On 23 March 2026, Ambassador Xiao Qian published an article entitled “Embracing China Means Seizing Opportunity and Investing in China Means Winning the Future” in Australia’s Investor Strategy News, emphasizing that China’s Two Sessions 2026 marked the successful conclusion of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and the launch of the 15th Five-Year Plan, which served as an important window for the world to understand China’s economy. In the future, the resilience of China’s economy will continue to be demonstrated, high-quality development will be steadily advanced, the Chinese market is emerging rapidly as the world’s largest consumer market, and high-level opening-up will continue to expand. The potential for Australia to invest in China will be greater, the fields will be broader, the momentum will be stronger, and the environment will be more favourable.

The full text is as follows and can be accessed via https://ioandc.com/chinese-ambassador-calls-for-more-investment-from-australia/.

The annual sessions of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) concluded successfully in recent days. The Two Sessions 2026 marked the successful conclusion of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and the launch of the 15th Five-Year Plan, which served as an important window for the world to understand China’s economic achievements and future direction, drawing much attention from the international community amidst growing global turbulence. In a recent interview with “60 Minutes” on the Nine Network, I briefly introduced the key takeaways from the Two Sessions and the 15th Five-Year Plan. Here, I would like to further share my personal observations and thoughts in this regard so that we can better understand China’s economy and explore development opportunities together with the Australian people.

First, the resilience of the Chinese economy is evident, and China’s potential as a destination for foreign investment continues to grow. Over the past five years, China has overcome challenges including the once-in-a-century Covid-19 pandemic, rising geopolitical risks, and severe shocks to multilateralism and free trade, and accomplished the development goals set in the 14th Five-Year Plan. China’s GDP has reached 140 trillion yuan, growing at an average annual rate of 5.4%. Moving forward, China’s economic growth drivers remain robust. China has set a 2026 growth target of 4.5% to 5% and proposed to keep GDP growth within an appropriate range over the next five years, guiding all efforts to better focus on high-quality development. This will lay a solid foundation for achieving the goal of doubling China’s 2020 per capita GDP by 2035 to reach the level of a moderately developed country. Regardless of external uncertainties, China will remain the most stable, reliable, and positive force in a turbulent world and offer Australian investors a stable, sustainable, and predictable growth prospect.

Second, China is driving industrial transformation through high-quality development and continuously expanding the fields for foreign investment. According to the 15th Five-Year Plan, China will pursue high-quality development as a major strategic task, with a focus on building a modern industrial system. China will move faster to achieve greater strength in science and technology, drive advances in original innovation and breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields, foster emerging pillar industries such as integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, and the low-altitude economy, and nurture industries of the future, such as next-generation energy, quantum technology, embodied artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G. China will also accelerate the comprehensive green transition and vigorously develop a green, low-carbon economy. Facts have proven that containment and suppression cannot halt China’s progress, nor can “small-yard, high-fence” restrictions stifle China’s technological advancement. China has already achieved or is taking a leading position in areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, aerospace and etc. China has passed the most challenging phase of industrial transformation, and the future holds even brighter prospects. Attempts to  decouple from China or sever the supply chain with China may seem to exclude China, but in reality, they cut off the very foundations of their own development and progress, and will ultimately be discarded by the trend of the times. China welcomes Australia to ride on the fast train of Chinese manufacturing, benefit from China’s cutting-edge technological achievements, strengthen cooperation with China in scientific research and innovation, and work together with China to advance the green energy transition, enhance the quality and efficiency of productivity, and seize the initiative for future development.

Third, the Chinese market is emerging as the world’s largest consumer market, which increases its appeal for foreign investment. China is already the world’s largest physical consumer market. Under the 15th Five-Year Plan, China will better leverage its strengths of enormous market, further develop a robust, unified domestic market, strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition measures, enhance fair competition reviews, deepen efforts to curb rat-race competition, and foster a more favourable market ecosystem. At the same time, China will move faster to advance common prosperity for all, boost residents’ consumption capacity, expand high-quality supply to meet the diverse consumption needs of different groups, unleash the potential of service consumption, and promote high-quality development of diverse, convenient lifestyle services. China’s middle-income population is expected to exceed 800 million, with increasingly strong demand for high-quality consumption. This will provide a broader, fairer, and more efficient consumer and investment market for Australian specialty products such as lobster, beef, and health supplements, as well as high-quality services in areas like higher education, healthcare, and elderly care.

Fourth, China continues to expand high-standard opening-up and improve the environment for foreign investment. According to the 15th Five-Year Plan, over the next five years, China will align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, build an institutional and administrative system that harmonizes with them, and steadily expand institutional opening-up. Market access and opening-up will be expanded, with a focus on the services sector. Pilot opening-up programs in areas such as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals will be expanded. China will deepen reforms in the foreign investment promotion system, ensure the national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises, and intensify efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment. China’s high-standard socialist market economy system will become more sophisticated, its foreign investment access mechanisms more mature, its legal framework governing market activities more robust, and its business environment fairer, thus making it a promising investment destination for Australia and the rest of the world.

The 15th Five-Year Plan is a new blueprint for China’s development and a new vision for win-win cooperation between China and the world. Embracing China means seizing opportunity, and investing in China means winning the future. The Chinese and Australian economies are highly complementary, our development philosophies are aligned,  and our cooperation holds immense potential. China stands ready to better align development strategies with Australia, optimise and elevate bilateral cooperation in traditional fields, explore new growth points in emerging sectors, actively plan for industries of the future, and support Australia’s productivity enhancement efforts through high-quality development. China welcomes more Australian businesses and individuals to invest and establish ventures in China, to seek success in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and share in the dividends of Chinese modernization .