Translated by Claude, edited by Sinocism.com

Source: People's Daily | Byline: Zhong Caiwen 钟才文 | August 22, 2026 Page 2

Since the start of this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, localities and departments have acted proactively and risen to meet difficulties head-on, effectively coping with various external shocks and internal difficulties and solidly advancing high-quality development. Our country's economic performance has displayed a developmental momentum trending toward the new in its drivers and toward the optimal in its structure, with commendable results. In the first half of the year, macro indicators were on the whole stable: gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.7%, continuing to rank among the front-runners of the world's major economies; prices recovered reasonably; employment was generally stable; and the international balance of payments was basically in equilibrium. At the same time, profits of industrial enterprises above designated size grew 18.7%, national general public budget revenue grew 4.7%, and the economic returns of some business entities improved.

今年以来，在以习近平同志为核心的党中央坚强领导下，各地区各部门积极作为、迎难而上，有效应对各种外部冲击和内部困难，扎扎实实推动高质量发展，我国经济运行呈现出动能向新、结构向优的发展态势，成绩可圈可点。上半年，宏观指标总体稳健，国内生产总值（GDP）增长4.7%、在全球主要经济体中继续位居前列，物价合理回升，就业总体稳定，国际收支基本平衡。同时，规模以上工业企业利润增长18.7%，全国一般公共预算收入增长4.7%，一些经营主体经济效益得到改善。

At present, the Chinese economy is at a critical period of accelerated conversion between old and new drivers and of transformation in the mode of development. In observing the Chinese economy, one cannot look at speed alone, and still less should one fixate on the highs and lows of indicator data for individual quarters or months. Rather, one should attach greater importance to the quality of economic performance, paying attention to the caliber of scientific and technological innovation, the level of industrial capability, and the sustainability of economic development, and paying attention to whether enterprises, as business entities, possess vitality. In fact, viewed through quality and returns and from a longer perspective, China's economic development is undergoing profound changes, manifesting powerful resilience and vitality.

当前，中国经济正处在新旧动能加快转换和发展方式转变的关键时期。观察中国经济，不能仅看速度，更不能纠结于个别季度、月份指标数据的高低，而要更加重视经济运行质量，注重观察科技创新成色、产业能级和经济发展的可持续性，注重观察作为经营主体的企业是否具有活力。事实上，从质量效益观察，从更长视角观察，中国经济发展正在发生深刻变化，彰显出强大韧性与活力。

China's scientific and technological innovation is successively translating into industrial competitiveness. Since the start of this year, sci-tech innovation has achieved many eye-catching results—for instance, new breakthroughs in tackling key core technologies such as integrated circuits, innovative drug R&D at the forefront of the world, and China's successful recovery of rockets on both land and sea. The supporting and leading role of new drivers has strengthened: value added in the equipment manufacturing industry and the high-technology manufacturing industry grew 9.3% and 13.3% respectively in the first half, maintaining a sound development trajectory and holding promise to expand new space for development through technological empowerment. The R&D and application of robots, artificial intelligence, and the like are showing strong momentum; industrial robots, surgical robots, cleaning robots, and bionic robots are becoming representative products of "Intelligent Manufacturing in China," and AI technology is driving manufacturing's orderly transition toward intelligence, digitalization, and greening, with the pace of upgrading traditional industries accelerating.

中国的科技创新正在接续转化为产业竞争力。今年以来，科技创新取得很多亮眼成果，比如，集成电路等关键核心技术攻关取得新突破，创新药研发走在世界前列，中国火箭海陆回收双双成功，等等。新动能支撑引领作用增强，装备制造业、高技术制造业增加值上半年分别增长9.3%、13.3%，保持良好发展态势，有望通过科技赋能拓展发展新空间。机器人、人工智能等研发应用势头强劲，工业机器人、手术机器人、清洁机器人、仿生机器人等正在成为"中国智造"的代表性产品，人工智能技术推动制造业向智能化、数字化、绿色化有序转型，传统产业改造升级步伐加快。

China's hub position in global production and supply chains is continually strengthening. China deploys innovation chains around industrial chains, and reinforces industrial chains through innovation chains. A new-energy vehicle can have its tens of thousands of components assembled within four hours at a vehicle plant in the Yangtze River Delta; a humanoid robot, through the efficient collaboration of various enterprises in the Pearl River Delta, can form a "one-hour industrial ecosystem." China's exports of intermediate goods have grown relatively rapidly, supplying key components to global production and supply chains and effectively ensuring their stable operation. China's complete production and supply chains have not only raised production efficiency globally, China included, but have also provided certainty for the stable growth of the global economy.

中国在全球产供链中的枢纽地位不断增强。中国围绕产业链部署创新链，通过创新链补强产业链。一台新能源汽车，在长三角一家整车厂可在4小时内集齐上万个零部件；一台人形机器人，在珠三角通过各类企业高效协作，可形成"1小时产业生态圈"。中国中间品出口较快增长，为全球产供链提供关键零部件供给，有效确保了全球产供链稳定运行。中国完备的产供链，不仅提高了包括中国在内的全球生产效率，也为全球经济稳定增长提供了确定性。

Chinese enterprises are achieving splendid digital-intelligent transformations amid their transitions. Some enterprises gauge market demand through big data, optimize production scheduling with AI algorithms, and precisely meet small-batch, personalized market demand through flexible production and customized services. Some enterprises use digital production systems to seamlessly connect production lines, logistics centers, and consumer orders, achieving end-to-end "zero-touch" integrated fulfillment, greatly shortening delivery times and making the products consumers receive more "fresh." Some construction enterprises, through industrialized standards, digital precision, and automated efficiency, are turning "good houses" from "built on the construction site" into "manufactured in the factory." Changes such as these have vastly expanded enterprises' business domains, broken through geographical limits, and displayed powerful vitality.

中国企业正在转型中实现数智焕新精彩蝶变。一些企业通过大数据判断市场需求，以人工智能算法优化生产排程，通过柔性生产、定制化服务，精准满足小批量、个性化的市场需求。一些企业通过数字化生产系统将生产线、物流中心和消费者订单无缝连接，实现全程"零触点"一体化履约，大幅缩短交付时间，让消费者到手的产品更加"新鲜"。一些建筑业企业通过工业化标准、数字化精度、自动化效率，使"好房子"由"工地建造"变成"工厂制造"。诸如此类的变化，极大地拓展了企业的经营领域，突破地域限制，展现出强大活力。

Risks and hidden dangers in China's economic performance are being resolved and converging in an orderly manner. Since the start of this year, the trend of the real estate market bottoming out and stabilizing has strengthened; in some first- and second-tier cities, the increase in second-hand home transactions has been relatively large, exceeding the volume of new-home transactions, with prices stabilizing and inventory pressure somewhat eased. Local governments' outstanding implicit debt is being swapped in an orderly way, and the number of financing platforms continues to be pared down. Reform and de-risking of small and medium-sized financial institutions, along with the reduction in quantity and improvement in quality, are advancing steadily, and the number of high-risk local small and medium-sized financial institutions has fallen. On the whole, we have adhered to strictly controlling new increments, properly handling existing stock, and strictly guarding against "blow-ups," preventing and defusing major risks in the economic sphere and holding the bottom line of no systemic risk occurring.

中国经济运行的风险隐患正在有序化解收敛。今年以来，房地产市场筑底回稳态势增强，部分一线、二线城市二手房成交量增幅较大、超过了新房交易量，价格企稳，库存压力有所缓解。地方政府存量隐性债务有序置换，融资平台数量持续压减。中小金融机构改革化险、减量提质稳步推进，地方高风险中小金融机构数量下降。总的看，我们坚持严控增量、妥处存量、严防"爆雷"，防范化解经济领域重大风险，守住了不发生系统性风险的底线。

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade recently organized a delegation of enterprises to visit the United States, reflecting the wishes and aspirations of the business communities of both countries. In face-to-face exchanges, the U.S. business community highly affirmed China's developmental advantages in emerging fields such as advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, clean energy, quantum computing, and life sciences, and called for expanding pragmatic cooperation while maintaining necessary competition. At the same time, the heads of several U.S. enterprises invested in China held that the Chinese government's efforts to boost domestic demand, safeguard and improve people's livelihoods, strengthen public services, and enhance indigenous R&D capacity will bring bright prospects for the Chinese economy and will also provide new scenarios and new space for multinational enterprises to deepen their presence in China. They stated that they will increase the intensity of their investment and business operations in China, casting a "vote of confidence" in China through concrete action.

最近中国贸促会组织企业代表团访美，反映了两国工商界的愿望和心声。在面对面交流中，美国工商界高度肯定中国在先进制造、人工智能、清洁能源、量子计算、生命科学等新兴领域的发展优势，呼吁在保持必要竞争的同时，扩大务实合作。同时，多家在华投资的美国企业负责人认为，中国政府在提振内需、保障和改善民生、加强公共服务、提高本土研发能力等方面的努力将给中国经济带来光明前景，也将为跨国企业在华深耕提供新场景新空间。他们表示，要加大在华投资与展业力度，以实际行动为中国投下"信任票"。

The Chinese economy is a vast sea that can withstand storms. The Chinese economy has the solid "family assets" of more than 40 years of reform and opening up—a huge consumer market, a deep manufacturing foundation, complete infrastructure, a strong reserve of talent, and a complete production and supply chain system; the supporting conditions and basic trend of the Chinese economy's long-term improvement have not changed. In observing the Chinese economy, only by fully understanding the various advantages and enormous potential of China's development can one "not fear the floating clouds that block one's distant view" (from Wang Anshi's poem "Climbing the Peak of Flying Heights" 登飞来峰). In the second half of the year, as the major projects set by the central and local "15th Five-Year Plans" and national-level special plans are launched one after another, and as macro policy exerts force in a timely manner to raise effectiveness, China's economic performance will surely be able to stay within a reasonable range and smoothly achieve the year's targets and tasks.

中国经济是一片大海，经得起风浪。中国经济有改革开放40多年的殷实"家底"，有庞大的消费市场、深厚的制造业根基、完善的基础设施、强大的人才储备、完整的产供链体系，中国经济长期向好的支撑条件和基本趋势没有改变。观察中国经济，只有充分理解中国发展的各种优势和巨大潜力，才能"不畏浮云遮望眼"。下半年，随着中央和地方"十五五"规划及国家级专项规划所确定的重大项目陆续开工建设，宏观政策及时发力提效，中国经济运行一定能够保持在合理区间，顺利实现全年目标任务。