Wider market access to woo more investment

China's latest steps to spur domestic demand will draw more foreign enterprises to increase investment in the country, as the strength of its super-large-scale market offers renewed impetus for corporate growth and the broader global economic recovery, said leading economists and business executives.

Speaking ahead of China's annual Central Economic Work Conference, they said these new measures will come at a time when foreign businesses are reassessing investment plans amid persistent external headwinds.

Usually convened in December to set the policy tone for the following year, the high-level gathering is being closely watched by the international business community as it will outline the country's macroeconomic priorities and major reform tasks.

Wei Jianguo, former vice-minister of commerce, said that China is no longer relying on preferential policies to attract foreign investment, but advancing deep, self-driven institutional reforms to build a rules-based and high-standard business environment.

This shift from flow-based openness to institutional openness reflects China's move from a "global factory "to a "global market", said Wei.

Echoing that view, Mei Xinyu, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that in terms of spending potential and market size, China is already the world's largest single-country market across many key categories of goods and services, making entry and deep engagement in China a top strategic priority for any foreign firm with global ambitions.

This aligns with a communique issued in late October after the conclusion of the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, saying the country should take the initiative to open wider to the outside world, promote the innovative development of trade and create greater space for two-way investment cooperation.

"China's advanced industrial ecosystem, consumption upgrades and rapidly expanding service sectors — together with the government's implementation of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs — will provide a scale advantage difficult to replicate elsewhere," said Mei.

The latest official data reinforce that assessment. The actual use of foreign direct investment in China's high-tech sectors totaled 192.52 billion yuan ($27.26 billion) in the first 10 months of 2025, with FDI in the e-commerce services, medical instrument manufacturing and aerospace equipment manufacturing sectors surging 173.1 percent, 41.4 percent and 40.6 percent, respectively, said the Ministry of Commerce.

Wang Jiayu, regional representative for China at German industrial conglomerate Freudenberg Group, said that China serves as a lucrative market, a crucial innovation hub and a stable manufacturing base for the group's global operations.

Running 27 factories across China, Freudenberg is expanding into strategic new sectors aligned with China's industrial upgrade, particularly in humanoid robotics. Together with local partners, the company will build a humanoid cocreation center in Shanghai.

"Rather than just a production site, China represents an essential component of our global innovation network and supply chain resilience," said Wang.

As consumption-driven growth gains momentum, He Yongqian, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, said last week that China will continue to expand product availability, upgrade services and diversify consumption scenarios under the "Shopping in China" initiative to better reflect the dynamism of the country's modern consumer economy.

Driven by these moves, as well as the expanded island-departure duty-free policy in the Hainan Free Trade Port, Tapestry Inc, a United States-based luxury goods company, will add over 60 new stores in China over the next three years, growing its footprint from over 400 stores in 90 cities to more than 100 cities across top tier to county-level markets.

Sandeep Seth, the group's chief growth officer, said China is already Tapestry's largest market outside the US and is expected to contribute the biggest share of the group's global expansion in the years ahead.

After seeing its sales in China rise 5 percent year-on-year in its 2025 fiscal year, the US firm experienced a 19 percent increase on a yearly basis in the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year — a strong indication of renewed momentum in the Chinese market.

Believing that China will continue to raise the added value of its industries and drive premiumization, Denis Depoux, global managing director of management consultancy Roland Berger, said for the global business community, this translates into the "in China for China" and "in China for global" strategies. Foreign companies can leverage Chinese technology, innovation and products elsewhere in the world.

"We read these goals as a continuation of China's commitment to creating a stable and prosperous market amid rising complexity and uncertainty in the global economy," Depoux said.