Wei Hao Actively expanding imports is Chinese government’s concrete practice to continuously deepen reform and opening-up and improve people’s life, as well as a specific action to initiatively open the domestic market. In recent years, the dividends brought by China’s imports have become increasingly obvious. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is of practical significance to figure out how China has stabilized imports while ensuring safety, and to understand the role of imports in the country’s national economy and global economic structure. Imports of consumer goods have made life better for Chinese consumers. Take food as an example. The continuous increase in import volumes, quantities and categories in recent years has turned huge potential consumer demand into real demand, expanded domestic consumption, and improved people’s life. During the pandemic prevention, imports of consumer goods have made an important contribution to ensuring people’s well-being. In 2020, China’s imports of agricultural products, such as grain and meat, increased by 28% and 60.4% respectively, which helped curb steep price increases of relevant products and provide guarantee for people’s basic life. In 2020, China was the first country to see import growth recover. Thanks to scientific and effective pandemic prevention measures, China contained the Covid-19 pandemic in a relatively short period of time, and resumed work and production. Therefore, China’s imports recovered faster than other countries. In the first three quarters of 2020, China’s imports of goods achieved V-shaped recovery, showing a strong momentum of growth. In November, the total import value increased by 4.5% year on year, showing positive growth for three consecutive months. The contribution of China’s imports to global economy is more prominent. From 2001 to 2019, China’s imports of goods expanded continuously with an average annual growth rate of 12.6%, while the global figure during the same period was 6.3%. In 2020, compared with other countries, China stood out in imports. According to monthly data of trade in goods of major economies released by the WTO, in the first ten months of 2020, its global import share reached 11.5%, a sharp increase of 0.7 percentage point from the historical high, which provided strong support for the economic development of all countries worldwide. Foreign enterprises should take the initiative to seize the golden opportunity of China’s imports. Based on its development situation, we come to a basic conclusion that China’s domestic demand for imported products hasn’t been fully tapped and released yet. With the increase in people’s income level and expansion of the scale and scope of consumption upgrading, China’s demand for imported products will increase and demand preferences will change. This will increase the demand not only for various high-end and luxury goods, but also for high-quality daily consumer goods and cost-effective products of overseas brands, creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all foreign enterprises, especially large multinational ones. Seizing this opportunity means laying a foundation for enterprises’ long-term development. The pandemic has exerted a far-reaching impact on global economy. A report from the World Bank points out that pandemic has caused the worst economic recession worldwide since World War II. Under such background, it is of greater strategic significance than ever for foreign enterprises to actively expand exports to China. Actively expanding imports plays an irreplaceable strategic role in building a new development paradigm. Imports are an important part of the domestic market and a key hub of domestic and foreign markets reinforcing each other. In terms of promoting the smooth operation of the domestic market, actively expanding imports of consumer goods can help stimulate consumption potential and vitality, thereby accelerating the formation of a strong domestic market. In terms of facilitating domestic and international markets to reinforce each other, actively expanding imports is conducive to better utilization of the two markets and resources, thus boosting better connectivity and mutual promotion of the two markets. In addition, actively expanding imports of consumer goods is part of supply-side structural reform, and the imports of various products that serve production will also contribute to the supply-side structural reform. Therefore, it is necessary to actively expand imports to serve the formation of a new development paradigm. It’s worth mentioning that when actively expanding imports, we should expand the scale and scope of imports, optimize the import structure, improve import supervision methods, and enhance the quality of imports. Meanwhile, we must also pay attention to import safety and prevent relevant risks. There is no doubt that China will remain one of the largest markets, and the best market with the most potential, increasing openness and attractiveness worldwide in the next five years and beyond. In the future, it will unswervingly expand opening-up in an all-round way, ensure more efficient connectivity between domestic and foreign markets and share factor resources, so as to turn the Chinese market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all, and share more dividends of China’s imports with the rest of the world.