China's cultural industry maintained steady growth in 2025, demonstrating continued vitality as consumers were drawn towards purchases they perceive as meaningful, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday.
This broad category of economic activity includes entertainment, cultural services, and traditional products, as well as products related to intellectual properties.
The combined operating revenue of major cultural companies amounted to nearly 15.21 trillion yuan (about 2.18 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 7.4 percent year-on-year.
Services led the industry's momentum in the year, with revenue surging 12 percent to 8.58 trillion yuan and cultural services firms contributing 88.3 percent to the total revenue growth of major cultural enterprises.
Cultural manufacturing revenue edged up 0.6 percent year on year to nearly 4.11 trillion yuan, while wholesale and retail grew 4 percent to 2.53 trillion yuan.
Sectors featuring new forms of business, such as digital publishing and online advertising, saw revenues increase by 14.3 percent to nearly 6.83 trillion yuan, 6.9 percentage points faster than the overall pace.
These NBS data are based on a survey of cultural companies with annual revenue of 20 million yuan or more, as well as those that meet other NBS-defined criteria.
China's cultural sector revenue grows 7.4 pct in 2025, showing strong resilience
A group of people with vision in Japan gathered on Thursday to urge Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to retract her erroneous remarks, stressing that the Taiwan question is China's internal affair.
Participants at the rally, organized by the Association for Inheriting and Propagating Murayama Statement, said Takaichi's remarks on Taiwan had seriously deviated from Japan's postwar commitment to the path of peace.
"Japan has performed its responsibilities for its past war of aggression and colonial rule in an extremely inadequate manner. Under such circumstances, it would be absolutely unforgivable if Japan were to wage war against China. I believe we must rely on the power of Japan's democracy to force Prime Minister Takaichi to retract her remarks on the so-called 'survival-threatening situation,'" said Takakage Fujita, head of the association.
Participants also warned that Takaichi's erroneous remarks violate basic norms of international relations and run counter to the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan.
"The Taiwan question is China's internal affair, and our longstanding principle is not to interfere in internal matters of other countries. This completely contradicts the purpose of the Japan-China Joint Statement. Yet she made remarks to the contrary, seriously damaging Japan-China relations. Can such a prime minister really be allowed to remain in office?" said Yukio Hatoyama, former Japanese Prime Minister.
"This is a complete betrayal of the promises Japan made when diplomatic relations were normalized in 1972. Prime Minister Takaichi's remarks are extremely irresponsible," said a participant.
Japanese people rally to demand PM Takaichi retract erroneous remarks
Japanese people rally to demand PM Takaichi retract erroneous remarks
