The Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport -- a pivotal airport in central China's Henan Province -- saw its cargo throughput surge to 800,000 tons in 2024, a record high since the airport was opened in 1997 following reconstruction on the basis of the Zhengzhou Dongjiao Airport.
Leveraging the Zhengzhou-Luxembourg "Air Silk Road" project, Zhengzhou is actively building itself into an international aviation hub. Currently, the Xinzheng International Airport has made great improvements in network coverage, service guarantee, and transfer efficiency.
Presently, 29 cargo airlines are operated in Zhengzhou, running a total of 57 cargo routes. Those air routes have formed a hub network across the three major economies of Europe, America and Asia, covering major economies in the world. As of Dec 20, the cargo volume of Luxembourg cargo flights handled in Zhengzhou this year reached 136,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 38.8 percent.
"We will keep enhancing our hard power of cargo guarantee and our soft power of operation service, and will continue to strengthen cooperation with freight forwarders, cross-border e-commerce platforms and other enterprises. We will also improve the efficiency of cargo collection and distribution through air-to-air transfer and combined transport of air and high-speed railway," said Zhang Mingchao, Party secretary of Zhongyu Aviation Group, an airline in Zhengzhou.
Pivotal airport in central China sees cargo throughput surge to record high
China posted steady economic growth in 2025 driven by fast-growing innovation strength and progress in green transition, according to a communique released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.
Primary calculation indicated that China's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 increased by five percent year on year to reach a record of 140.1879 trillion yuan (about 20.44 trillion U.S. dollars), hitting the annual target, said the communique.
In breakdown, the value added of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries grew by 3.9 percent, 4.5 percent and 5.4 percent year on year, respectively.
Overall labor productivity stood at 184,413 yuan per capita, marking an increase of 6.1 percent over the previous year.
The country's new quality productive forces grew steadily in 2025, with the value added of high-tech manufacturing above designated size increasing by 9.4 percent year on year.
Specifically, the output of high-tech products such as service robots, memory chips and 3D printing equipment grew by 16.1 percent, 22.8 percent and 52.5 percent, respectively.
The country also made notable progress in the green and low-carbon transition, according to the communique.
Preliminary calculations showed that China's carbon dioxide emissions per 10,000 yuan of GDP decreased by 5.0 percent year on year in 2025.
The power generation from clean energy sources such as hydropower, nuclear power, wind power and solar power reached 4.2481 trillion kilowatt-hours, up 14.4 percent from the previous year.
China's overall employment remained stable in 2025, according to the communique. The average surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2 percent, lower than the target of around 5.5 percent, and 12.67 million new urban jobs were created.
Innovation, green transition highlights China's economic growth in 2025
