The just-concluded China's Central Economic Work Conference said that "2025 is a truly extraordinary year." This year, amid an increasingly complex and challenging external environment, how have China's ports, as a crucial gateway to observing China's economic growth, stabilized operations under pressure and maintained resilience amid change? What new changes and trends have emerged in the operation of China's ports, which serve as front-line hubs of foreign trade?

Since the beginning of 2025, Global Times carried out year-long field research at coastal ports across China, engaging with front-line companies to assess port operations. Based on follow-up studies at key ports, along with expert interviews and public data analysis, it produced the 2025 Annual Report on the Vitality, Resilience, and Development Confidence of China's Ports.

The report shows that in 2025, China's ports actively responded to complex domestic and international changes, maintaining efficient and stable operations and providing strong support for global supply chains. Affected by fluctuations in China-US trade, ports adopted region-specific and differentiated development approaches, fully demonstrating their resilience and flexibility in responding to market changes.

The Central Economic Work Conference identified "adhering to opening-up and promoting win-win cooperation across multiple fields" as one of the key tasks for China's economic work next year, and outlined specific measures such as "steadily advancing the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port." Ports are an important front line of the country's opening up. Looking ahead to 2026, multiple ports told the Global Times that they will continue to advance higher-level opening up in serving the national opening-up agenda, deepen international cooperation, and further enhance their role as hubs in regional trade and global supply chains.