On 4 March, Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Cui Aimin attended the Webinar with the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China and delivered remarks. The excerpts is as follows:
It gives me great pleasure to participate in the webinar with members of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China (SwedCham China) again in almost a year and exchange views with you. First, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Sweden, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to SwedCham China and friends of the business community for your efforts to strengthen China-Sweden economic and trade relations.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of China-Sweden diplomatic relations. Over the past 75 years, the world has undergone profound changes, but China-Sweden economic and trade cooperation has never been bogged down, and China-Sweden exchanges and mutual learning have never been interrupted. Some Swedish entrepreneurs even took part in and witnessed China’s economic take-off, and made positive contribution to promoting China’s industrial modernization. We look forward to joining hands with our friends here to carry forward the baton of history, and write a new chapter of China-Sweden relations featuring higher-quality practical cooperation. Today, I would like to share some basic facts about China’s economic and technological development since last year and my expectations for China-Sweden economic and trade cooperation.
First, the continued upward trajectory of China’s economy was maintained.
In 2024, China’s economy was generally stable and continued to gain momentum. High-quality development made solid progress. The “troika” of consumption, investment and exports drove China’s economy in a coordinated way and the continued upward trajectory of China’s economy was maintained. China’s full-year GDP growth reached 5% in 2024, contributed around 30 percent to global economic growth, and remains the largest engine of the world economy. Firstly, consumption market steadily built up positive momentum. In 2024, China’s total retail sales of consumer goods grew by 3.5% over the previous year. The consumer goods trade-in program drove the growth of market sales, services retail sales maintained relatively rapid growth, and transportation services retail sales achieved double-digit growth. The package of real estate policy measures took effect. Housing prices showed initial signs of stabilization, and market expectations continued to improve. Secondly, China’s foreign trade achieved a simultaneous increase in total volume, increment and quality. The foreign trade volume has crossed the 42 and 43 trillion benchmark in succession and the increase is 1.5 times the increase in the 13th Five-Year Plan period. More and more high-quality goods were exported. China’s trade in services exceeded 1 trillion USD for the first time. Thirdly, the quality of foreign investment attracted to China continued to improve. In 2024, actually utilized foreign investment reached 826.2 billion RMB yuan. Nearly 60,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established, up by 9.9% year-on-year. The actual use of foreign capital in high-tech manufacturing accounted for 11.7% of the total. Fourthly, overseas investment and cooperation achieved steady development. In 2024, China’s industry-wide outbound direct investment reached 162.8 billion US dollars, up by 10% year-on year. According to a recent report by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, over 80 percent of the surveyed Chinese companies plan to expand or maintain their investment abroad, and over 90 percent are optimistic about the prospects of overseas investment.
Institutions such as the World Bank and JP Morgan are optimistic about China’s development prospects, and revised up their expectations for China’s GDP growth. Recently, several institutions released reports indicating that foreign investors’ confidence in investing in China is being enhanced. The Kearney FDI Confidence Index upgraded China’s ranking from the seventh in 2023 to the third in 2024. Reports by the German Chamber of Commerce in China and the British Chamber of Commerce in China show that more than half of the German companies surveyed intend to increase their investment in China in the next two years, and 76 percent of British companies plan to maintain or expand their investment in China.
Second, the development of new quality productive forces achieved positive results.
In 2024, China’s overall scientific and technological strength has been improved substantially. China’s ranking in Global Innovation Index rose to the 11th. China’s total input in research and development exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, the second largest globally. China ranked first in the world in terms of the number of researchers and published papers. It also has the largest number of top 10% most-cited papers. Breakthroughs were made in basic frontier fields. A stream of innovative outcomes with global influence were achieved in cutting-edge areas, including quantum information, stem cells, brain science, and neuromorphic chips. China’s technology-based enterprises were growing rapidly. Enterprises’ R&D investment accounted for over 75% of the total R&D investment for many consecutive years. More than 570 Chinese industrial enterprises were shortlisted for the world’s top 2,400 companies with the highest R&D investment, accounting for nearly one quarter of the world’s total. Beijing, Shanghai, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Nanjing are among the world’s top 10 science and technology innovation clusters.
Scientific and technological innovation continued to generate new industries, new models and new momentum. In the past 10 years, the added value of China’s high-tech manufacturing industries over the designated size increased by an average of 10.3% per year, and the added value of new industries, new business formats and new business models accounted for nearly 20% of China’s GDP. Technologies for high-performance equipment, intelligent robots, additive manufacturing, and laser manufacturing have contributed to major upgrades to “Made-in-China” products. Green industries represented by the “new trios”, namely new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, maintained double-digit growth. China is a world leader in clean and efficient use of coal, new nuclear power, and ultra-high-voltage power transmission. It boasts the largest installed capacity and energy storage capacity of photovoltaic and wind power, and is the world’s largest hydrogen producer.
Third, China-Sweden economic and trade cooperation enjoyed stable growth but encountered some challenges.
Our economic and trade cooperation enjoyed stable growth thanks to the joint efforts from our two sides. In 2024, our bilateral trade increased slightly, and two-way investment was kept stable while gaining momentum. Sweden invested 410 million US dollars in China, becoming the fourth largest source of investment for China in the EU. China invested 1.36 billion US dollars in Sweden, a sharp rise of 70 percent, making Sweden the third largest destination for Chinese investment in the EU. Some areas of cooperation showed new highlights. Hainan Mining, a China-based company, successfully acquired Sweden’s Tethys Oil AB and will carry out oil extraction operations in Oman, representing a new model of bilateral cooperation. The breakthrough of the main tunnel part of the Stockholm Metro Blue Line Extension Project undertaken by CRTG Engineering (Sweden) AB was successfully completed. It is the first main tunnel of this project to have completed the breakthrough. The number of Swedish enterprises participating in the China International Import Expo reached a new high, and the value of intended deals exceeded 1.5 billion US dollars.
In the meantime, we are also soberly aware that China-Sweden economic and trade cooperation is facing some serious challenges. First, rising unilateralism and trade protectionism is disrupting the international trade order. Since the new U.S. administration took office, it has repeatedly wielded the “big stick of tariffs”, unilaterally and wantonly imposing or threatening to impose additional tariffs on its trading partners, which may trigger global trade conflicts, aggravate trade and investment uncertainties, and impact the global trading system. The EU has significantly increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, casting a shadow over the cooperation between China and the EU, including Sweden, in relevant industries. Second, the “de-risking” rhetoric has caused some trouble for the business community to deepen cooperation. In 2024, the Swedish government listed China as one of the countries posing a threat to Sweden in a number of publicly released reports, which undermined the