Yet the old growth model is now constrained by two seismic shifts: the digital, intelligent and low-carbon technological revolution reshaping industrial geography, and the geopolitical fragmentation that is eroding the traditional cross-border production cooperation. Unlike the cost-driven, factor-based openness of the past, "China Opportunity 2.0" centers on innovation-driven growth, institutional opening-up, complete industrial ecosystems and a supersized domestic market.
First, innovation dividends replace scale dividends as the core growth engine. China boasts one of the world's richest testing grounds for new technologies and concepts, turning laboratory breakthroughs into scalable commercial solutions at unmatched speed. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, from 2021 to 2025, China's high-tech goods imports and exports registered an average annual growth of 7.9 percent, while in 2025 exports of the "new three" — new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products — surged 3.5 times compared with 2020, based on the data released by China's General Administration of Customs.
Second, institutional opening-up has replaced commodity and factor-based opening as the core pillar of China's high-standard opening-up drive. According to China's Ministry of Finance, China's overall tariff level has fallen to around 7.3 percent, below its World Trade Organization accession commitment of 9.8 percent. All restrictive market access measures for foreign investment in manufacturing have been lifted, while negative lists governing foreign investment and cross-border services trade keep shrinking. China is actively advancing its accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, aligning domestic regulations with high-standard international frameworks covering intellectual property, cross-border data flows, competition neutrality and government procurement. Regional cooperation frameworks including the fully implemented Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the upgraded China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area 3.0 unlock multi-tiered gains from trade liberalization. China also delivers unilateral opening benefits to the Global South.
Third, China's supersized domestic market unlocks new growth space for global enterprises. Home to about 1.4 billion people, accounting for over 17 percent of the world's total population, the country boasts over 400 million middle-income earners — the world's largest middle-income cohort. Its consumer market covers all tiers, from mass basic demand to high-end premium consumption. It is estimated that China's per capita GDP surged from $969 in 2000 to $13,953 in 2025, continuously lifting household purchasing power. Reforms to build a unified national market are tearing down interregional barriers, facilitating the free movement of production factors and translating fragmented market potential into consolidated competitive edges. Flagship expos such as the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services and the China International Supply Chain Expo act as vital bridges for other developing economies to market their distinctive products to Chinese buyers, integrating more small and medium-sized enterprises into inclusive globalization.
Fourth, China's full-spectrum industrial ecosystems form a key pillar of "China Opportunity 2.0" by enabling deep global industrial collaboration. As the world's only economy covering all UN-listed industrial categories, China's 200-plus mature industrial clusters cut cross-chain coordination costs and speed up the commercialization of global innovations. The country is advancing integrated domestic and foreign trade, expanding intermediate, green and digital trade, and diversifying its overseas markets. Some targeted opening-up pilots in telecom and green sectors can also draw global talent and service providers to jointly advance low-carbon, intelligent industrial upgrading, allowing foreign partners to share the full upstream-to-downstream innovation dividends of China's complete industrial layout.
The structural transformation underpinning "China Opportunity 2.0" originates from the CPC's 105 years of strategic vision. Today's world faces surging unilateralism, partisan polarization in some Western countries and mounting global governance deficits. With the strength of over 100 million members, the CPC has forged a unique governance philosophy centered on people, truth-seeking and global vision, sustained by long-term resolve and self-reform capability. Under its leadership, China has built complete industrial chains, eliminated nationwide poverty and achieved steady modernization, providing other Global South countries with a reference development path beyond Western templates. Globally, China stands firmly on advancing shared development via the four global initiatives and high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, upgrading infrastructure hard connectivity to integrated rules-based soft connectivity and people-to-people heart connectivity that deliver long-term institutional gains for partners worldwide.
"China Opportunity 2.0" is no longer a low-hanging fruit of cheap labor and mass production. It demands deep engagement with China's industrial restructuring, technological research, consumption upgrading and green transition, embedding partners into a new ecosystem built on innovation, institutional openness, massive market potential and shared global responsibility. As China implements its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), it will continue to advance its institutional opening-up on all fronts, expand its high-standard free trade networks and turn its new development momentum into fresh global opportunities. China's commitment to true multilateralism sends a clear message: Economic globalization is an irreversible historical trend. Amid global fragmentation, "China Opportunity 2.0" stands as a reliable anchor for shared growth, proving that instead of "decoupling" or "de-risking", global cooperation in an inclusive manner is the only path to address common global challenges. To embrace shared future gains, the world stands to benefit by integrating into China's innovation ecosystem and tapping its market dividends to jointly forge a more resilient, prosperous global economy.
The author is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the former secretary-general of the Global Center for Mekong Studies (China Center).
The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.
