Release time:

2025-01-31

Author: Hong Tao (Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology), Yang Hang (PhD student at the School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology) According to preliminary calculations, in 2024, China's GDP will reach 134 trillion yuan, breaking the 130 trillion yuan mark for the first time, with a year-on-year growth of 5%. The Chinese economy continues to maintain a strong momentum of development amidst a complex and changing domestic and international environment. During the Spring Festival in 2025, streets and alleys across the country will be adorned with festive decorations, radiating a joyful holiday atmosphere. People will purchase New Year goods, travel, and visit relatives and friends, with the consumption market related to "food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment" showing vigorous vitality, further highlighting the strong resilience and immense potential of the Chinese economy. Looking back over the past decade, China's economy has undergone multiple tests in a complex domestic and international environment. On one hand, factors such as slowing population growth, changes in capital flows, and shifts in emerging industries and consumption trends have prompted China's economy to transition towards optimizing its industrial structure and achieving high-quality development. On the other hand, we also face external challenges such as rapid changes in the international situation, slow global economic recovery, increasing geopolitical instability, and rising uncertainty and volatility. Despite this, China's economy still demonstrates characteristics of "strong pressure resistance and rapid recovery." In the new era, it is of great significance to deeply consider how the Chinese economy can achieve strong resistance and recovery capabilities amidst multiple pressures, which is crucial for coordinating high-quality economic and social development. The Source of Resilience in the Chinese Economy Economic resilience mainly refers to the ability of an economic system to resist, recover, and transform in the face of external shocks. This ability not only depends on intrinsic characteristics such as economic scale and industrial structure but also relies on a series of complex factors including institutional arrangements, policy guidance, and scientific technology. Specifically, the resilience of the Chinese economy, which has maintained stability and continuously improved during multiple external shocks, is mainly reflected in the following three aspects: The strong resilience of the Chinese economy is manifested in its ability to resist risks and shocks. As the world's largest manufacturing country, China's industrial system possesses comprehensiveness and independent integrity, covering all industrial categories in the United Nations' industrial classification. This comprehensive industrial structure not only helps to mitigate the impact of external shocks on the Chinese economy but also prevents the risk of economic recession due to over-reliance on a single development path. In addition, China's strong industrial supporting capabilities and ongoing infrastructure construction further enhance the national economic system's ability to withstand short-term pressures. A well-developed industrial support capability ensures the stability and responsiveness of the supply chain, while advanced infrastructure lays a solid foundation for technological innovation and industrial upgrading. Particularly, for breakthroughs in "bottleneck" technologies and control over key core technologies, a good infrastructure environment is an indispensable supporting condition. This not only helps to build a high-end industrial system but also provides strong support for China to move to a higher level in the global value chain. The strong resilience of the Chinese economy is reflected in its ability to adapt to changes and continuous transformation. With technological innovation at its core, China has deeply implemented an innovation-driven development strategy, promoted the construction of a world-class technological power, significantly improved its overall technological level, and vigorously promoted the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial development. Data shows that in 2024, the added value of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing above designated size accounted for 16.3% and 34.6% of the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size, respectively, increasing by 0.6 percentage points and 1.0 percentage points from the previous year, indicating continuous improvement in advanced manufacturing capabilities. Investment in high-tech industries grew by 8.0% year-on-year, reflecting strong market confidence in high-tech industries and a strong demand for technological upgrades. Thus, it is evident that China's development momentum in fields such as intelligent manufacturing and service automation is strong, and new driving forces for economic growth are taking shape. The strong resilience of the Chinese economy stems from the unique advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. This system not only concentrates resources and forces to respond to major challenges, fully leveraging latecomer advantages to accelerate development, but also flexibly mobilizes resources in the face of internal and external shocks and effectively resolves crises using diversified policy tools, thereby strengthening the robustness of the economy at the institutional level. Practice shows that in the context of globalization, China has the ability to unite various forces, integrate material and spiritual resources from all sectors of society, and fully address complex problems, maximizing the protection of people's lives and property. At the same time, China focuses on identifying and addressing weak links in economic recovery and stable development, providing solid support for economic growth through optimized resource allocation and solving key problems. Practical Approaches to High-Quality Economic Development in China Currently, the global economic landscape is undergoing unprecedented profound changes, with frequent extreme events such as geopolitical conflicts, intensifying the risks and challenges faced by China's economy. In this context, reviewing and summarizing the driving factors behind China's strong economic resilience in the past, and proposing practical and feasible approaches, is particularly crucial for promoting high-quality development in the new era. 1. Focus on enhancing the resilience and security level of industrial and supply chains. First, leverage institutional advantages to concentrate efforts on breaking through key core technologies. Accelerate mechanism innovation, support enterprises to become the core driving force of innovation, and enhance the overall competitiveness of the industrial chain through the deep integration of innovation chains, industrial chains, capital chains, and talent chains. Second, optimize the flow of international production factors. Eliminate barriers to cross-border cooperation, improve the level of economic internationalization, promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and deepen industrial cooperation among participating countries; at the same time, further improve the business environment through deepened reforms in free trade pilot zones, attract more foreign investment into the Chinese market, and expand the scale of outward investment. Third, eliminate local protectionist barriers by building a unified national market, ensuring smooth circulation of goods and production factors nationwide, achieving more efficient resource allocation and sustainable healthy economic development. 2. Deepen the integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation. First, promote the close integration of technology and the economy, giving rise to new industries, new business formats, and new models, and drive the upgrading of industrial and value chains through the application of new technologies, especially disruptive technologies. Second, strengthen the role of enterprises as the main body of innovation, jointly establish innovation consortia, build technology innovation platforms oriented to market demand, and promote collaboration between enterprises and universities, research institutions, etc., to tackle key core technologies and establish close partnerships. Third, improve institutional mechanisms to support the collaborative promotion of support for leading technology enterprises, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, talent cultivation, and the optimization of technological innovation mechanisms, establish and improve the intellectual property protection system, optimize fiscal and financial policies to provide necessary funding support for innovation activities, and strengthen inter-departmental coordination and cooperation to promote resource sharing, creating a favorable environment for the whole society to actively participate in innovation. 3. Continuously strengthen the expected management of resilient economic growth. First, cultivate new quality productive forces, promote the development of new technologies, new models, and new business formats, and build production relations that meet the development needs of the new era, adding new momentum to economic growth. Second, deepen institutional and mechanism reforms, optimize market mechanisms, correct distortions in factor markets, reduce friction costs in economic operations, and improve capital output efficiency and resource allocation effectiveness. Third, stimulate endogenous growth momentum, enhance the stability and risk resistance of economic operations, fully utilize China's vast market size and domestic demand potential, and construct a new development pattern that prioritizes domestic demand and promotes mutual reinforcement between domestic and international markets.