Interview: Chinese economy demonstrates strong resilience amid global uncertainties, says French expert

PARIS, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese economy is demonstrating strong resilience and remarkable adaptability in an uncertain global environment by combining industrial upgrading, dynamic innovation, and continued high-level economic openness, said Herve Azoulay, former Schneider Electric executive.

Priorities such as developing new drivers of growth, industrial modernization, and new quality productive forces are profoundly reshaping China's global competitiveness and creating new opportunities for international cooperation, said Azoulay, also a professor at the Silk Road Business School in France.

Efforts for these priorities are contributing to greater industrial autonomy and higher-quality productivity, he said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Major regional clusters, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, are emerging as hubs where technology, capital and experimental regulation converge, he noted.

These clusters, he said, have played "a decisive role" in enabling multinationals such as Tesla and Schneider Electric to establish operations and promote innovation.

According to Azoulay, the emergence of new growth drivers is creating favorable interaction spaces and ecosystems for international players, particularly in joint R&D laboratories focused on areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biopharma and smart mobility.

Such cooperation, he said, increasingly relies on engagement models based on co-innovation, partial localization and collaborative approaches rather than a purely export-oriented logic.

China possesses one of the largest and most dynamic consumer markets in the world and is addressing uncertainties in the international economic cycle by building a robust, innovative and integrated domestic market, he said.

Consequently, domestic demand has become the primary source of growth and the main stabilizing force, while its pledge to advance high-standard opening-up is resonating with global businesses' expectations, he said.

Stronger intellectual property protection, pilot free-trade zones and the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port are making China more appealing to global companies, he noted.

China has become a global pioneer in digital commerce, smart logistics and new distribution formats, with cross-border digital commerce and advanced fintech models accelerating global digital transformation and reducing the cost of accessing new markets, he said.

Looking ahead, he said that China could play a decisive role in driving global growth and accelerating the global green transition through its leadership in low-carbon technologies, such as batteries, electric vehicles and renewable energies.