China Media Group unveils top 10 domestic economic, business news for 2025

China

China Media Group unveils top 10 domestic economic, business news for 2025

2025-12-25 16:22 Last Updated At：12-26 00:17

China Media Group unveiled its selection of the country's Top 10 economic and business news events in 2025 on Thursday, ranging from important policy making to consumption stimulation to stock market performance.

The Top 10 domestic economic and business events for 2025 are as follows.

1. The fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) deliberated over and adopted the Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development.

The 20th Central Committee of the CPC convened its fourth plenary session in Beijing from Oct 20 to 23.

2. China's GDP is expected to hit 140 trillion yuan (about 20 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025.

China has made significant progress in enhancing its composite national strength, especially in economic and technological development during its 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

3. Innovation takes lead in advancing Chinese modernization.

China's humanoid robot industry achieved rapid development in 2025, and the country's research and development and applications in multiple industries advanced to the global forefront.

Chinese startup DeepSeek released its open-source model, DeepSeek-R1, on Jan 20, making a hit in the artificial intelligence (AI) community.

4. China launches island-wide special customs operations in Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) on Dec 18, allowing freer entry of overseas goods, expanded zero-tariff coverage, and more business-friendly measures.

The move is widely seen as a landmark step in China's ongoing efforts to promote free trade and expand high-standard opening-up amid rising protectionism worldwide.

5. New business forms, models, and scenarios have become a new momentum for stimulating China's domestic demand.

The trend is highlighted by expanded consumer goods trade-in programs and the sports event economy.

6. Efforts were made in 2025 to address the rat race competition in multiple sectors, including the automotive, photovoltaic, and steel industries.

Meanwhile, red lines were set for price competition among platforms, and a slew of policies were rolled out to promote high-quality industry development and advance the construction of a unified national market.

7. China rolled out a series of policies to increase input in people to enhance social welfare and living standards in 2025.

Efforts were made to make preschool education free in a phased manner, and childcare subsidies and benefits for elderly care services were delivered directly to individuals.

8. China's film industry posted robust growth in 2025.

The country's annual box office exceeded 50 billion yuan (about 7.14 billion U.S. dollars) as of mid-December, with "Ne Zha 2" becoming the world's highest-grossing animated feature ever.

9. In 2025, institutional improvements increased Chinese assets' attraction to investors.

The A-share market surged past the 100 trillion-yuan (about 14.2 trillion U.S. dollars ) milestone, and Hong Kong ranked as the world's top IPO venue in 2025.

As of Dec. 19, HKEX IPOs raised a total of 274.6 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 35.29 billion U.S. dollars) from 106 new listings, with four companies in the world's top 10 IPOs of 2025.

10. China's electricity consumption is expected to reach a record high in 2025, with total power use projected to surpass 10 trillion kilowatt-hours nationwide.

The country's renewable energy installed capacity now accounts for approximately 60 percent of the total.

Japanese civil groups urge gov't to ban arms exports

Representatives of 12 Japanese civil groups held a rally in Tokyo on Thursday, urging the government to ban all arms exports.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters and the National Diet building, where they submitted a formal petition. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, agreed at a meeting on Monday to revise the implementation guidelines of the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology and lift restrictions that limit defense equipment transfers to five noncombat purposes. And they planned to submit the proposal to the cabinet in February next year.

The ruling coalition's plan to significantly relax restrictions on weapons exports has been met with strong opposition from domestic civil groups, as they warn that the move would put Japan on a dangerous path.

The demonstrators urged the government to strictly uphold Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution, which renounces the nation's right to engage in war or to resort to military force to resolve international conflicts.

"The Constitution clearly renounces war as a sovereign right and stipulates that Japan shall not possess land, sea, and air forces. However, despite the Constitution's existence as the cardinal law, they constantly adopt laws that hollow out and weaken the Constitution's spirit. And Japanese companies keep manufacturing and exporting weapons to make profits, which worries me tremendously. I keenly feel that Japan is already at a dangerous edge," said Yoko Sugiura, editor-in-chief of magazine Consumers Union of Japan.

"During the Diet debates, it was the Liberal Democratic Party that formulated the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, a system specifically embodying the ideals of Article 9 of the Constitution. The Japan Innovation Party's claim that Article 9 has nothing to do with arms exports ban and embargo is erroneous both factually and conceptually. And the issue is a very serious," said Koji Sugihara, a representative of the Network Against Japan Arms Trade, a local citizens' group.

"In the spirit of Article 9 of the Constitution, arms exports must be stopped, and the policy of prohibiting weapons must be restored. Given this clear shift to militarization, we fear that if it this goes on, there is no way to guarantee the safety of our lives. So we will continue to appeal to society to collectively ponder on how to stop this trend," said Misaki Nishimura, a representative of the Japan Peace Committee.