Building a Unified National Market Requires Simultaneously Breaking Down Barriers and Establishing New Rules

The period of the 14th Five-Year Plan [1]1 The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) is the national economic and social development plan for that period. is a crucial stage for laying a solid foundation and making comprehensive efforts to basically achieve socialist modernization. Constructing a new development pattern, promoting high-quality development, and securing the initiative in international competition urgently require deepening the construction of a unified national market and continuously optimizing the order of market competition. Overall, the basic requirement for deepening the construction of a unified national market is the "five unifications and one opening up," namely, unifying basic market institutions, unifying market infrastructure, unifying the scale of government actions, unifying market supervision and law enforcement, unifying factor and resource markets, and continuously expanding opening up. The shift from "accelerating construction" to "deepening advancement," and from "five unifications and one elimination" to "five unifications and one opening up," indicates that the construction of a unified national market is moving from breaking down barriers to a new stage of unified rules and institutional opening up. This will promote a comprehensive and deeper smooth flow of the economic cycle at a higher level of opening up.

“十五五”时期是基本实现社会主义现代化夯实基础、全面发力的关键时期，构建新发展格局、推动高质量发展、赢得国际竞争主动权，迫切要求纵深推进全国统一大市场建设，推动市场竞争秩序持续优化。总体来看，纵深推进全国统一大市场建设的基本要求是“五统一、一开放”，即统一市场基础制度、统一市场基础设施、统一政府行为尺度、统一市场监管执法、统一要素资源市场，持续扩大开放。从“加快建设”到“纵深推进”，从“五统一、一破除”到“五统一、一开放”，表明全国统一大市场建设正由破除壁垒迈向规则统一、制度开放的新阶段，将以更高水平开放推动经济循环在更深层次上全面畅通。

To fully leverage the advantages of the super-large market, it is necessary not only to achieve efficient integration and internal unity of the domestic market but also to use a resilient domestic demand system to attract global resources and drive international circulation. Internal opening up aims to further remove institutional reefs between regions, strengthen rule consistency from the surface to the core, and enhance the systemic efficiency of regional markets. External opening up focuses on building channels that connect to the world, relying on the strong domestic market to attract the inflow of high-quality factors from various countries, and assisting national brands in smoothly going global, achieving deep coupling, internal-external linkage, and two-way empowerment between the domestic market and the world market. Therefore, deepening the construction of a unified national market should closely align with the needs of the new development pattern, anchor the goal of smoothing the economic cycle, and focus on key and difficult points for coordinated efforts and joint breakthroughs.

充分发挥超大规模市场优势，既需要实现国内市场的高效整合和内在统一，也需要以强劲韧性的内需体系虹吸全球资源、牵引国际循环。对内开放，旨在进一步破除区际制度暗礁，由表及里强化规则一致性，增进区域市场系统效能；对外开放，重在构筑通达全球的资源通道，依托强大国内市场吸引各国优质要素流入，并助力民族品牌顺畅出海，实现国内大市场与世界市场的深度耦合、内外联动、双向赋能。因此，纵深推进全国统一大市场建设，应紧扣新发展格局的需要，锚定畅通经济循环目标，聚焦重点难点协同发力、合力攻坚。

Continuously building a modern circulation system is the fundamental support for maintaining the smooth flow of the market's bloodline. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out, "To construct a new development pattern, we must take the construction of a modern circulation system as an important strategic task." [2]2 Xi Jinping is the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. The 14th Five-Year Plan, the 20th National Congress of the CPC, and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee have 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 goods and factors, there can be no organic unity of the domestic market, let alone an unimpeded grand cycle. The core hub of the large market is precisely large-scale circulation. As the construction of a unified national market deepens, the modern circulation system also urgently needs to take higher standards as its anchor and continuously improve quality and efficiency. In December 2023, the National Data Administration and 16 other departments jointly issued the "Data Element ×" Three-Year Action Plan (2024–2026), listing "Data Element × Commerce and Trade Circulation" as a key focus. At the end of 2024, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Effectively Reducing the Cost of Social Logistics," and the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments issued the "Action Plan for Improving the Modern Commerce and Trade Circulation System and Promoting High-Quality Development of the Wholesale and Retail Industry," focusing on enhancing circulation organization capabilities and efficiency. In the next stage, efforts should be made from multiple angles, including reducing logistics costs, improving commerce and trade efficiency, and empowering with data, to accelerate regional market integration and deep economic integration through convenient, mutually beneficial, and efficient interregional trade flows.

持续建设现代流通体系，是保持市场血脉畅通的根本支撑。习近平总书记明确指出，“构建新发展格局，必须把建设现代流通体系作为一项重要战略任务来抓”。“十四五”规划、党的二十大和二十届三中全会反复强调“强化流通体系支撑作用”“建设高效顺畅的流通体系”“完善流通体制”。没有商品和要素的顺畅流通，就谈不上国内市场的有机统一，更不可能有畅通无阻的大循环。大市场的核心枢纽正是大流通。随着全国统一大市场建设迈向纵深，现代流通体系也亟须以更高标准为锚，持续提质增效。2023年12月，国家数据局等17部门联合印发《“数据要素×”三年行动计划（2024—2026年）》，将“数据要素×商贸流通”列为重点。2024年底，中共中央办公厅、国务院办公厅印发《有效降低全社会物流成本行动方案》，商务部等9部门印发《关于完善现代商贸流通体系推动批发零售业高质量发展的行动计划》，着力提升流通组织能力和效率。下一阶段，应从物流降本、商贸提效、数据赋能多角度发力，以便捷互惠、高效互通的区际贸易流动，加速地区市场整合和区域经济深度融合。

Vigorously maintaining the healthy order and unified rules of the market essentially means keeping the competition jungle on a fair track, thereby serving the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life. In recent years, China's fair competition system has become increasingly complete. For example, the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China was amended in 2022, the Regulations on Fair Competition Review were promulgated and implemented in 2024, and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China was revised in 2025. The framework for unified national market access and competition rules has basically taken shape. Particularly noteworthy is that the 2025 Government Work Report, when mentioning the tasks for deepening the construction of a unified national market, explicitly emphasized comprehensively rectifying "involution-style" competition. [3]3 "Involution-style" competition refers to excessive, zero-sum competition that leads to diminishing returns and wasted resources. This not only points to specific behavioral norms for enterprises but also calibrates their value orientation.

大力维护市场的健康秩序和统一规则，在本质上是让竞争的丛林始终守住公平的赛道，进而服务于实现人民对美好生活的向往。近年来，我国公平竞争制度体系日趋完备，如2022年修正《中华人民共和国反垄断法》、2024年颁布实施《公平竞争审查条例》、2025年修订《中华人民共和国反不正当竞争法》等，全国统一的市场准入和竞争规则框架已基本成形。尤其值得关注的是，2025年政府工作报告在提到纵深推进全国统一大市场建设的任务内容时，明确强调综合整治“内卷式”竞争。这不仅指向企业具体的行为规范，更是对企业价值取向的校准。

Optimizing the business environment is a key fulcrum for attracting investment, and the cross-regional flow of capital adds endogenous impetus to market integration. Currently, when competing for "policy highlands," various localities easily fall into the misconception of "fighting alone." If the optimization of business environments between regions lacks coordination and the differences in service efficiency are too large, it will increase the uncertainty for enterprises operating across regions, hinder the cross-regional flow of capital, and drag down the process of market integration. Deepening the construction of a unified national market should pay attention to the coordination of business environment optimization. It is necessary not only to encourage developed regions to continuously strengthen their strengths but also to accelerate the precise filling of shortcomings in less developed regions. Only by minimizing the gap in business environment optimization can the convenience of cross-regional capital flow be maximized, thereby expanding effective investment and forming a positive mutual promotion with stimulating potential consumption. Only then can the construction of a unified national market proceed steadily and far.

优化营商环境是招商引资的关键支点，而资本跨区域流动则为市场整合增加内生动力。当前，各地在竞逐“政策高地”时，容易陷入“单打独斗”的误区。倘若地区间的营商环境优化缺少协同，服务效能差异过大，则会增加企业跨区经营的不确定性，阻滞资本跨区域流动，拖累市场一体化进程。纵深推进全国统一大市场建设，应重视营商环境优化的协同性，不仅要鼓励发达地区持续锻长板，更要加快后发地区精准补短板。只有把营商环境优化差距压至最小，资本的跨区域流动便利才能放至最大，才能扩大有效益的投资，并与激发有潜能的消费形成良性互促，全国统一大市场建设方能行稳致远。

In the future, as the data element trading system accelerates its formation and becomes increasingly perfect, the integration of data with traditional production factors will drive a leapfrog upgrade in factor market integration. Relying on the empowerment and multiplier effects of data elements, the consumption potential of China's urban and rural large market will continue to be released, and the integration of domestic and foreign trade will also accelerate the iteration of new mechanisms and new models. The deeper the construction of a unified national market advances, the more it can use the stability of the super-large market to hedge against external uncertainties, and the more it can use the advantages of institutional opening up to gather global resources, comprehensively improving the quality and resilience of the domestic and international dual circulations.

未来，随着数据要素交易制度加速成形和日臻完善，数据与传统生产要素的融合将推动要素市场一体化实现跨越式跃升。依托数据要素的赋能与倍增效应，我国城乡大市场的消费潜能将持续释放，内外贸一体化也将加速迭代新机制、新模式。全国统一大市场建设越向纵深迈进，越能以超大规模市场之稳对冲外部不确定性，越能以制度型开放之优汇集全球资源，全面提升国内国际双循环的质量与韧性。

(The author is a professor at the School of Business, Renmin University of China)

（作者系中国人民大学商学院教授）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧