China acting as 'catalyst' for innovation worldwide: report

Amid intensifying geopolitical tensions and growing investment protectionism worldwide, China has continued to widen its opening-up, enhance the liberalization and facilitation of investment, and further solidify its position as a major global investment player, according to a recent report.

China's integration into global industrial and supply chains through two-way investment is acting as a significant catalyst for worldwide innovation, industrial transformation and economic expansion, according to the China Two-way Investment Report 2025 released earlier this week.

In particular, the report states, as global cross-border investment struggles for momentum, capital directed toward the digital economy is emerging as a critical driver of growth and industrial transformation.

The report was jointly compiled by the organizing committee of the China International Fair for Investment and Trade, the Information Center of the Development Research Center of the State Council and the Department of Foreign Economic Research at the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Within this shift, China is not only attracting foreign enterprises into its own innovation ecosystem but also using its outward investment to accelerate digitization worldwide, said Wan Zhe, an economist and professor at Beijing Normal University.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, cross-border investment in the global digital economy surged over the past decade, with total project value rising 146 percent. The United States, Singapore and China have emerged as the primary engines driving this expansion.

For the world's second-largest economy, pursuing two-way investment has been incorporated into key policy recommendations for formulating China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–30).

Chai Haitao, an expert at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, cautioned about rising economic hegemony and monopoly alongside intensified global competition for investment.

"Further widening openness is crucial. We must devote real effort to ensuring that enterprises are both allowed entry and able to conduct business effectively," Chai said.