China's innovation inspires Global South

In July, China's exports rose 23.9 percent from a year before, while imports surged 27.5 percent.

Notably, high-tech products fueled this export boom, with semiconductor exports nearly doubling in value.

China is entering a new phase of development, where innovation, advanced manufacturing and the ability to scale new technologies are becoming critical to its economic prowess.

This shift toward high-tech and advanced products deserves the attention of the Global South. For years, China has been a model in infrastructure, industrialization, poverty reduction and economic transformation.

Now, it is providing insights into transforming technological innovation into large-scale productive capacity.

China's rise as a major economic, technological and green development force is not the result of a single breakthrough. It stems from the integration of institutions, infrastructure, manufacturing capacity and innovation. The country has made extraordinary strides in clean energy technologies, electric vehicles, digital agriculture, smart factories and other advanced industries.

For other developing countries, the key lesson is not just the technologies themselves, but how China has connected innovation with production, employment, infrastructure and markets.

This is where the concept of "innovation at scale" becomes important. The world is not short of technological inventions. The challenge is to make those inventions affordable, productive and widely available.

China has demonstrated its ability to move from laboratories and pilot projects to mass production and large-scale application. The evolution of electric vehicles, batteries, solar power, digital technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics illustrates this transition.

This capability has implications beyond China. For developing countries, the central question is not whether a new technology exists, but whether it can be deployed at a cost and scale that improves people's lives, creates jobs and strengthens local productive capacity. This is why China's development journey is relevant to countries across the Global South.

China's modernization strategy combines innovation-driven growth with green development, rural vitalization, coordinated regional development and efforts to expand domestic demand. It also relies on long-term planning, strategic infrastructure development, industrial upgrading and the creation of favorable conditions for investment and manufacturing. Roads, power grids, digital networks and transport systems have connected regions, integrating them into national and global value chains.

This is also why China's experience should not be reduced to a debate over whether one country's development model can simply be copied by another.

Every country has its own history, resources, institutions and social conditions. It is more useful to identify what can be learned and adapted.

One essential lesson is the need for a long-term vision. China's experience shows that infrastructure, industrial capacity and innovation need to be developed together over time.

Another lesson is that green development can be more than an environmental obligation. Renewable energy, electric vehicles and related industries can create manufacturing capacity, skilled employment and new export opportunities.

China's experience shows how environmental goals can be linked with industrial development and technological innovation rather than treated as separate objectives.

The same principle applies to AI and robotics. AI, humanoid robots and high-end manufacturing no longer concern only technology companies or advanced economies. They will increasingly shape agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, transport and services across the developing world. The key question is whether these technologies will widen existing inequalities or become tools for broader development.

Here again, scale matters. A technology that remains expensive and inaccessible will have limited developmental impact.

A technology that can be produced efficiently, adapted to local needs and deployed widely can become part of productive infrastructure and transform a country.

This is where "China Opportunity 2.0"becomes relevant. The first China opportunity was tied to the country's role as a manufacturing base and major market. The next opportunity could be broader: cooperation around green technologies, digital infrastructure, AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing, skills and industrial capabilities.

Such cooperation should help developing countries build their own capabilities while participating in global value chains through technology transfer, skills development and research cooperation.

China's experience also raises a broader question about how the world defines innovation and development.

Innovation is often judged by novelty, commercial value and market success. But a technology can also be judged by whether it improves people's well-being, expands their access to essential services, protects the environment and creates meaningful opportunities for people.

Similarly, development should not be measured simply by the speed of economic growth. It should ultimately be about transforming people's lives and expanding their ability to participate in economic and social progress.

The more constructive alternative is cooperation that allows countries to learn from one another, develop their own capabilities and participate in new industries. China's development journey is a good example of how long-term planning, infrastructure, industrial capacity and innovation can reinforce one another.

The significance of China's latest trade figures, therefore, is not simply the size of its exports. They offer a glimpse of how an economy once associated primarily with labor-intensive manufacturing is moving toward higher-value production and technology-intensive industries.

That transition is still underway, although it will face challenges. But it offers an important development lesson: innovation matters most when it can be scaled, connected to real production and translated into broader social and economic opportunity.

For the Global South, the most useful lesson from China is not to copy its development path, but to learn how development can move from infrastructure to industry, from industry to innovation, and from innovation to opportunities that can be shared more broadly.

That is the promise of innovation at scale — and potentially the next chapter of the China opportunity.

The author is a guest professor at Zhengzhou Normal University and the University of Gondar, and a senior research associate fellow at the Technology and Management for Development Centre at Oxford University.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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