Xie Lijuan: Building a Unified National Market Requires Simultaneous Construction and Deconstruction
The "15th Five-Year Plan" period [1] is a critical window for consolidating the foundation and fully mobilizing efforts to basically achieve socialist modernization. To construct the new development pattern [2], promote high-quality development, and seize the initiative in international competition, it is urgent to advance the construction of a national unified large market in depth and promote the continuous optimization of the order of market competition. Overall, the basic requirements for advancing the construction of a national unified large market in depth are "five unifications and one opening"—namely, unifying basic market institutions, unifying market infrastructure, unifying the standards of government behavior, unifying market supervision and enforcement, and unifying factor and resource markets, while continuously expanding openness. The shift from "accelerating construction" to "advancing in depth," and from "five unifications and one eradication" [3] to "five unifications and one opening," indicates that the construction of a national unified large market is moving from the stage of breaking down barriers toward a new stage of unifying rules and institutional openness. This will promote the comprehensive unblocking of the economic cycle at a deeper level through higher-level openness.
Fully leveraging the advantages of a super-large-scale market requires both the efficient integration and internal unity of the domestic market, and the use of a strong and resilient domestic demand system to siphon global resources and pull the international cycle. Internal opening aims to further dismantle regional "institutional reefs," strengthening rule consistency from the surface to the core to enhance the systemic efficiency of regional markets. External opening focuses on constructing resource channels that reach across the globe, relying on the powerful domestic market to attract the inflow of high-quality global factors and assisting national brands in smoothly "going global" [4], thereby achieving deep coupling, internal-external linkage, and mutual empowerment between the domestic large market and the world market. Therefore, advancing the construction of a national unified large market in depth should closely align with the needs of the new development pattern, anchor the goal of unblocking the economic cycle, and focus on key points and difficulties to exert collaborative force and overcome challenges.
The continuous construction of a modern circulation system is the fundamental support for keeping the "blood vessels" of the market unobstructed. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out, "To construct the new development pattern, we must seize the construction of a modern circulation system as an important strategic task." The "14th Five-Year Plan," the 20th CPC National Congress, and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee repeatedly emphasized "strengthening the supporting role of the circulation system," "building an efficient and smooth circulation system," and "improving the circulation system." Without the smooth circulation of commodities and factors, there can be no talk of the organic unity of the domestic market, let alone an unobstructed "Great Cycle" [5]. The core hub of the large market is precisely "great circulation." As the construction of the national unified large market moves into depth, the modern circulation system urgently needs to anchor itself to higher standards to continuously improve quality and efficiency. In December 2023, 17 departments, including the National Data Bureau, jointly issued the "Data Element ×" Three-Year Action Plan (2024–2026), listing "Data Element × Commerce and Circulation" as a priority. In late 2024, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Effectively Reducing Logistics Costs Throughout Society," and nine departments, including the Ministry of Commerce, issued the "Action Plan for Improving the Modern Commerce and Circulation System to Promote High-Quality Development of the Wholesale and Retail Industry," striving to enhance circulation organizational capacity and efficiency. In the next stage, efforts should be made from the multiple perspectives of logistics cost reduction, commercial efficiency enhancement, and data empowerment to accelerate regional market integration and deep regional economic integration through convenient, mutually beneficial, and efficient inter-regional trade flows.
Strenuously maintaining a healthy market order and unified rules is, in essence, ensuring that the "jungle of competition" always adheres to a "fair track," thereby serving the realization of the people's aspirations for a better life. In recent years, China's system of fair competition institutions has become increasingly complete, evidenced by the 2022 amendment of the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China, the 2024 promulgation and implementation of the Fair Competition Review Regulations, and the 2025 revision of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China. The framework for unified national market access and competition rules has basically taken shape. It is particularly noteworthy that the 2025 Government Work Report, when mentioning the tasks for advancing the construction of the national unified large market in depth, explicitly emphasized the comprehensive rectification of "involutionary" [6] competition (neijuan shi jingzheng). This refers not only to specific codes of conduct for enterprises but also to the calibration of enterprise value orientations.
Optimizing the business environment is the key fulcrum for attracting investment, while the cross-regional flow of capital provides endogenous momentum for market integration. Currently, when various regions compete to become "policy high grounds," they easily fall into the trap of "fighting alone." If the optimization of the business environment among regions lacks synergy and the difference in service effectiveness is too great, it will increase the uncertainty of enterprises operating across regions, obstruct the cross-regional movement of capital, and drag down the process of market integration. To advance the construction of the national unified large market in depth, importance must be attached to the synergy of business environment optimization; we must not only encourage developed regions to continue strengthening their advantages but also accelerate the precise mending of shortcomings in late-developing regions. Only by minimizing the gap in business environment optimization can the convenience of cross-regional capital flow be maximized, thereby expanding productive investment and forming a virtuous cycle with the stimulation of potential consumption. Only then can the construction of the national unified large market proceed steadily and reach far [7].
In the future, as the transaction system for data factors accelerates its formation and perfection, the integration of data with traditional productive factors will drive a leapfrog upgrade in the integration of factor markets. Relying on the empowering and multiplier effects of data factors, the consumption potential of China's urban and rural markets will be continuously released, and the integration of domestic and foreign trade will also accelerate the iteration of new mechanisms and models. The deeper the construction of the national unified large market moves, the better it can use the stability of a super-large-scale market to hedge against external uncertainties, and the better it can use the excellence of institutional opening to gather global resources, comprehensively enhancing the quality and resilience of the domestic and international dual circulation.