Innovating at scale: A new anchor for global growth

Dalian International Conference Center, venue of the 2026 Summer Davos, in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, June 22, 2026. [Photo/Xinhua]

By Liu Chunsheng

The 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2026 is being convened in China's coastal city of Dalian. At the opening plenary session, Chinese Premier Li Qiang delivered a special address, outlining the significance of "China Opportunity 2.0" for the global community.

China's economy: A steady global stabilizer amid worldwide turmoil

The global macroeconomy is mired in conflicting headwinds: persistent inflation shocks, shrinking global demand, unstable market expectations and stagnant growth. By contrast, China's 2026 economy boasts solid momentum. With a 140-trillion-yuan (around $20.6 trillion) economic aggregate, it has weathered successive external shocks, posting a 5% Q1 GDP growth rate. As Premier Li highlighted in his address, China's economy is anchored by four key characteristics: stability, innovation, vitality and integration, standing as an irreplaceable bulwark for global expansion.

Stability derives from long-term policy frameworks and an ultra-large domestic consumer base. To China, consistency matters. China relies on consistent five-year blueprints to lock in long-range development. On the demand side, China's large middle-income group fuels consumption upgrading, while urbanization of rural migrants unlocks trillions in infrastructure, housing and medical market potential, sustaining steady orders for global exporters.

Innovation, vitality and integration power renewed internal growth drivers. New quality productive forces have achieved breakthroughs, with industrial clusters emerging in integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, AI and green energy, while forward-looking layouts cover quantum tech, 6G and brain-computer interfaces. China has widened its opening up: Zero tariffs apply to 63 countries, with imports rising 20.5% year-on-year in the first five months of this year. Foreign firms now shift from manufacturing in China to local research and development (R&D), deeply merging domestic and global industrial and innovation chains, turning integrated development into a permanent national strategy.

China's scaled innovation model unlocks global tech deadlock

The forum's core theme targets a universal innovation bottleneck: Despite rapid cutting-edge tech iteration, lab achievements rarely realize industrialization due to steep commercialization costs, insufficient application scenarios and broken cross-border collaboration, leaving most innovations confined to papers and prototypes. China has built a closed-loop innovation ecosystem spanning original research, scenario-based commercialization and industrial ecosystem cultivation, forming a replicable, scaled innovation model underpinned by three competitive strengths.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan, China's annual R&D outlay grew 10% on average, ranking second globally, with basic research funding exceeding 7%, a record high.

Furthermore, China's full industrial spectrum, paired with massive consumer scenarios, solves mass production and iteration delays. Vast domestic use cases dilute R&D costs, enabling new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, industrial robots and large language models to complete testing, popularization and upgrading rapidly. Real-time user feedback optimizes technologies, and mature low-cost solutions are exported globally to share innovation gains. As a result, China's industrial tech exports offer affordable modern tech solutions for developing countries.

Moreover, China's mature innovation ecosystem is accelerating breakthroughs at scale. The country has strengthened its computing networks, next-generation communications systems, and green energy infrastructure, enabling the more efficient flow of land, talent, and data. At the same time, it has built collaborative innovation networks that bring together state-owned enterprises, private firms, foreign investors, universities, and research institutes, creating a dynamic environment where ideas can quickly move from the lab to the market.

China's scaled innovation system, built on sustained investment, abundant scenarios and complete ecosystems, provides a universal solution: openness, integrated industry-academia-research collaboration and two-way industry-market linkages unlock innovation's economic value.

Transforming innovation consensus into global productivity via open collaboration

Today's global innovation landscape is deeply polarized: Cross-border tech ties grow tighter, yet geopolitical barriers, tech controls and trade restrictions inflate collaboration costs. No single nation can independently address climate governance, AI ethics or sluggish global growth. Scaled innovation is inherently borderless, while division wastes resources and curbs growth potential.

Smooth global industrial and supply chains form the hardware base for tangible innovation cooperation. China broadens market access, grants national treatment to foreign enterprises and fosters a market-driven, law-based, international business environment.

Multinationals leverage China's complete industrial chains to pilot and mass-produce new technologies, tapping domestic export channels to reach global consumers. Chinese firms, meanwhile, connect with foreign demand via international partnerships. Two-way linkages cut innovation costs and expand growth space, with forum matchmaking sessions translating academic consensus into joint R&D, cross-border investment and capacity cooperation projects, turning ideas into industrial productivity.

Improved global sci-tech governance and responsible tech deployment provide institutional safeguards for sustainable, scaled innovation. The forum facilitates consultations on digital trade rules, green tech standards and global AI governance, bridging national regulatory gaps to build an open, fair, non-discriminatory global innovation governance system and prevent tech bloc fragmentation from stifling scaled innovation.

Amid rising unilateralism and tech decoupling rhetoric, this year's Summer Davos delivers a clear message: Innovation transcends borders, and cooperation is the only path to global economic recovery. As Premier Li noted, while China previously shared "market dividends" worldwide via its huge market, today its industrial upgrading adds "innovation dividends," jointly forming "China Opportunity 2.0."

Liu Chunsheng, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an associate professor at the Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics.