Dalian, June 24, 2026
Your Excellencies Co-chair André Hoffmann and President Alois Zwinggi,
Your Excellencies Leaders of Participating Countries,
Your Excellencies Heads of International Organizations,
Distinguished Business Leaders,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my nice pleasure to affix you, mates each previous and new, right here in Dalian for the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2026. On behalf of the Chinese authorities, I want to prolong heat congratulations on the opening of the assembly and categorical heartfelt due to you all on your long-standing sturdy assist for China’s improvement.
The theme of this 12 months’s assembly, “Innovating at Scale,” factors to a essential issue in world financial improvement in the present day. As President Xi Jinping famous, innovation drives improvement and innovation shapes the future. Let me take the alternative of in the present day’s gathering to share with you China’s innovation tales and provide some ideas on world innovation cooperation based mostly on China’s financial improvement observe.
I. Entering the fifteenth Five-Year Plan interval, China’s financial system has made new headway whereas navigating a altering scenario.
The 12 months 2026 marks the launch of China’s fifteenth Five-Year Plan for financial and social improvement. Since the starting of the 12 months, there was elevated volatility in the worldwide panorama as geopolitical conflicts erupted one after one other. Global financial restoration, fragile because it was, has now come underneath higher pressure. Against this backdrop, China’s financial system acquired off to a very good begin. It withstood the challenges, solid forward and demonstrated sturdy resilience and a promising outlook. The total efficiency could be summarized in 4 key phrases.
Keyword No. 1, stability. China’s financial system grew by 5 % in the first quarter and has maintained a sound momentum in the second quarter. We are seeing development in company income, a average rebound in costs, and continued enchancment in folks’s life. Stability might not appear a lot on an peculiar day. But, when China’s financial system, at an enormous quantity of RMB140 trillion yuan, continues to register regular and wholesome development regardless of the shocks of world power shortages and extreme supply-chain disruptions, when it continues to deliver a lot wanted certainty to this more and more unsure world and performs a significant position as a protected harbor, such stable and sturdy stability is all the extra valuable.
No. 2, innovation. After years of endeavor and accumulation, China has change into a hub of quickly rising new applied sciences, new merchandise, and new enterprise fashions. In the first half of the 12 months, a number of varieties of business rockets have been efficiently launched, and applied sciences equivalent to quantum info, built-in circuits, and nuclear fusion have been advancing at an accelerated tempo. Most notably, the synthetic intelligence sector has seen explosive development. Several main AI fashions have reached new milestones in efficiency, day by day token utilization has hit a number of hundred trillion and ranked first in the world by the finish of May, and embodied intelligence has moved into large-scale business software. With good frontier improvements rapidly sparking off a sweeping transformation of development drivers, China’s financial system has taken on a brand new look and gained renewed power.
No. 3, dynamism. China’s supersized market continues to unleash demand potential, particularly in companies, inexperienced and new varieties of consumption. Tourism, performing arts, and sports activities occasions simply draw giant crowds, with tickets usually offered out in seconds. Consumer favorites equivalent to smartwatches, good glasses, and different good gadgets have seen gross sales multiply. Flows of folks, items, info, and capital are extremely vibrant. Over 550 million categorical deliveries are dealt with per day, greater than the complete of all different international locations mixed. These are all vivid footnotes to the surging vitality of China’s financial system, and true reflections of the dynamism of the Chinese market, embodying the wealthy range and excessive development potential of China’s home demand.
No. 4, integration. At a time of rising unilateralism and protectionism, China stays as dedicated as ever to opening up additional. We have prolonged zero-tariff insurance policies to 63 international locations, stayed as the world’s second-largest import marketplace for 17 years working, and recorded an import development of 20.5 % in the first 5 months of this 12 months, considerably increased than export development. We have additionally launched a quantity of “Export to China” promotional occasions to make obtainable extra channels for high-quality overseas merchandise to enter the Chinese market, which has been well-received by international locations round the world. For China, built-in improvement with the world has by no means been an expediency, however a strategic determination made in line with the development of historical past and based mostly on our personal improvement philosophy. In pursuing improvement, China doesn’t search to maneuver quicker by going alone. Rather, we would like win-win cooperation with all in the world in order that we are able to go far collectively.
These 4 key phrases—stability, innovation, dynamism, and integration—collectively current a complete outlook of China’s financial system, sketching out each the present image and future trajectory. We are assured and succesful of sustaining and harnessing this sturdy momentum to maintain writing new chapters in China’s high-quality improvement.
II. Innovation-driven improvement is the key to China’s long-term, regular and sustained financial success.
The undeniable fact that China’s financial system has maintained regular and wholesome improvement over the years is attributed to 2 essential components: the steady atmosphere and the energy of innovation. The steady atmosphere in China is well known and plenty of of you understand this from private expertise, so I cannot elaborate right here. As for the energy of innovation, the seen outcomes and vibrant actions have a tendency to draw extra consideration whereas the strenuous efforts and long-time dedication that contributed to the successes in innovation may not at all times be totally appreciated. In this connection, I want to underscore three key messages.
First, China’s innovation has been solid by means of relentless, painstaking effort. We are effectively conscious that there are not any shortcuts in sci-tech analysis. No one can copy their solution to an innovation edge. There needs to be stable, onerous work to deal with powerful challenges. In latest years, in order to realize higher self-reliance and energy in science and expertise, we’ve steadily elevated enter into sci-tech analysis. During the 14th Five-Year Plan interval from 2021 to 2025, our complete R&D expenditure grew by a mean of 10 % yearly, making China the world’s second-largest R&D spender. Last 12 months, primary analysis accounted for greater than seven % of complete R&D expenditure, setting a brand new historic document for China. It is the similar with Chinese enterprises, who’ve demonstrated unyielding resilience and steadfast dedication. Many business leaders have endured operational pressures caused by extended and dear R&D commitments. Some incurred heavy losses at sure levels, and others confronted unfair exterior suppression. Yet none of them ever wavered in their dedication, and their perseverance has lastly paid off. During the fifteenth Five-Year Plan interval, we’ll additional strengthen analysis on key applied sciences, considerably increase the proportion of primary analysis funding, and repeatedly improve the capability for authentic innovation. All it will present an inexhaustible supply of power for the innovation-driven and high-quality improvement of China’s financial system.
Second, China’s innovation has been tempered by means of intensive functions throughout industries. Science and expertise thrives in software. The most troublesome leap in innovation is usually not the one inside the lab, however the one throughout the “Darwinian Sea” that separates the lab from the market. The key subsequently lies in higher connecting science and expertise with business. After years of pursuing innovation-driven improvement, China has blazed a profitable path whereby sci-tech innovation spearheads industrial innovation and industrial improve propels sci-tech evolution. On the one hand, sci-tech progress is the wellspring of industrial improvement. In latest years, we’ve made energetic explorations in frontier and rising sectors, and achieved a big quantity of innovation outcomes which have given start to many new industries. The vigorous development of China’s new power and clever related car industries, for instance, has been enabled by sci-tech breakthroughs in new supplies, energy batteries and communications expertise. These improvements are the core competitiveness of Chinese merchandise, not authorities subsidies as some have speculated. We can not afford to offer so many subsidies. On the different hand, China’s large software eventualities present a robust incubator and coaching floor for brand new applied sciences. China has an entire industrial system and a giant market. A promising sci-tech consequence, backed by China’s manufacturing energy, could be quickly changed into real-world client items. Likewise, a distinct segment product, positioned in a market of over 1.4 billion shoppers, has the potential to develop into a large enterprise and even a giant business. With broad participation throughout all sectors, frequent suggestions from numerous customers, and repeated refinement throughout numerous eventualities, new applied sciences have been capable of evolve and improve repeatedly by means of large-scale functions. Going ahead, we’ll promote deeper integration between sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation, broaden efficient home demand, speed up the large-scale software of new applied sciences and merchandise, and strengthen the mutually reinforcing cycle of sci-tech advances and industrial improvement.
Third, China’s innovation has been nurtured in an enabling atmosphere. Innovation in the present day is extremely advanced and systemic, requiring larger-scale assets enter, stronger supporting measures, and a extra enabling institutional atmosphere. For years, China has labored onerous to boost its systemic innovation capability and achieved exceptional outcomes. We have been growing assist in assets and components of manufacturing, placing in place a diversified funding system with enterprises main the approach, authorities offering steering and society taking part, constructing a batch of main sci-tech analysis amenities and infrastructure, and coaching some seven million college graduates in science, engineering, agriculture and medication yearly. We have prioritized constructing innovation platforms. Of the world’s prime 100 innovation clusters, 24 are in China, rating first in the world for 3 consecutive years. Professional, differentiated and specialised industrial clusters unfold throughout the nation, from the one-hour digital info innovation circle in the Yangtze River Delta, the one-hour bike industrial circle in Chongqing, to the 30-minute supporting circle in Shenzhen’s Robot Valley. These platforms have incubated a big quantity of high-tech enterprises in addition to “little giants” that use specialised and complicated applied sciences to provide novel and distinctive merchandise. Moreover, we’ve deepened reforms of techniques and establishments, introducing a sequence of new insurance policies and new measures in mental property rights safety, danger sharing, innovation incentives, and so on. Going ahead, we’ll proceed to enhance the innovation-friendly ecosystem and velocity up the improvement of infrastructure together with new-type energy grids, computing energy networks and new-generation telecommunication networks, in order to successfully take away boundaries to raised useful resource allocation and preserve unlocking and unleashing the innovation dynamism of the complete society.
China’s quickly rising innovation capability has been broadly welcomed and acknowledged by most in the world. Some, nevertheless, reply in another way. They are anxious about China’s sci-tech and industrial innovation, and for varied causes, even provide you with so-called “China shock 2.0.” But as I’ve observed, in the latest discussions about this narrative by some establishments and media shops, there are extra mentioning of an reverse time period, that’s, “China opportunity 2.0.” In the previous, China’s large market and low-cost manufacturing components supplied “market dividends” for the world. Today, whereas persevering with to supply even higher “market dividends,” China can be providing an increasing number of “innovation dividends” with its technological progress and industrial upgrading. What these mixed dividends generate for the world are higher alternatives and potential of improvement. For enterprises round the world, “China opportunity 2.0” means across-the-board innovation empowerment and high-return funding alternatives. As we’ve seen, a rising quantity of overseas enterprises have come to China to arrange analysis facilities and regional headquarters, and change into deeply built-in into China’s innovation and industrial chains. This is a transparent shift from “made in China” to “created in China”—in 2025, 14,000 foreign-funded enterprises have been established in the fields of scientific analysis and technological companies, up by 27.2 % year-on-year. Here in China, enterprises from varied international locations can rapidly discover whole-process companions from R&D to prototyping, and to mass manufacturing, making innovation simpler and extra environment friendly. This not solely helps corporations succeed in the Chinese market but additionally boosts their world competitiveness. At the similar time, fast-growing Chinese revolutionary enterprises may generate returns for buyers throughout the world that may very well be a number of, and even dozens, instances the authentic capital. For world improvement, “China opportunity 2.0” means extra accessible superior applied sciences and broadly shared outcomes. China is dedicated to an open method to innovation. Much of its innovation is open-source. This allows extra international locations, notably creating international locations, to entry inexpensive new applied sciences and new merchandise, which has enhanced their improvement capability and may help tackle many difficulties holding again world improvement. Today, China’s giant open-source AI fashions have been downloaded by over 10 billion instances globally in cumulative phrases, large-scale scientific amenities in managed nuclear fusion, quantum expertise and different areas are open to the world, and the Tiangong area station is ready to welcome overseas astronauts. These are proof sufficient that what China’s applied sciences and merchandise in rising areas deliver to the world will not be shocks or threats, however alternatives and empowerment.
III. Innovation cooperation is an crucial for tackling world development predicament.
Throughout China’s improvement, innovation has performed an irreplaceable and pivotal position. In the broader world financial system, it stands as a significant pathway to counter downward strain and reignite development momentum. At current, world innovation actions have taken on new traits and tendencies in contrast to something seen earlier than. First, by no means earlier than has expertise superior so quick, however the danger of uncontrollability is notably rising. AI has vastly enhanced innovation effectivity, with breakthroughs rising on all frontiers. Some name this the “Cambrian moment” of the clever age, however the dangers of shedding management and moral lapses are additionally mounting. Without commensurate governance, the fallout may very well be extreme. Second, by no means earlier than has innovation been so deeply interconnected, but the boundaries to collaboration are growing. Collective efforts that cross disciplines and nationwide borders have change into the mainstream and necessity of innovation. Yet technological partitions, boundaries and blockades are additionally rising extra pervasive. Innovation that really transforms and advantages the world should at all times speak in confidence to and embrace the world. In this new panorama, solely by means of stronger cooperation can we generate extra breakthroughs, and solely by means of stronger cooperation can we rise to the numerous dangers and challenges earlier than us.
We ought to deepen connectivity and collaboration to construct higher synergy for innovation. In this new spherical of technological revolution and industrial transformation, no nation or firm can succeed alone. An interconnected world market allows extra environment friendly circulate and allocation of manufacturing components, and considerably reduces innovation prices. An inclusive and collaborative innovation community permits concepts to work together and converge extra freely, accelerating breakthroughs in frontier applied sciences. China will combine extra proactively into the world innovation and industrial chains, work with all sides to construct an open world financial system, collectively safeguard steady and easy world industrial and provide chains, foster extra innovation outcomes, and strengthen the drivers of development.
We ought to harness expertise for good and be more practical in advancing collective governance. Innovation drives humanity’s quest for a greater life. Advanced applied sciences ought to function instruments that profit folks throughout international locations, fairly than sources of chaos that undermine peace and stability. This requires higher coordination between improvement and safety, and a joint effort to enhance world governance, in order that technological progress at all times displays humanity’s widespread values and advances world peace and improvement. China will proceed to take part in world governance in AI and different areas in a accountable and constructive method, and work with all sides to enhance guidelines, improve regulatory effectiveness, mitigate dangers and higher promote shared improvement.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
Enterprises are the principal power of innovation, and entrepreneurs bear the key tasks of making it occur. I encourage you to be pioneers of innovation: look past in the present day’s contested crimson oceans towards the huge blue oceans forward—use innovation to broaden the world market, make the pie larger and to win the future on your companies. I encourage you to be champions of win-win cooperation: assist, be part of and advance world innovation cooperation, tear down partitions and construct bridges, generate recent concepts by means of change and mutual studying, and develop collectively by enabling one another’s success. I encourage you to remain the course with China, and put down deeper roots in this market. No matter how the world modifications, China’s door will solely open wider. We will broaden market entry, totally implement nationwide therapy for overseas enterprises and preserve fostering a world-class enterprise atmosphere. We warmly welcome companies from round the world to China to speculate and do enterprise right here, share in the new alternatives we provide, and be part of us in constructing a brighter future.
I want this 12 months’s annual assembly a full success. Thank you.