Global Times: Strategic moves to optimize competition order, circulation efficiency, unlock economic potential

BEIJING, Sept. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The market is the scarcest resource, and the super-sized domestic market is China's advantage. Making full use of this resource and building a unified national market is not only an urgent task, but also a strategic move.

A Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau meeting held on July 30, 2025, noted that it is essential to advance the building of a unified national market, and further optimize the order of market competition.

In the first half of 2025, China's GDP grew 5.3 percent year-on-year, with domestic demand contributing 68.8 percent to growth. Despite a challenging and complex external environment, the vast Chinese market has demonstrated strong resilience.

At the same time, problems such as disorderly price competition among some industries and companies, local governments vying with preferential policies, and industries blindly chasing short-term trends still persist, hindering the strengthening of the domestic economic cycle.

To remove bottlenecks and keep economic circulation smooth, it is essential to follow the principle of "establishing the right practices while abolishing the wrong ones."

What should be established and what should be abolished? How should this be done in theory and in practice? Addressing these questions is key to advancing the building of a unified national market, creating a new development pattern, and firmly taking the strategic initiative of development into China's own hands.

Rule upgrade 

Building a unified national market requires establishing "visible rules" while dismantling "hidden rules."

The construction of a unified national market focuses on institutional development as the main line, with both abolishing and establishing pursued simultaneously, and establishing the new before abolishing the old. Establishing "visible rules" and removing "hidden rules" means strengthening institutional development, ensuring that social operations are rule-based, providing clear guidance for individual behavior, and reducing phenomena such as speculation and loophole exploitation caused by ambiguous rules. This approach fundamentally ensures fairness and justice.

In Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, the nation's first nuclear power project with private capital participation - the San'ao Nuclear Power Plant - has reached key milestones. Unit 1 of the first phase has completed a "hot test" and is expected to be connected to the grid by year-end, while the second phase has officially broken ground, accelerating construction.

Compared with the 2 percent private-capital share in the first phase, the second phase has raised private participation to 10 percent. The lowered market access threshold has opened up new investment and business opportunities. 

Only by establishing sound rules can outdated practices be dismantled effectively. While market access has been gradually eased, institutional safeguards have been reinforced to steadily improve the "soft environment" for a unified market.

By adhering to institution-building as the main line, and advancing reforms through both establishing and dismantling, a more complete market system will steadily unleash reform dividends and expand room for growth.

Barrier break

Building a unified national market requires setting up "road signs" while removing "roadblocks."

The development of a unified national market must remain problem-oriented, pursuing precise reforms. Setting up "road signs" and removing "roadblocks" means coordinating planning, integrating resources, and aligning mechanisms to form an organic whole - top-down and bottom-up, cross-regional, and domestic-international linkages - so that all factors of production can connect smoothly and unleash development potential.

The second phase of the Suzhou-Taizhou Expressway opened to traffic on July 4, marking a sprint toward the completion of the entire line by the end of the year. The "missing links" in the Yangtze River Delta expressway network are about to be eliminated.

Transportation and logistics are the lifeblood of the national economic cycle, while factor markets form the very foundation of the entire market system.

Intensifying efforts to "break through" pain points and difficulties clear away obstacles, create conditions, and open pathways for new progress. By focusing on fairer and more orderly competition and deepening reforms in the market-based allocation of production factors, China can ensure smoother economic circulation.

By sticking to a problem-oriented approach and identifying the right direction and focus for what to establish and what to dismantle, China can improve circulation, unlock the potential of the national market, and ensure the "body" of the economy is vigorous and full of vitality.

Broader vision 

Building a unified national market requires a whole-of-nation approach and abandoning narrow-mindedness.

The construction of a unified national market must adhere to a systemic perspective and clearly distinguish priorities. Taking a whole-of-nation approach and decisively breaking the "narrow-minded" approach means breaking through the limitations of "a small plot of land" and using a broader vision, a longer-term outlook, and a more systematic approach to grasp the essence of things and the laws of development.

On June 26, at the Lusong Modern Industrial Park in Lu'an, East China's Anhui Province, Saphlux officially began production of its R-series chip line. The products are not unusual, but the mechanism is: after production began, Lu'an in Anhui and Songjiang in Shanghai agreed to "separate statistics and share fiscal and tax revenues."

In November 2024, the two local governments signed the Lusong Modern Industrial Park Benefit-Sharing Agreement, creating models such as "Shanghai headquarters + Lu'an base" and "Shanghai R&D + Lu'an manufacturing." Shifting from "giving a helping hand" to "winning together," Shanghai-Anhui cooperation has become a testing ground for cross-regional industrial transfer.

By finding the right position and leveraging comparative advantages, regions can shift from passive "breaking" to active "establishing." Breaking free from a small patch of land and joining the unified national market is the way to avoid creating closed mini-markets.

By adhering to systemic thinking, balancing the local and the national in both establishing and abolishing, and fostering fertile ground for mutual benefit, China will promote the efficient allocation of resources and advance its market from being merely large to becoming truly strong.

SOURCE Global Times