As China’s political elite gather for the country’s annual legislative sessions this week, we examine the broader forces likely to influence policies and decision-making for the coming year. The third part of the series delves into how much more investible the nation has become in a short span.

As top lawmakers gather in Beijing to decide the policy direction during China’s annual parliamentary meetings this week, the world is keeping its eyes peeled for signs that leadership is doing what needs to be done to reinvigorate the economy and reinforce China’s place in the global tech race.

In the lead-up to the official opening of the “two sessions”, a new wave of optimism was sweeping through the world’s second-largest economy. Following last year’s market gloom, when stagnation seemed to be China’s inevitable future and international capital was favouring other Asian markets such as India and Japan, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and technology have been reshaping the narrative about China’s economic potential.

The release of the home-grown large language model DeepSeek-R1 in January, rivalling ChatGPT, has turned the tide and ignited fresh investor confidence that China can forge ahead in tech and innovation, even amid ongoing chip bans and chokeholds on core technologies.

“2025 is the year the investing world realises China is outcompeting the rest of the world,” Deutsche Bank said in a report last month, echoing a consensus deeming DeepSeek the “Sputnik moment” for the AI sector, and for China as well.

The term refers to the moment when a society’s unexpected achievement highlights the underestimation of its technological or innovative capabilities, signalling the need for a reassessment to compete with it.

The market enthusiasm has been evident, and the “China bull market may have just begun”, according to Bank of America.