Stories of High-Quality Development | Making thorough efforts to build a unified national market

Building a unified national market serves as both a foundational pillar and an intrinsic requirement for building a new development paradigm. It is also a strategic move that bears on the overall and long-term development of the nation.

In today's world, the market has become the most scarce resource. As the world's second-largest consumer market, China has a population of over 1.4 billion and more than 190 million business entities. A market of such vast scale and immense growth potential constitutes a major strength of China's development and a solid pillar for navigating an evolving global landscape. This provides strong support for resource aggregation, innovation incentives, industrial upgrading and economic growth.

"Advancing the building of a unified national market is both a critical task and a long-term endeavor," said Li Yuju, deputy director of the Research Center on Xi Jinping's Economic Thought, when hosting People's Daily's "Stories of High-Quality Development." He said that it is necessary to adhere to a problem-oriented approach, establishing institutions and rules that facilitate the development of a unified national market, while removing obstacles and constraints.

'Removing barriers and obstacles' to strengthen domestic circulation

State Grid and China Southern Power Grid have long-established, relatively complete power markets within their respective operating regions. Although the hard infrastructure connecting the two grids has long been in place, the soft mechanisms for cross-grid trading still need to catch up. Coordination between the two major power grids has been mainly carried out on a line-by-line or case-by-case basis, requiring a new set of rules for each province involved.

In July 2025, a plan for a regularized power trading mechanism across power grid operating regions was officially approved, breaking down the invisible wall between the two grids. With the regularized power trading mechanism in place, during the past summer, more than 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were continuously transmitted from Yunnan, Guangxi, and other regions to Shanghai, as well as to Zhejiang, Anhui, and other regions facing shortages. This is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 800,000 households.

"Removing market barriers and smoothing economic circulation are intrinsic requirements for building a unified national market," Li said. China is moving from "removing barriers and obstacles" to "improving rules," as hidden barriers often lurk within institutional rules, local policies and market practices. The country must focus on key and difficult issues and resolve to eradicate deep-seated problems.

Breaking involution to transform China's big market into a strong market

Seven out of every 10 stems of fresh-cut flowers sold across China are from Yunnan Province.

"Now, my A-grade flowers are all pre-sold," said Gao Chuanfu, who came from Hubei to Yunnan to set up a flower stall. At first, he relied entirely on experience, with sales relying solely on his persuasive abilities. Today, however, high-quality flowers are defined by standards and consistently sell well throughout the year without worry.

At Dounan Flower Market, standards have become the "fair scale" and "passport" of the market. Promoting the industry's upgrade through standardization has become the golden key for Yunnan's flower industry to break free from involution-style competition — characterized by low prices and low quality — and expand into the national market.

"Comprehensively addressing involution-style competition is an essential requirement for strengthening domestic economic circulation and building a unified national market," said Li. He added that China must leverage the supporting role of quality and standards, making the promotion of industrial optimization, transformation and upgrading a key means of breaking industry involution and moving toward the mid- to high-end of the value chain.

Expanding opening-up by leveraging domestic and international markets and resources

Cosela is a drug that greatly alleviates the toxic side effects of chemotherapy on bone marrow. Under the pilot policies of Hainan's "medical special zone," it took this life-saving drug just 17 months to go from its U.S. launch to approval in the Chinese market, while a normal process takes three to five years.

Backed by China's massive market, Hainan, with its higher-level opening-up, has become a magnet for the convergence of global innovative factors. This is driving local enterprises to move from "product introduction" toward "local production" and "joint R&D," steadily climbing the global industrial chain.

In 2024, Simcere Pharmaceutical achieved localized production of Cosela, with an annual production capacity of 2 million doses. With the special customs operations in the Hainan Free Trade Port, an increasing number of new and effective drugs are embarking on a fantastic journey of launching in China, manufacturing in Hainan, and supplying the globe.

"Building a unified national market is by no means about operating in isolation; rather, it aims to use opening-up to promote reform and reform to promote opening-up," Li noted. Building on the strategic pivot of dual circulation, the country must make good use of both domestic and international markets and resources and promote the national unified market's leap from "physical integration" to "chemical fusion."

Currently, the building of a unified national market is moving from the phase of laying the framework toward one of gaining stronger momentum.

The sixth meeting of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs, held on July 1, 2025, stressed the need to advance the building of a unified national market, which requires "five unifications and one opening-up," namely the unification of market institutions, market infrastructure, government conduct, regulatory enforcement, and markets of production factors and resources, along with continued expansion of opening-up both internally and externally.

"These are new requirements put forward in response to new circumstances and emerging issues. They clarify how a unified national market should be built and what kind of unified national market China aims to achieve," Li said. To effectively implement these requirements, three key relationships must be properly handled. It is necessary to properly balance the relationship between an effective market and a well-functioning government, to straighten out the dynamic between the central and local governments, and to properly coordinate domestic and international markets. At the same time, efforts must focus on key and difficult issues, with a firm resolve to eradicate deep-seated problems. These include curbing low-price and disorderly competition, addressing irregularities in government procurement and tendering, correcting improper investment promotion practices by local governments, promoting the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, strengthening weak links in laws and regulations, and correcting any misguided views about what it means to perform well.

"We need firm resolve for self-targeted reform and an open and inclusive approach to advance the building of a unified national market. We need to resolutely eliminate bottlenecks and obstacles, transform advantages into developmental strengths, and convert potential into real capacity, providing strong support for high-quality development," Li concluded.