BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday released its first five-year plan dedicated exclusively to expanding consumption, marking a significant upgrade in the top-level design for buoying domestic consumption.
With consumption having grown into the primary engine of China's economic growth, the plan is set to reinforce this momentum by unlocking the full potential of the country's super-large market, optimizing the consumption structure, and improving people's livelihoods via targeted measures.
These efforts, while domestic in nature, also carry profound implications beyond China's borders, potentially reshaping global trade patterns and creating new opportunities for international businesses, analysts said.
STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE
The dedicated five-year plan (2026-2030) set a goal of raising total retail sales of consumer goods to around 60 trillion yuan (roughly 8.8 trillion U.S. dollars) by 2030 and further strengthening consumption's role in driving economic growth.
The target comes after China's retail sales of consumer goods crossed the 50-trillion-yuan mark for the first time in 2025, underlining the increasing importance of consumption in supporting the growth of the world's second-largest economy.
Consumption expansion used to be provisions attached to the national five-year plans, serving as supporting or phased arrangements, noted Fu Yifu, a researcher at Jiangsu Su Merchants Bank.
"This is the first time the country has formulated a special five-year plan solely for expanding consumption, marking a breakthrough in the country's top-level design," Fu said.
Under China's five-year plan framework, dedicated plans are the operational tools that convert macroeconomic blueprints into measurable, sector-specific action plans.
"The dedicated plans translate the macroeconomic blueprint of the 15th Five-Year Plan into specific indicators and task lists," explained Xiao Hongwei, a researcher at the State Information Center under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.
"With the rollout of these dedicated plans, China's 15th Five-Year Plan is entering the stage of 'full-scale construction,'" Xiao said.
While consumption already contributed 52 percent to China's GDP growth in 2025, the potential of its domestic demand has yet to be fully unleashed, analysts said.
Liu Rihong, an official with the Research Office of the State Council, said that expanding consumption not only builds resilience against external shocks but also transforms the nation's market advantages into better lives for its people.
A distinctive feature of the plan is its emphasis on boosting consumption that improves people's welfare, with targeted support for elderly care, childcare, culture and tourism, and health services -- aiming to raise quality of life through high-quality supply, enhanced platforms and stronger support mechanisms, according to NDRC officials.
VIABLE PATH
Huang Yiping, dean of Peking University's National School of Development, noted a gap between China's strong manufacturing sector and its still-maturing domestic consumption. This imbalance stems from several structural hurdles, including high household saving rates and local governments' preference for soliciting investment and building infrastructure over boosting consumption.
The consumption-focused plan outlines 28 key tasks across six crucial areas, including upgrading service consumption and boosting spending power, to tackle these hurdles on multiple fronts.
To improve consumption capability, it calls for stabilizing employment, raising minimum wages and increasing property income via various channels.
To reassure consumers and lower precautionary savings, the plan emphasizes improving the social security system and boosting public spending on education, healthcare and elderly care to reduce household burdens.
The document also pledges to optimize the overall consumer environment and remove unreasonable restrictions that have long suppressed spending.
Service consumption features prominently in this roadmap. The plan calls for steadily raising the share of per capita service consumption expenditure, with targeted support for elderly care, childcare, culture and tourism, health and sports services.
China has recently seen several bright spots in service consumption, including its booming tourism sector that is attracting more youngsters and overseas visitors. In 2025, China's tourism economy grew by 9.9 percent, more than double the global average.
Wanning, a coastal city in the tropical Hainan Province in south China, offers a glimpse into China's changing tourism landscape. Popular activities there have evolved from surfing to a diverse offering including hybrid fitness, paddleboarding, river tracing and biking, winning over fitness-conscious youngsters who used to travel to Southeast Asia for "sports vacations."
In the first half of 2026, Wanning received 6.34 million tourist visits, 70 percent of them young people, and 70 percent participated in sports tourism, official data showed. Notably, this enthusiasm is translating into real spending, with the city's total tourism revenue having reached 9.23 billion yuan in 2025, up 12.1 percent year on year.
GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS
Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development, estimates that if China's final consumption share of global consumption were to match its share of global manufacturing value-added by 2035, it would add no less than 10 trillion dollars to the global consumer market.
Zou Jiayi, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said that by boosting domestic demand during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China can achieve a more sustainable trade model and stronger import-export dynamics.
"Through technological development, capital goods exports and overseas investment, China can also assist developing economies and provide public goods to the region and the world," she said.
Foreign visitors are already reaping the benefits of China's consumption push, well before its macro-level effects fully unfold. The plan explicitly calls for optimizing the inbound consumption environment, steadily expanding the visa-free country list, adding more international flight routes, facilitating departure tax refund procedures and promoting "Shopping in China."
In Sanya, another tourist city in Hainan, the push for increased inbound consumption is evident. Russian-language signs are common and can be found in restaurants, supermarkets, hotels and even traditional Chinese medicine clinics, making the city a welcoming destination for Russian visitors.
Anastasia and Julia, sisters visiting from St. Petersburg, were drawn to Sanya's vibrant shopping scene. "The malls and shopping centers here are very large and lively," Anastasia said, while picking up souvenirs and small trinkets. "In Russia we also have sweets, but the things here are more colorful and look more interesting."
"The visa-free policy makes it so much easier for Russians to come and see how beautiful and interesting this country is," she added. "We also want to visit Shanghai and other Chinese cities in the future." ■
