China's Commerce Ministry Signals Next Phase of Digital Trade and Services Opening
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At a briefing on China’s 2025 commercial performance, the Ministry of Commerce outlined a shift from policy experimentation toward execution in digital trade. Authorities plan to launch national digital trade demonstration zones, develop dedicated digital trade standards, and promote alignment between domestic and international frameworks.
Equally notable is the emphasis on digitising service outsourcing and scaling commercially viable digital trade operators — a signal that the next phase will prioritise operational depth over headline initiatives. The annual Global Digital Trade Expo is expected to play a stronger role as a deal-making and ecosystem-building platform rather than a showcase event.
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Looking ahead to 2026, market access expansion will focus primarily on the services sector, with telecommunications, healthcare and education identified for further opening through controlled pilot programmes.
Rather than rapid liberalisation, the approach is incremental: encouraging foreign-funded service providers to extend along the value chain, integrate digital capabilities, and pursue more specialised operating models. For international firms, the message is clear — scale alone is no longer sufficient; capability depth and local integration will matter more.
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Separately, officials confirmed the upcoming launch of a national overseas integrated services platform, hosted on the Ministry of Commerce website. Built around a “national platform + local hubs + overseas nodes + professional institutions” structure, the platform aims to consolidate practical services across legal, tax, finance, logistics, customs and trade promotion.
For foreign companies operating in or with China, this represents a move toward centralised, transaction-oriented support infrastructure, reducing fragmentation across jurisdictions and agencies.
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Beyond trade and services, domestic consumption delivered one of the year's most concrete signals. Retail sales surpassed RMB 50 trillion in 2025 for the first time, reaching RMB 50.1 trillion with 3.7% growth. Consumption contributed 52% of overall economic growth, a five-percentage-point increase year on year.
Targeted product replacement programmes — covering automobiles, home appliances and smartphones — generated RMB 2.61 trillion in sales and reached more than 360 million consumer transactions. For global brands and financial institutions, the figures point less to short-term stimulus and more to a stabilising consumption base with measurable scale.
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