A series of favorable opening-up policies outlined during the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference are rapidly translating into tangible market benefits, injecting strong momentum into China's efforts to attract foreign investment. The "new business opportunities" embedded in China's vast market scale, service sector development, innovation ecosystem, and open economic zones outline a new vision for the nation's high-quality economic development, serving as the core drivers attracting foreign capital to deepen its presence in China. Numerous foreign-invested enterprises have stated that against a backdrop of ongoing uncertainties in the international economic and trade environment, China's stable policy expectations and continuously expanding benefits of openness have strengthened their confidence in investing and establishing roots in the country.
To ensure these four major opportunities yield substantial returns, government departments are implementing a series of practical measures. The Ministry of Commerce has explicitly stated that this year, focusing on burnishing the "Invest in China" brand, it will launch three key initiatives: more "targeted" activities to enhance precision in connecting with foreign investors' interests in emerging sectors like future industries; "superior" services that transform corporate "demand lists" into "service lists"; and "improved" platforms by upgrading the capacity of open platforms such as pilot free trade zones and economic development zones. This policy warmth is quickly turning into market vitality, with multinational companies firmly established in China being the first to sense the change.
McDonald's China CEO Zhang Jiayin stated that thanks to the continuously optimized business environment, McDonald's China has nearly doubled its restaurant count over the past five years. The company plans to open over 1,000 new restaurants by 2026 and will continue increasing investments in digitalization and innovation, expressing strong confidence in its long-term development within the Chinese market.
The opening of the service sector has unlocked new growth space for foreign investment. By 2025, service consumption expenditure per capita accounted for 46.1% of total resident consumption in China and continues to rise. The government work report proposed focusing on the service sector to broaden market access and open more areas, further expanding pilot openings in value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals. Harald Schmidt, Global Production President of the German Bode Group, expressed anticipation for these developments, believing that the further opening of China's service sector will create new opportunities for companies in areas like industrial services and digital solutions, supporting the company's upgrade from a "manufacturing base" to a "regional headquarters plus R&D center plus service center."
The continuous optimization of the innovation ecosystem is attracting foreign investors to allocate more R&D resources to China. Song Weiqun, Global Executive Vice President of GE Healthcare, stated that China has become one of the core engines of global AI innovation. Over the past decade, the company has successfully launched over 170 locally developed innovative products into the Chinese market and will focus on clinical needs to enhance innovation in intelligent equipment and AI-driven healthcare ecosystems in the future.
Furthermore, open economic zones are providing higher-level platforms for foreign investment. Vincent Clerc, CEO of Maersk, indicated that leveraging the strategic position of the Shanghai Lingang New Area as an international logistics hub, increased investment in logistics infrastructure can further connect China with global markets. Data shows that recent surveys of multinational corporations by foreign institutions indicate that over 90% of respondent companies plan to continue investing in China, with nearly 70% of senior executives expressing confidence in their development prospects in China over the next three to five years.
Professional analysts point out that the "four new opportunities" proposed by China accurately align with global capital's search for predictable returns. Amid rising complexity and uncertainty in the external environment, China offers key considerations for long-term foreign investment through the demand-side certainty provided by its massive market, the supply-side certainty offered by its complete industrial system, and the institutional certainty delivered through continuously expanding openness. The investment logic of foreign capital in China is undergoing a profound qualitative shift, moving from simply utilizing low-cost factors for "in China, for China" to leveraging the innovation ecosystem and open highlands for "in China, for the world." This transformation not only aids China's industrial structure upgrading and high-quality economic development but also secures strategic initiative for multinational corporations in global competition, achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.