BEIJING - Recently released official data showed that the tertiary sector made up 46.1 percent of China's GDP in 2013, outperforming the secondary sector for the first time.

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The historic shift results from the Chinese government's active efforts in economic restructuring, and heralds further upgrading of China's consumption structure.

The change tags along with the rapid rise of Chinese consumer spending. The retail sales of consumer goods last year totaled 23.438 trillion yuan ($3.8 trillion), registering a year-on-year expansion of 13.1 percent and accounting for 50 percent of China's economic growth.

Although the 13.1-percent growth of consumption marked a slight slowdown, the pace remained blistering. Its contribution, albeit down 1.8 percentage points from the previous year, still indicated a robust engine of growth.

The rise of China as a consumer economy is inevitable. Official projections show that China's consumption will reach 30 trillion yuan ($4.9 trillion) in 2015 and 50 trillion ($8.2 trillion) in 2020.

The trend fits the Asian giant itself. Given such challenges as the volatile international economic situation, boosting domestic consumption is key to achieving and sustaining a healthy development of the Chinese economy.

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