China honors 50 foreign experts with friendship award

China on Tuesday honored 50 foreign experts with the 2025 Chinese Government Friendship Award for their outstanding contributions to the country's development.

State Councilor Shen Yiqin extended congratulations to the experts at a ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

She said that together with the Chinese people, foreign experts have made outstanding contributions to China's modernization drive, and to fostering friendly exchange and cooperation between China and other countries, which the Chinese people will always remember.

China is confident in and capable of achieving long-term, stable development, thereby bringing new momentum and opportunities to the world, Shen said.

China will steadfastly promote high-level opening-up, actively advance innovation cooperation, deepen its reform of talent-development systems, and attract more high-caliber overseas talent to work, innovate and start up businesses in the country, according to the state councilor.

China's outstanding aggregate social financing -- the total amount of financing to the real economy -- reached 442.12 trillion yuan (about 63.4 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2025, up 8.3 percent year on year, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The country's aggregate social financing stood at 35.6 trillion yuan (about 5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up by 3.34 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) from the year 2024, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.

According to the data, the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.5 percent year on year to 340.29 trillion yuan (about 48.8 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December.

In addition, outstanding yuan loans stood at 271.91 trillion yuan (about 39 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2025, up 6.4 percent year on year.