China will step up efforts to stimulate domestic consumption, cultivate new growth drivers in foreign trade and further expand high-level opening up in 2026, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in a recent interview with China Media Group.
Wang said retail sales of consumer goods rose 4.0 percent year on year in the first 11 months of 2025, and full-year sales were expected to surpass 50 trillion yuan (7.17 trillion U.S. dollars) for the first time.
During the period, service retail grew faster than goods retail by 1.3 percentage points, reflecting strong vitality and potential.
If measured by consumption volume, China has become the world's largest market in many sectors and products, Wang said.
In 2026, China will focus on transport, household services, performances and sporting events to foster new areas of service consumption, while upgrading distribution facilities, expanding consumption scenarios, and tapping into the consumer base in smaller cities and rural areas, said Wang, adding that policies to encourage replacement of old consumer goods will be refined.
"China will step up support for consumption of green and smart products. Subsidies for new purchases will also cover smart watches, wristbands and smart glasses. The concept of 'new' in trade-in programs refers not only to new goods, but also to creating broader markets for new products and technologies through policy support, fostering new industries and growth areas. We will also actively support offline retail, build diversified consumption scenarios, and promote balanced development between online and offline channels," said Wang.
On trade, Wang said China's goods imports and exports surpassed 45 trillion yuan (about 6.45 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, a record which kept China as the world's largest trading nation for a ninth consecutive year.
This year, China will push forward goods, services and digital trade in a coordinated way, continue to diversify markets, promote more balanced growth in trade, and expand service exports, Wang said.
"We will refine the negative list-based management system for cross-border trade, broaden market access for trade in services in an orderly manner, and introduce a series of substantive measures to accelerate the export of producer services. Leveraging strengths in artificial intelligence, the digital economy and biomedicine, we will expand exports of services such as research and development, design, consulting, testing and maintenance, to foster new growth drivers in foreign trade," said Wang.
The minister also said that this year China will expand its opening-up, promote the overseas distribution of industrial and supply chains in a rational, orderly manner, and actively participate in development of global economic governance system.
"We will expanded voluntary opening up in a well-ordered way in sectors such as value-added telecommunications services, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, promote Belt and Road economic cooperation, and encourage cooperation on green development, digital economy, green minerals, as well as new infrastructure and new energy. We will play an active role in APEC economic cooperation and get fully involved in the reform of the World Trade Organization. We will also negotiate and seek to sign trade and investment agreements with more willing countries and regions in a flexible and pragmatic manner," the minister said.
China's commerce minister outlines plans to boost consumption, trade in 2026
