#China #UnionPay #Economic Resilience #Davos #Davos 2026

UnionPay's Engagement at Davos 2026

In January 2026, UnionPay was invited to the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, Switzerland. During this prestigious meeting, Dong Junfeng, the president of UnionPay, participated as a panelist in a session titled "Is the Chinese Economy Fully Emerging?". This discussion provided insights into crucial topics, including the economic development trends in China, innovation-driven growth, and China's contributions to the global economy.

The dialogue underscored the substantial resilience and growth potential of the Chinese economy, accentuating UnionPay's pivotal role in facilitating domestic economic circulation, nurturing high-quality new productive forces, and pushing forward international economic cooperation. In a world grappling with mounting economic risks and challenges, the resilience of China remains a standout characteristic.

In 2025, China's GDP grew by 5% year-on-year, crossing the 140 trillion yuan mark. Dong pointed out that China's long-term stability and sustained growth can be attributed to a multitude of positive factors, such as long-term development planning initiated by the government and effective policies, increased market vitality, improved consumption, and rising domestic demand—all of which are vital.

Politically, China continues to advance a new development paradigm where domestic and international circulations mutually reinforce each other. The 15th five-year plan explicitly outlines special initiatives aimed at boosting consumption and expanding high-end consumer goods and services, serving as a fundamental guarantee for continued economic growth.

On the demand side, emerging consumption trends, new business models, and innovative use cases are rapidly gaining traction. Data from UnionPay indicates a steady increase in digital payment volumes within the consumption sector in China. New business formats like live commerce, cross-border e-commerce, instant retail, and the sharing economy have rapidly gained significance. Notably, spending on winter sports and tourism surged by over 50%, while cross-border payments consistently grew, with inbound spending up by more than 60%.

These trends reflect a significant evolution in household consumption patterns, moving from traditional goods towards diverse, high-quality, and intelligent use cases. The structural shifts in consumption spending are redefining growth engines, indicating that consumption is now driven by both goods and services rather than goods alone. Such changes are facilitating a transition to lightweight and customized production, accelerating innovations in product supply.

To align with these trends, UnionPay capitalizes on its payment strengths, contributing to the expansion of the consumption market in both volume and quality through technological innovation and improved services. The company has established a payment network covering both online and in-store use cases across national and international markets, while also enhancing payment experiences and reducing transaction costs. These efforts have unlocked significant spending potential and strongly supported business vitality, positioning UnionPay as a key catalyst in China's ongoing economic growth.

Leveraging AI for Quality Productive Forces

UnionPay is actively working to build an ecosystem powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is becoming a critical driver of productivity gains and sustained economic growth. Dong noted the global surge in interest surrounding AI, particularly in the realms of large language models, multimodal technologies, and intelligent agents, which have accelerated large-scale AI adoption.

By enhancing efficiency and transforming ecosystems, AI is revealing new productive forces and serving as an innovative engine for economic growth. As one of the forefront sectors in AI application, the payments industry is reaping extensive benefits. For instance, AI contributes to enhanced efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, optimizing decision-making processes, increasing production capacities, and eliminating workflow bottlenecks, all of which lead to reduced costs and heightened productivity across businesses.

In terms of payment security, UnionPay has implemented an intelligent risk control system, where AI-assisted risk control rules serve as a strong defense for the safe and compliant development of digital payments. Moreover, UnionPay has launched the "Nihao China" app for international visitors in China, providing one-stop services through AI-driven intelligent agents that respond to personalized payment needs.

AI is also facilitating a shift from traditional passive execution models to proactive responsiveness to consumer needs, spawning a full array of innovative business models. As global payment companies venture into agent-based payments, UnionPay has taken the lead by introducing its own MCP (Merchant Customer Payment) service, which not only integrates traditional payment capabilities but also introduces an innovative agent-driven payment experience. This allows users to seamlessly navigate the payment process from expressing their needs to completing transactions.

Fostering Global Cooperation

UnionPay aims to connect the world through payment solutions, especially amid increasing uncertainty surrounding trade policies and geopolitical frictions. China is committed to promoting high-level openness and providing opportunities to the world through its own development. Acting as “capillaries” of cross-border trade, investment, and people-to-people exchanges, payments have become a crucial link fostering closer international cooperation.

Dong mentioned that China's sustained economic growth benefits not only the country but also strengthens partnerships across a broader range of global markets. By promoting a development model characterized by equality and mutual benefits, China shares the dividends of stable development and economic growth with the world.

Currently, China ranks among the top three trading partners for over 150 countries and regions. The massive flows of goods and services exchanged with developed markets—especially high-end manufactured products, financial services, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals—have opened vast export opportunities for emerging markets while fostering local employment, industrial modernization, and infrastructure improvements.

Guided by a policy of high-level openness, UnionPay actively implements a development strategy that combines “globalization” and “integration” while continuously enhancing its international payment network. In terms of internationalization, about 300 million UnionPay cards have been issued across 83 countries and regions outside mainland China, with its acceptance network spanning 183 countries and over 75 million international merchants.

These achievements lay the groundwork for a stable, multi-tiered international payment network that ensures seamless payments for bilateral investments and exchanges between Chinese and world markets. Responding to global trends towards digital payments, UnionPay has established an interconnected QR code payment network and is actively promoting connectivity of infrastructure and digital specifications across different markets, thereby eliminating barriers to cross-border payments.

With a focus on integration, China has deepened institutional openness in payment sectors, leading to more extensive cooperation with international partners. Collaborations between UnionPay and major international card systems such as American Express, Mastercard, and Visa in card issuance, acceptance, innovative payments, and infrastructure have significantly facilitated payments in China for cross-border exchanges.

UnionPay's commitment to integrating high-quality national and international resources aims to build an open and collaborative payment ecosystem, exploring innovative cooperation models like network-to-network (N2N) and government-to-government (G2G) partnerships with card systems, clearing networks, and internet platforms. These efforts aim to accelerate the development of a new quad-partite model for cross-border payments, fostering shared benefits and outcomes for all participants in the ecosystem.

As China continues to shine with its vast marketplace and robust industrial framework, UnionPay looks toward the future with a commitment to serve the international market. By emphasizing high-quality development in the payment sector, UnionPay will deepen technological innovation and accelerate the integration of new technologies like AI into payment services to continually enhance the quality and efficiency of services provided to the real economy. By promoting interconnected and standardized development of the global payment market, UnionPay seeks to offer greater value to partners, merchants, and cardholders around the world while contributing to international economic cooperation and shared prosperity.