China’s Major Achievements in Economic and Social Development

Stable macro-economic performance 

Between 2012 and 2023, China’s GDP rose from 54 trillion yuan to 126 trillion yuan, expanding at an average annual rate of 6.1%, with China’s average contribution to world economic growth exceeding 30%. 

In 2024, the government has steadily strengthened countercyclical economic measures. It issued 1 trillion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key sectors. Around 300 billion yuan of funds raised from ultra-long-term special treasury bonds have also been used to bolster support for large-scale equipment upgrades and trade-in schemes for consumer goods. Thanks to the implementation of consumption policies to boost people’s wellbeing, we have ensured a steady rise in spending on culture and tourism as well as faster development of new consumption scenarios. 

As a result, in the first half of 2024, China’s economy was able to withstand downward pressure to maintain overall stability and achieve improvement. GDP grew at a rate of 5%, one of the fastest growth rates among the world’s major economies.

Continued growth in innovative vitality 

Since 2012, China has experienced rapid growth in the areas of science and technology. The ratio of R&D investment to GDP has risen from 1.91% to 2.64%, and China has climbed from 34th to 12th place on the Global Innovation Index rankings. 

By promoting the industrial application of scientific and technological advances, we have accelerated the development of new quality productive forces. By the end of 2023, China was home to about 4.02 million valid domestic invention patents (not including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), becoming the first country to pass the 4 million mark.

This has resulted in a raft of major scientific and technological advances coming on stream. China’s first domestically-made airliner, the C919, and its first homegrown large cruise ship have entered commercial service. Following a successful launch, the Tiangong space station continues to operate smoothly, and the Chang’e-6 robotic probe completed the first mission in history to bring back rock samples from the far side of the moon.

Indeed, more and more new growth drivers are becoming the engines of the economy, thanks to the development and expansion of strategic emerging industries as well as the rapid growth of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and 5G.

Adjustments and improvements to the industrial structure 

Agricultural production has remained largely stable. Annual grain output has stayed above 650 million metric tons for nine consecutive years, and an abundant supply of important food-basket products, such as meat, eggs, milk, vegetables, and fruits, has been maintained. 

China has both expanded and upgraded its manufacturing sector. With our global manufacturing share rising from 22.5% to around 30%, we have remained the world’s leading manufacturer for 14 years running. Notably, the contribution of high-tech manufacturing to the total added value of large industrial enterprises has increased from 9.4% to 15.7%. In the first seven months of 2024, the output of alternative energy vehicles, generator sets, smartphones, and industrial robots all grew, rising by 32.9%, 19.8%, 10.6%, and 7.9%, respectively. 

In the services sector, a steady rate of growth has been maintained, with value added rising from 45.5% to 54.6% as a share of GDP. Producer services have expanded rapidly, allowing us to unlock greater potential for services consumption.

Deepening of reform and opening up

Fresh progress and gains have been secured in reforms in key areas and at critical links. We have reinforced the core functions and competitiveness of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and made concrete strides in developing a unified national market. In the private sector, a trend of steady improvement has been sustained. As of the first half of 2024, there were more than 55 million registered private enterprises in China, representing a 4.1-fold increase from the end of 2012. 

China remains a world leader in terms of both inbound and outbound investment; among developing countries, it is the top recipient of foreign investment. In the first seven months of 2024, foreign investment in China remained strong, with more than 31,000 new foreign-invested enterprises setting up nationwide. To drive high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, we have pursued deeper and more productive cooperation with our partners. Direct investment from China in countries along the Belt and Road has exceeded US$280 billion, and the China-Europe Railway Express has, to date, completed over 90,000 trips.

Coordinated development between regions and between urban and rural areas 

Systematic strides have been made in advancing major regional strategies. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have grown into important engines of high-quality development. Meanwhile, in Xiong’an New Area, rapid progress has been made on projects to absorb functions nonessential to Beijing’s role as our nation’s capital. 

The Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Yellow River Basin have ramped up regional coordination on green development, and fresh gains have been made in environmental protection and restoration in our country’s key river basins. We have further refined the policy frameworks for supporting large-scale development of the west, revitalization of northeastern China, the rise of the central region, and trailblazing development in the eastern region. 

We have launched a five-year action plan for implementing the new people-centered urbanization strategy. As part of this, we have relaxed policy restrictions on the transfer of household registration, with the result that the share of permanent urban residents in the total population has risen from 53.1% to 66.16%. Major efforts have been made to implement work-relief programs and schemes to promote purchases of products from less developed areas. We have also consolidated and built on our achievements in poverty alleviation by promoting rural revitalization.

Accelerated efforts for a green transition 

We have made a concerted drive to simultaneously cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development, and pursue economic growth. In line with this, guidelines have been issued on accelerating the green transition across all areas of economic and social development. We have pushed forward with the critical battle to prevent and control pollution and have taken steps to improve the governance and protection of our ecosystems. Since 2012, China has achieved average annual economic growth of 6% based on an average increase of 3.3% in energy consumption. This has enabled us to achieve a cumulative reduction in energy intensity of 26.1%, one of the fastest rates of reduction worldwide. 

In 2023, the average concentration of PM2.5 in cities at and above the prefectural administrative level across China fell to 30μg/m³. This has enabled China to achieve the fastest improvement in air quality of any country in the world. Since 2012, the percentage of China’s surface water meeting Grade III or higher in the nation’s five-tier water quality system has increased by 27.8 percentage points, reaching quality levels comparable to developed countries. 

With forest coverage topping 24%, China has become a global leader in both forest growth rate and total cultivated forest area. It now accounts for about one-fourth of the world’s newly created green spaces. In terms of renewable energy, China is also leading the way with regard to both total installed capacity and the rate of new installations. In 2023, renewables accounted for over 50% of China’s total power generation capacity, while the country accounted for more than half of all new renewable energy installations worldwide.

Major efforts to ensure people’s wellbeing

Thanks to a nationwide battle against poverty, China successfully eliminated absolute poverty, solving an issue that plagued the nation for millennia. This success paved the way for us to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. 

By fully and effectively implementing the employment-first policy, we have ensured overall employment stability. Since 2013, 13 million new urban jobs have been created each year on average. In the first half of 2024, 6.98 million new jobs were added, and the average surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1%. Personal income has grown faster than the economy as a whole. After adjusting for inflation, per capita disposable income increased by 94% between 2023 and 2012. Furthermore, the urban-rural personal income ratio decreased from 2.88:1 to 2.39:1, thanks to faster income growth in rural areas. 

We have accelerated the implementation of public service policies and steadily enhanced the quality of basic public services, such as those for elderly care, childcare, education, medical care, and culture. No effort has been spared in our response to natural disasters such as regional droughts and floods. We have ensured the basic needs of affected populations are met and systematically moved forward with post-disaster recovery and reconstruction work.

Stronger foundations for secure development 

All regions and departments have resolutely implemented the CPC Central Committee’s decisions and plans for coordinating development and security. By ensuring mutual reinforcement between these two imperatives, we have laid stronger foundations for achieving secure development in the economic sphere. 

The foundations of food security are stronger than ever. We have achieved sound progress in new initiatives to boost grain production capacity by 50 million metric tons and accelerated the implementation of several major projects, including those for high-standard farmland development, chernozem soil protection, and the enhancement of the modern seed industry. 

We have also taken further steps to strengthen energy security. We have guaranteed our capacity to meet peak energy needs during summer and winter and rapidly expanded the installed storage capacity for new forms of energy. 

The resilience and security of industrial and supply chains is steadily improving. We have sped up the implementation of research projects on major technological equipment and made concrete progress in developing core technologies in key fields. We have also continued to enhance our data security capacity. We have made forward-looking moves to develop digital infrastructure and accelerated progress on establishing a national integrated computing system.

Editor: Yi Xiaowei