On March 15, 2026 H.E. Ambassador Zhang Zuo published a signed article "China drives global high-quality growth" on the Times of Malta. The full text is as follows:

Against the backdrop of global turbulence and intertwined challenges, China’s National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (Two Sessions) serve as vital windows for the world to observe and understand China, offering a significant opportunity to gauge the country’s policy direction for this year and the longer term ahead. The Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress reviewed and approved the 15th Five-Year Plan, providing a grand blueprint and action plan for China’s economic development. The policy initiatives unveiled at the Two Sessions demonstrate that China is creating more opportunities for the world based on its own development, expanding win-win prospects through openness and cooperation, and providing a stable anchor and source of momentum for balanced global growth with the certainty of high-quality development.

While multinational corporations expand globally, China’s openness empowers the world. As a manufacturing hub in global and regional production and supply chains, multinational companies leverage ‘Made in China, Innovated in China’ to enter global markets. In 2025, foreign-invested enterprises accounted for 27% of China’s total exports, with their share reaching 68% in processing trade exports. Consequently, a significant portion of China’s exports represents the “globally produced, assembled in China, and destined for the world” segment. A product labelled ‘Made in China’ often incorporates European and American designs, Japanese and Korean components, and raw materials sourced from countries worldwide. For instance, Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory accounts for over 50% of its global deliveries, with its trade volume counted towards China’s exports. This creates the phenomenon of ‘surplus in China, profits in the US’. According to the General Administration of Customs of China, foreign-invested enterprises accounted for 29.3% of China’s total foreign trade value in the first 11 months of 2025. Processing trade, closely tied to global division of labour and cooperation, represented 18.8% of China’s total foreign trade value. This proportion is even higher in highly globalised sectors like electronics and automobiles, indicating that China’s trade surplus also drives production and services in other countries. China is a major trading partner for over 160 countries and regions. Actual utilisation of foreign investment in China has exceeded 700 billion yuan for 16 consecutive years, with foreign-invested enterprises in China showing overall growth in operating revenue and total profits. China will unwaveringly expand its opening-up, deepen international industrial division of labour and cooperation, and is willing to share the opportunities of high-level opening-up with the world.

The global industrial network is interwoven, and a dynamic China thrives on mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. Deepening reforms and expanding openness have forged a vibrant China that booms on mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. China’s goods trade surplus surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in 2025, reflecting the country’s comprehensive industrial strengths and its contribution to the resilience of global production and supply chains. The surplus figure is merely a surface indicator; behind it lies a highly interconnected global industrial network from which all nations and enterprises can benefit. It is unfair for some countries to equate China’s trillion-dollar surplus with unilateral gain. In the early 19th century, British economist David Ricardo proposed the theory of comparative advantage, emphasising that nations should leverage their strengths to engage in international division of labour and cooperation. Subsequently, manufacturing powerhouses like Britain, the United States, Japan and Germany followed this economic logic, becoming major global exporters of manufactured goods and primary sources of trade surpluses. China prioritises promoting balanced trade. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s cumulative imports of goods and services exceeded $15 trillion, while its cumulative foreign investment generated over $300 billion in tax revenue for host countries, creating substantial employment and boosting local economic development. In reality, China’s trade surplus stems from its enhanced manufacturing capabilities, which also represent rational choices by multinational corporations. Among the 224 ‘Lighthouse Factories’ recognised by the World Economic Forum in 2026, China (including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) accounted for 101, representing 45% of the total. This stands as the strongest evidence of China’s utilisation of advanced technologies to enhance the resilience and efficiency of its production and supply chains. However, approximately 30% of these factories involve foreign investment, including companies like Siemens (Nanjing), Unilever (Hefei), and Carl Zeiss (Guangzhou). In effect, the trade surplus figures reflect a highly interconnected global industrial network, not a zero-sum game where one country unilaterally ‘squeezes others out’. China will actively expand domestic demand, welcome enterprises from all countries to seize opportunities, provide better goods and services, and gain a competitive edge in the fierce international arena by leveraging China’s consumer market.

Amid intensifying global turbulence and confrontation, China’s prosperity continues to benefit all people. China’s development remains uniquely robust. The January 2026 International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook indicates that global inflation will average 4.1% in 2025 and remain at 3.8% in 2026. China’s efficient production and supply chains ensure stable prices for diverse exports, making them popular among consumers globally. This helps counter inflationary pressures and contributes to stabilising global well-being. In 2025, China’s exports of the ‘new trio’ – new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products – approached 1.3 trillion yuan, marking a 27.1% year-on-year increase. This has made significant contributions to enabling humanity to enjoy healthier and smarter lives. Increasingly, multinational corporations view China not only as a production base and target market but also as a global R&D hub. They leverage China’s vast market to serve their global operations. From this perspective, China’s trade surplus effectively enhances the well-being of people worldwide. This necessitates acknowledging that foreign-funded enterprises in China export back to their home countries. Influenced by factors such as rising energy costs in their home countries and China’s industrial innovation, many foreign companies have relocated production capacity to China, manufacturing goods for export back to their domestic markets. The resilience of China’s exports derives from its status as a more stable and reliable choice for trading partners amid global market uncertainties. From an industrial perspective, amid multiple uncertainties including geopolitical tensions, supply chains anchored by China have demonstrated strong resilience and recovery capacity. This has ensured the sustained global supply of medical supplies, basic consumer goods and critical intermediate products, mitigating supply shocks worldwide. From a consumption perspective, vast quantities of Chinese-made daily consumer goods, home appliances and electronic devices have entered households worldwide with high quality and affordable prices. This has enhanced the real purchasing power of low- and middle-income groups globally, buffering against multiple rounds of inflationary shocks in recent years. China will accelerate scientific and technological innovation, serving not only its own needs but also benefitting the world. We welcome enterprises from all countries to deepen innovation cooperation with China and share the opportunities of innovation-driven development.

The Two Sessions have showcased the image of China, a nation committed to long-term, stable development. The debate on China’s trade surplus is fundamentally a dispute over the facts and value judgments of economic globalisation. By returning to the principles of economic laws, respecting comparative advantages and market logic, and jointly addressing imbalances through reform and improved global governance, China’s current surplus can become a vital engine propelling the world economy out of stagnation and towards higher-quality growth.