Chinese premier calls for high-quality development of services trade

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday stressed the need to advance high-quality development of trade in services, to provide strong support for building China into a leading trading nation and establishing a new, higher-standard open economic system.

Li made the remarks while presiding over a study session held by the State Council.

As external conditions shift and domestic industrial restructuring deepens, innovation in trade in services must be given greater priority, Li said.

China should proactively import more high-quality services, use high-standard opening-up to upgrade its domestic service industries, and accelerate institutional opening-up in trade in services, he stressed.

Efforts are to be made to foster a favorable environment for service imports, improve cross-border capital management, and promote the orderly flow of cross-border data, Li said. The country will work to strengthen the international competitiveness of service exports and encourage manufacturers to better integrate services exports with goods exports in order to enhance the comprehensive added value, he noted.

Active steps should be taken to advance service exports in emerging fields and accelerate the cultivation and development of new business forms and models such as digital service trade, Li stressed.

The premier said China will further tap into the potential of services exports in sectors with distinctive features and develop a batch of high-quality brands tailored to meet overseas demand.

China will further leverage the effect of visa-free policies to attract more foreign visitors for travel and consumption and drive the global reach of high-quality Chinese services, Li noted.

Chinese premier calls for high-quality development of services trade

Chinese premier calls for high-quality development of services trade

Over 80,000 foreign travelers have entered south China's Hainan Province visa-free since the launch of the island-wide special customs operations in the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP), an increase of 64 percent year on year, according to official data.

Since the special customs operations began on Dec 18, 2025, ports across the province have maintained stable operation, with the number of foreign travelers continuously growing.

Data from the Haikou General Station of Immigration Inspection showed that from Dec 18, 2025 to Friday, ports across Hainan inspected 180,000 foreign nationals entering and exiting the country, an increase of 46.5 percent year on year, accounting for 58.6 percent of the total number of inbound and outbound travelers during the same period.

A total of 80,000 foreign travelers entered under visa-free policies, accounting for 94.2 percent of the total number of foreign tourists entering the country during the period.

Most of the foreign travelers came to China for tourism, who were mainly from Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan, and Singapore.

Hainan sees sharp increase in foreign travelers entering visa-free