Country's innovation boon to the world: China Daily editorial

China's continuous efforts in scientific and technological innovation and its high-standard opening-up are having marked effects on both its economy and international cooperation.

Recent data indicate a shift in China's manufacturing industry toward high-end production. This reflects the country's transition to innovation-driven growth.

The country has made rapid progress in the development of emerging industries, with some strategic sectors, including artificial intelligence, intelligent robots, integrated circuits, advanced materials, new energy and biomedicine, growing rapidly. Future industries, including quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence and 6G, are also gaining momentum.

The technological innovation in the field of AI is transforming the Chinese economy while having a profound effect globally. China is rapidly emerging as a major force in global AI advancement. As of early this year, the country's core AI industry was projected to be worth more than 1.2 trillion yuan ($176.71 billion), with an annual growth rate nearing 30 percent. China now holds 60 percent of the world's AI patents.

Chinese scientists unveiled six major achievements at the 2026 World Digital Education Conference that concluded on Wednesday in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Among them was a generative genomic large model named Carbon, which is being hailed as the "DeepSeek" for the life sciences field due to its nearly hundredfold improvement in computational efficiency.

The rapid development of China's AI sector is bolstered by both policies and strategic planning. In the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), AI is identified as a key driver of new quality productive forces. The government has launched a comprehensive "AI Plus" initiative. This policy framework supports AI research and accelerates its application across sectors.

Thanks to the progress made, AI and other technologies are empowering industries across the board. China has established tens of thousands of "smart factories" nationwide and accounts for more than half of the global increase in industrial robot installations. According to the World Economic Forum, China now boasts the world's highest number of "lighthouse factories", accounting for 40 percent of the world's total. These factories employ cutting-edge technologies to achieve more efficient and sustainable production processes.

China's experience in applied AI, particularly in sectors such as manufacturing and healthcare, offers a reference for global industry transformation. The improvement in China's technological innovation capabilities has led to a substantial increase in its industrial competitiveness, enabling the country to transition from "running after" to "running together" and even "leading the way" in some fields. China's intelligent computing power was second only to the United States last year.

China's competitiveness in the open-source path for algorithmic models and its position in computing hardware capabilities further solidify its status as a major force in the AI industry.

The scale and network advantages of China's digital infrastructure are equally impressive. By 2025, the country had 4.84 million 5G base stations, accounting for about 60 percent of the world's total, and a staggering 74.99 million kilometers of optical fiber cables.

Additionally, as the world's largest producer of solar and wind power, China has a reliable and low-cost supply of green energy for power-intensive computing centers, further enhancing its role in the global AI ecosystem.

By sharing its innovation and experiences with the world, China is offering a new development path that emphasizes collaboration and openness, encouraging other countries to engage with AI in a way that promotes shared growth and mutual benefit. This is a vision of a connected world, where technology serves as a bridge rather than a barrier.