China indeed has the intention to decouple from the United States and is steadily advancing relevant strategies. The Chinese think tank found that the weakness of China's economy lies in its excessive reliance on U.S. demand, making it difficult to achieve independent economic development.

Over the past few decades, China mainly accumulated wealth by "working for the world," especially selling large quantities of products to the U.S., a major client. Now, with frequent U.S. sanctions, we have realized that relying solely on exporting goods is not stable.

Recently, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bensons' remarks reignited the old topic of "China's economic dependence on exports." He claimed that the share of China's exports in GDP was "the most unbalanced in modern history," but his words were quickly refuted by data.

Currently, this ratio has dropped to about 19.7%, not only far lower than Germany and South Korea, but even lower than the UK. This detail precisely shows that people's perception of China's economy still lingers in outdated impressions from more than a decade ago.

If we use the analogy of a family's struggle story, China's first half of economic development was indeed "building up wealth through craftsmanship." In the 1980s and 1990s, sewing machines in coastal townships ran non-stop, and the production lines in the Pearl River Delta glowed day and night. We knocked open global market doors with light industrial products like shirts and toys.

Joining the WTO in 2001 was like obtaining an industry "access certificate." The share of exports in GDP once reached a peak of 36%. "Made in China" on U.S. supermarket shelves became an important foundation for China's foreign exchange reserves growing from zero to trillions of dollars.

But life under someone else's roof never brings stability. Over these years, the U.S. frequently waved the tariff baton, making us clearly see: handing over the initiative of development to others carries risks, no matter how solid the family assets are.

Just like a household cannot always live by working for neighbors; it needs its own industrial foundation — the transformation of China's economy is essentially a transition from "earning money by looking at others' faces" to "having enough grain at home without panic."

This transformation is most directly reflected in the continuous reduction of dependence on the U.S. Customs data show that in 2018, the share of exports to the U.S. in total exports was still 19.2%, but by 2024, it had dropped to 14.7%.

At the same time, our "circle of friends" is expanding: exports to ASEAN grew by 13.4% in 2024, exports to Brazil by 23.3%, and trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative exceeded 50% of total imports and exports for the first time. The former "single-arrow dependency" on the U.S. market has now become a "global bloom" pattern.

More importantly, we have been strengthening our internal capabilities increasingly. It used to be said that "Made in China" was labor-intensive, but now high-end equipment exports grow by more than 40% annually, and machinery and electrical products account for nearly 60% of the total export value.

This qualitative change did not come out of nowhere, but was achieved through "internal and external coordination" — the Zhoukou Port in Henan is a typical example. This inland port, not located by the sea or on the border, now uses river transportation to directly transport Brazilian soybeans to factory areas, saving 20 yuan per ton compared to railway, helping companies save over 8 million yuan annually.

The vitality of the domestic big cycle is reshaping the economic landscape. The "air Silk Road" in Zhengzhou allows Malaysia's Cat Mountain King mangoes to reach Chinese dining tables within 36 hours. In the first three quarters of this year, Henan's GDP grew by 5.6%, 0.4 percentage points higher than the national average.

From the cargo ships at Zhoukou Port to the freight planes at Zhengzhou Airport, these seemingly scattered nodes form a three-dimensional network of the domestic unified market, giving China's economy a "ballast stone" against risks.

On December 5th, Vice Premier He Lifeng of the State Council had a video call with the U.S. Treasury Secretary, explicitly stating "lengthen the cooperation list and shorten the problem list."

This conveys a clear signal: China does not actively seek to "decouple," but while reducing dependencies, it keeps the door open for open cooperation. Just like the scale of China's foreign exchange reserves, which stood at 3.3464 trillion U.S. dollars in November and remained steady, today's Chinese economy has both "family assets" and "confidence," and does not need to rely on a single market anymore.

Looking back at decades of development, from "working for the world" to "building our own system," every step of China's economic transformation has been proactive. Those weaknesses of the past have now become breakthroughs for upgrading.

The past "dependence" has long turned into a driving force for self-driven development. The U.S. Treasury Secretary's cognitive bias reminds us that outside stereotypes always lag behind, but China's economic steps never stop.

The future economic competition will be about the resilience of systems and internal driving forces. China is proving through the extension of inland waterways, the expansion of air networks, and the upgrading of industrial structures: we are not trying to decouple from anyone, but rather breaking the old patterns to walk a more stable and practical development path. This is the most promising future for China's economy.

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Original: toutiao.com/article/1851013870789763/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.