The World Economic Forum's 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos forum, will be held in Dalian, Liaoning province, from June 23 to 25. More than 1,700 participants from over 90 countries and regions will attend the meeting, setting a new record for registered participation, the organizers said at a news conference on Tuesday in Beijing.

Themed "Innovating at Scale", the meeting will explore how innovation can be scaled and unlock wider economic growth. The programme will address global challenges and how Asia's dynamic best practices can drive renewed collaboration for economic progress.

The forum is expected to showcase China's achievements in high-quality economic development to the international community, convey the country's firm confidence in opening up and cooperation, said Gao Weiqi, deputy director-general of the department of international cooperation at the National Development and Reform Commission.

Li Qiang, mayor of Dalian, noted that leveraging the city's strengths and industrial characteristics, Dalian will organize in-depth exchanges centered on building a modern maritime city, and will roll out a series of events focusing on the energy and chemical industry to deeply connect with high-end global resources.

This is the ninth time the northeastern port city will host the Summer Davos forum.

The first Summer Davos forum was held in Dalian in September 2007, and since then the event has rotated between Dalian and Tianjin.

BEIJING -- The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos forum, will be held in the port city of Dalian, in Northeast China's Liaoning province, from June 23 to 25, organizers said Tuesday.

More than 1,700 participants from over 90 countries and regions will attend the meeting, and preparations for the event are largely complete, an event spokesperson said at a news conference.

This year's meeting, themed "Innovating at Scale", will feature discussions on topics including the next phase of China's economic trajectory and how to translate technological advances into real economic benefits.

Gao Weiqi, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, said the meeting will focus on frontier fields such as artificial intelligence, new energy, biomedicine and quantum technology.

The forum is expected to showcase China's achievements in high-quality economic development to the international community, convey the country's firm confidence in opening up and cooperation, and share the broad opportunities brought by Chinese modernization, Gao said.

Established by the World Economic Forum in 2007, the Summer Davos forum is held annually in China, alternating between the two port cities of Tianjin and Dalian.

The rapid advancement of large artificial intelligence models and embodied intelligence is fueling upgrades in hardware and scenario integration, injecting fresh vitality into the cultural and tourism sector, experts said.

At the recent Intelligent Robot Carnival, operators used virtual reality to remotely control humanoid robots from Shiyun Technology (Tianjin) Co for live boxing matches, winning warm applause from on-site spectators. The event took place in Hexi district from May 28 through May 31 in Tianjin, alongside the 2026 World Intelligence Expo.

"The entire experience was incredibly fulfilling and eye-opening. Having never joined tech or cultural tourism events before, I was fascinated by the mix of cutting-edge tech, robot shows and fun interactions," said Muhammed Radhiat Ibrahim, a Nigerian art student at Tiangong University, adding advanced technologies have become easy and fun for ordinary visitors.

A major highlight of the expo is its close-contact experience featuring indoor immersive displays plus outdoor live performances, enabling visitors to interact closely with robots, said Cui Wei, deputy secretary-general of the Tianjin Municipal Government.

"I'm most impressed by the robot welcoming squad. They wave and turn in precise unison and shift formations following music beats," said Anamaria Faasoesa Ranadi Visinia Tuala, a Samoan art student at Tiangong University.

Shiyun has rolled out a full lineup of humanoid robots capable of group choreography, delivering allround robot performance solutions for scenic spots, museums and galas.

At the exhibition booth of the Unmanned Systems Interdisciplinary Center, Tianjin University, children got up close to cutting-edge AI technologies under staff guidance. On display were a six-rotor aircraft, self-balancing motorcycle, firefighting robotic dog and inspection robot, bringing the youngsters a fascinating experience.

"We host popular science activities at the cultural center to spark kids' interest in science and technology, and help the public understand our research goes beyond academics to tackle core industrial challenges," said Xie Hui, head of the center.

"Marking China's first large-scale all-outdoor comprehensive robot gala, the carnival abandons conventional indoor exhibition modes. Spanning 17,000 square meters at Tianjin Cultural Center, it forms an open, boundless tech venue," said Gong Kejia, director of the Hexi district bureau of science and technology.

"The outdoor format completely transformed how I interacted with technology," Ibrahim said. "Unlike indoor exhibitions, where visitors mostly watch from a distance, here I could stand right next to the robot calligraphy demonstration and observe every brushstroke up close."

"AI boasts great adaptability for large-scale conservation, inheritance, revitalization and utilization of cultural relics as well as natural and cultural resources," said Yu Haibo, an associate professor with the College of Tourism and Service Management at Nankai University.

"Every year we introduce cutting-edge robotic products, upgrade displays, competitions and performances, improve popular science programs and polish the city's IP with distinctive sci-tech tourism offerings to brand Tianjin as a renowned smart city," Gong added.

Hexi plans to institutionalize the carnival as Tianjin's landmark brand linking sci-tech, cultural tourism and industrial exchanges.

Chen Yijun contributed to this story.

China's import growth outpaced export expansion by nearly 9 percentage points in the first five months of 2026, underpinned by robust domestic demand and broader market-opening measures, economists and government officials said on Tuesday.

They said two key policy initiatives will sustain strong import momentum throughout the year. The Ministry of Commerce's "Big Market for All: Export to China" campaign has broadened access to China's vast consumer and industrial markets for global exporters. The government's expanded zero-tariff treatment for all African countries that have diplomatic ties with China, which took effect on May 1, is also expected to support import growth.

China's foreign trade grew 15.3 percent year-on-year to 20.68 trillion yuan ($3.05 trillion) during the January-May period, with exports rising 11.8 percent and imports jumping 20.5 percent, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Wang Xiaohong, a researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said the strong growth in imports reflected the effectiveness of policies aimed at expanding imports, boosting consumption and advancing high-standard opening-up.

For example, China's imports from Africa surged 15 percent year-on-year to 95.13 billion yuan in May alone, marking the ninth consecutive month of growth, customs statistics showed.

The faster growth in imports also underscored China's role as a key engine of global demand, creating new opportunities for overseas exporters and supporting trade flows at a time when many economies are facing slower growth, Wang said.

Lynn Song, chief economist for China at Dutch bank ING, said that both China's imports and exports exceeded expectations in the first five months. This was partly supported by rising prices of high-tech products, which lifted the value of both outbound and inbound shipments.

"The country's trade structure is also becoming increasingly tilted toward technology-intensive goods," he added.

Echoing that view, Sheana Yue, senior economist at British think tank Oxford Economics, said China's industrial upgrading, technological advances and well-established supply chains have enhanced the competitiveness of Chinese products, helping to sustain trade growth and market share gains despite external uncertainties.

Lyu Daliang, director of the GAC's department of statistics and analysis, said China has deepened practical economic and trade cooperation with its partners since the beginning of this year and continued to serve as a stabilizing force for global trade.

Beyond supporting imports, China's broader opening-up efforts and regional trade agreements are also helping both domestic and foreign businesses integrate more deeply into regional supply chains, facilitating both imports and exports.

Techtronic Industries (Dongguan) Co, a Dongguan, Guangdong province-based manufacturer of power tools and outdoor garden equipment, imported goods worth 1.44 billion yuan from other economies of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement between January and May, according to information released by Huangpu Customs in Guangdong.

Zheng Jiancai, the company's head of customs affairs, said the RCEP agreement has helped lower sourcing costs and improve supply chain efficiency while expanding market access across the region.

"Our lithium-ion battery packs are mainly exported to Australia and New Zealand," said Zheng.

"Since the RCEP came into force, raw materials sourced from Malaysia have been treated as originating materials under the agreement, enabling our products to qualify for preferential tariffs and enjoy tariff reductions of up to 5 percent."

In addition to importing key parts and components into China, Marelli Holdings Co, a Japanese automotive parts manufacturer, is expanding its presence in the country in areas such as smart lighting, electronics and intelligent cockpit technologies, underscoring China's growing role in the company's global operations.

"China's highly developed supply chains, rapid commercialization of new technologies and strong engineering capabilities continue to create opportunities for both imports and exports," said Shen Kelei, the group's executive vice-president.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn

The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) outlines the strategic near-future roadmap for China. This video focuses on China's plan for the industrial system and what it means for the global economy.

A driverless robotaxi glides through the streets of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, slowing to pick up a passenger before merging back into traffic. Roughly 70 kilometers away in Dongguan, robotic arms work in harmony on an assembly line, while in Shenzhen, an engineer uploads a circuit design to an online platform, and within hours the first prototype is already entering production.

Though these technologies appear to belong to different industries, they share one thing in common: many are being developed by private enterprises from Guangdong, China's largest provincial economy and one of the country's most vibrant innovation hubs.

One year after the implementation of the Private Economy Promotion Law — the country's first comprehensive legislation dedicated to promoting private sector development — Guangdong is increasingly emerging as a testing ground where policy support, manufacturing capabilities and entrepreneurial vitality are combining to nurture a new generation of globally competitive industries.

According to the Guangdong Federation of Industry and Commerce, private businesses accounted for more than 95 percent of all market entities in the province by the end of 2025, contributing over 60 percent of its GDP and foreign trade.

More importantly, private businesses have become the backbone of Guangdong's innovation ecosystem, making up more than 80 percent of both the province's national-level "little giant" enterprises and nationally recognized high-tech companies.

Labs to real roads

Few sectors better illustrate Guangdong's push toward innovation-driven growth than autonomous driving.

Founded less than a decade ago in Guangzhou, WeRide has grown into one of the world's leading autonomous driving companies whose automobility services have been deployed in more than 40 cities across 12 countries.

Eyeing an expanded global footprint, in April, WeRide launched robotaxi operations in Singapore through a partnership with Grab, while also rolling out commercial driverless services in Dubai together with Uber, further extending the reach of Chinese autonomous driving technology overseas.

For a private company founded less than 10 years ago to compete on the global stage, "everything starts with technology", said Maeve Zhang, assistant to the president and head of marketing at the company.

Zhang said at the heart of the company's strategy is its self-developed WeRide One universal autonomous driving platform, which allows robotaxis, minibuses, autonomous sanitation vehicles and freight vehicles to share nearly 90 percent of their underlying software architecture and algorithms.

"The unified platform not only reduces development costs, but also gives the company the flexibility to adapt quickly to vastly different operating environments — from tropical downpours in Southeast Asia and extreme heat in the Middle East to Europe's stringent data privacy regulations," Zhang said.

The company's robotaxi fleet has grown from 100 vehicles in 2023 to around 1,300 today, and aims to increase that number to 10,000 by 2029 and 100,000 by 2032, she said.

"There is no finish line for a technology company," Zhang said. "Its technologies must continue to evolve, and the services must also continue to improve."

Behind WeRide's global ambitions lies the strength of Guangzhou's broader automotive ecosystem. As one of the city's three pillar industries, automobile manufacturing grew 5.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, while new energy vehicle output surged 36.1 percent.

Production of lithium-ion power batteries for vehicles and intelligent in-car equipment also jumped 41.7 percent and 35.3 percent, respectively, providing fertile ground for the development of next-generation mobility technologies.

Showcases to factories

If Guangzhou's private innovators are redefining how people move, manufacturers in Dongguan and Shenzhen are transforming how things are made.

Guangdong Topstar Technology Co, a Dongguan-based industrial robotics manufacturer, has spent nearly two decades evolving alongside the province's vast factory economy. Starting with automation solutions for injection molding workshops, the company later expanded into multi-joint industrial robots and intelligent manufacturing systems.

In 2025, it unveiled Xiaotuo, a humanoid robot designed specifically for injection molding applications, followed by the launch of its quadruped robot Xingzai, capable of traversing rough terrain and carrying heavy loads in firefighting, security inspection and industrial maintenance scenarios.

Yet for Topstar, the biggest challenge is not building robots, but making them reliable enough for real-world applications.

"Completing a single pick-and-place task in a laboratory is relatively easy," said Zhang Jian, a senior executive at the company. "What customers want on a production line is continuous operation without failure."

Zhang said that delivering industrial-grade reliability requires advances not only in artificial intelligence algorithms, but also in the robot's mechanical body and the precision manufacturing equipment behind it.

"Many of the high-end machine tools used to produce complex robot components once depended on imports," he said. "Today, we have achieved independent control over core technologies, giving us a much stronger foundation for large-scale deployment."

The company's recent growth is a vivid reflection of the rising demand for intelligent manufacturing upgrades across China's industrial sector. Topstar's industrial robot and automation business revenue surged more than 80 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, while revenue from the computer numerical control machine tool business expanded over 60 percent.

A similar story is unfolding about 80 kilometers south in Shenzhen, where collaborative robot maker Shenzhen Dobot Corp is helping bring Chinese intelligent manufacturing solutions to factories around the world.

As the world's largest collaborative robot supplier by shipment volume in 2025, the manufacturer now gets more than half of its revenue from overseas.

Xie Kaixuan, Dobot's marketing director, said foreign customers are no longer choosing Chinese robots simply because they are cost-effective.

"Overseas clients are no longer asking us only, 'How much does your robot cost?' They are increasingly asking, 'How long can it work, and how reliably can it operate?'" Xie said.

That trust has been earned thanks to the strong industrial foundation that Chinese manufacturers have built over years of serving the world's most complicated and comprehensive production environments, he added.

"What overseas customers value most is that we can offer a trusted solution that has been repeatedly validated in China's extensive and real industrial environments and proven capable of long-term, stable operation," Xie said.

In many ways he believes the globalization of Chinese manufacturing is entering a new phase.

"China is no longer exporting simply cost-effective machines," Xie said. "We are exporting integrated intelligent solutions that customers can truly rely on."

Ideas to businesses

What enables so many of Guangdong's private technology companies to move from an idea to a commercial product so quickly?

Part of the answer lies not only in the province's manufacturing strength, but also in a growing ecosystem that lowers the barriers to innovation itself.

For many hardware entrepreneurs in Shenzhen, innovation now begins with a simple click.

An engineer uploads a circuit design to an online platform, and within hours the first printed circuit board enters production. A few days later, a physical prototype is ready for testing and refinement.

"Whether it's a student experimenting with a personal idea or an early-stage startup producing a small batch of prototypes, our platform makes it possible to bring those ideas to life — something traditional manufacturing often cannot support," said an executive of operations at Shenzhen JLC Technology Group Co, an integrated platform covering PCB prototyping, component sourcing, assembly and precision manufacturing.

By digitalizing the entire process, it has reduced the cost of a single PCB prototype from several thousand yuan to just tens of yuan, while shortening delivery time from several weeks to as little as 12 hours.

"Our goal is to become an accelerator for global hardware innovation and technology commercialization," he said, adding that a humanoid robot can now move from design drawings to a fully assembled prototype in as little as one to two weeks.

By the end of 2025, JLC's online platform had attracted more than 9.59 million registered users, up 34.73 percent year-on-year. The company had also served customers in over 180 countries and regions and processed more than 21.08 million orders during the year.

"Foreign users increasingly value our end-to-end service model, spanning everything from electronic design automation to prototype manufacturing," he said. "What underpins that capability is China's complete industrial ecosystem. The ability to seamlessly connect design, components sourcing and manufacturing at such speed and scale is something that is still hard to find elsewhere in the world."

Out of every 10 humanoid robots shipped worldwide, eight come from China. That single statistic from a market research company captures a remarkable shift in the country's export story.

Gone is the reliance on sheer scale and rock-bottom prices. The new wave of Chinese tech exports — embodied in robots, artificial intelligence systems and smart hardware — is defined by sophistication, speed and a distinctly high-tech appeal, experts said.

The transformation is perhaps best illustrated by an unusual race held on a crisp April morning in Beijing's southern suburbs. More than 12,000 human runners lined up for a half-marathon. Alongside them, jostling for position at the start line, stood over 100 humanoid robots.

One of them, a nimble machine named "Lightning" from the Honor Qitian Dasheng team, crossed the finish line in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. To put that in perspective, the men's half-marathon world record, set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo in March, stands at 57 minutes and 20 seconds. Lightning, built in China, beat it by nearly seven minutes.

Yet the real headline was not the winning time — it was how the robots ran. Nearly 40 percent of the teams used fully autonomous navigation, a dramatic leap from the previous year's remote-controlled field. Technologies borrowed from self-driving cars, including LiDAR and vision-only navigation, have been successfully grafted onto two-legged machines.

Zhao Mingguo, a researcher at Tsinghua University's Department of Automation, watched the race closely. "This proves that once Chinese industry sets a goal, it has the ability to get it done," he said.

Behind the marvel on the racecourse lies the relentless pursuit of technological breakthroughs and advanced manufacturing in China. The confidence that powers these robots at full speed comes from a strong industrial and supply chain system.

Today, China is home to more than 140 humanoid robot manufacturers, with annual shipments reaching 14,400 units — accounting for 84.7 percent of the global total. Out of every 10 humanoid robots shipped worldwide, eight come from China, according to a report jointly released by CCID Media and China Electronics News in March.

More importantly, Chinese technology is arriving on the global stage with a sleek, high-tech confidence. Leading the charge is AgiBot, a Shanghai-based company that has become the world's top humanoid robot shipper, according to a report by market research firm Omdia.

The company began delivering to overseas customers in 2025 and opened its first international experience center in Malaysia in January.

Then, in late February 2026, AgiBot made a decisive move into Europe. At a launch event in Munich, Germany, the company officially announced its entry into the German market, unveiling a full portfolio of general-purpose embodied robots and industry-specific system solutions tailored for Europe.

But the announcement that drew the most attention was a strategic partnership with Minth Group, a global leader in automotive exterior and structural parts.

Under the agreement, Minth's network of modern factories around the world will serve as dedicated training grounds for AgiBot's robots — real-world environments where machines can learn, collect data and refine their algorithms.

Esther Wei, Minth Group's chairwoman and CEO, said: "This partnership not only drives Minth's own smart manufacturing upgrade, but also injects precious real-scenario data into the robotics industry, accelerating algorithm iteration and technological evolution".

Customs data show that in the first quarter of this year, China's total exports of various types of robots reached 11.32 billion yuan ($1.67 billion), with shipments to 148 countries and regions. Among them, cleaning robots accounted for nearly 70 percent, becoming the main driver of exports.

For instance, walk into a tech park in Shenzhen's Nanshan district, and you will see the commercial reality behind the spectacle. Pudu Robotics has been quietly shipping service robots to more than 80 countries and regions — not only floor-cleaning machines, but also food-delivery robots that navigate crowded restaurants and customer-engagement bots that greet shoppers in malls across Europe and Southeast Asia. By the end of 2025, Pudu had shipped a total of 120,000 robots, the company said.

A few blocks away, engineers are putting a four-legged robot through its paces. At 62 kilograms, it is no toy. In one three-minute test, it performed continuous back-flips, side flips and a spinning jump that launched it 87 centimeters off the ground.

The secret? A local supply chain so efficient that the company can source all 30,000 components within half a day. That speed has allowed eight product iterations in just six months — a pace that leaves many overseas competitors struggling to keep up.

Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd, specializing in industrial robot arms, has also shipped its precision manipulators to more than 100 countries and regions. Walk into a factory in Germany or a warehouse in Brazil, and you are increasingly likely to see a Chinese-made robotic arm handling delicate assembly or heavy lifting.

Xie Kaixuan, marketing director of Dobot, said: "The key to embodied intelligence is moving from 'lab demonstration' to 'real-world commercial use'. At a cinema in Shenzhen, Dobot's humanoid robot has already achieved fully automated popcorn sales. It works 14 hours a day, and its daily revenue has exceeded 20,000 yuan."

Zhang Yin, vice-chairman and secretary-general of the Guangdong Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Industry Alliance, said: "The Greater Bay Area is the only region in the world that has both AI technology and mechatronics technology — and the ability to deeply integrate the two. This advantage is reflected in the collaboration and layout of Guangdong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region."

The export boom is not limited to walking or rolling machines. Smart glasses have become another unexpected hit. Equipped with real-time translation, visual assistance and noise-cancelling communication, they are flying off shelves from Tokyo to London. Chinese manufacturers have turned the glasses into a practical tool for business travellers and tourists alike.

In 2025, smart glass shipments in China reached 2.46 million units, a year-on-year increase of 87.1 percent. Overseas shipments grew by 64.9 percent, covering 32 countries and regions, according to data from market research company International Data Corp.

Local governments are also moving fast. The Hainan provincial government said it will focus on cultivating future industries and building new engines for development in 2026. In the field of embodied intelligence, Hainan will proactively plan for "brain-like models" tailored to unique application scenarios such as deep-sea exploration and tourism, and develop a variety of embodied intelligent robots, including underwater robots and cultural tourism consumer robots.

Seeing the potential, Beijing Galbot recently established a unit in Hainan, with a business scope covering the manufacturing of service and consumer robots and the research and development of intelligent robots.

What ties all these stories together is a fundamental shift in strategy. Chinese tech companies are no longer competing on price alone. They are offering a complete business loop: hardware to attract customers, software to keep them, and value-added services to generate long-term revenue. It is a model that has already proved successful in smartphones and electric vehicles — and now it is being applied to robotics and AI, experts added.

Contact the writers at masi@chinadaily.com.cn

At a workshop owned by Jiangsu Zhufeng Electromechanical Technology Co in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, a buyer evaluated an electric three-wheeler model destined for Indonesia, discussing modifications with engineers, who took detailed notes on the customer's requirements.

As concerns over fuel costs and energy security grow globally, China's electric three-wheelers, widely used to transport people and goods, have seen a surge in demand in overseas markets in recent months.

Jiangsu Zhufeng Electromechanical Technology Co produced nearly 30,000 units in 2025, with exports mainly destined for the United States, Turkiye, Cambodia and Indonesia. With its products having entered Brunei, Vietnam and Laos this year, the company expects its annual production to surpass 50,000 units.

From January to April this year, exports of electric three-wheelers from Xuzhou reached 168 million yuan ($24.8 million), up 87.1 percent year-on-year, while exports of related parts and components totaled 115 million yuan, an increase of 29.6 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Xuzhou Customs.

Dai Hui, deputy head of Xuzhou Customs, said that three-wheelers made in Xuzhou have reached more than 130 countries and regions.

"In addition to emerging markets, the next frontier is North America, Western Europe and Northern Europe, where exporters are stepping up efforts to expand their presence," Dai said.

Ni Xiaofeng, president of Jiangsu Guowei Motorcycle Co, another three-wheeler manufacturer based in Wuxi, Jiangsu, said the growing appeal of low-cost, energy-efficient transportation solutions, coupled with stricter environmental regulations and efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, have further boosted demand for Chinese three-wheelers in overseas markets.

"A standard electric three-wheeler and similar models typically sell for $3,000 to $6,000 in European and North American markets," he said.

Li Chengyun, head of the technical unit of Xuzhou Zhibo Locomotive Co in Xuzhou, said most electric three-wheelers on the market offer a driving range of 80 to 100 kilometers with standard lithium batteries. For an additional cost, customers can choose larger battery packs, which increase the range to as much as 180 to 220 kilometers.

"More overseas customers are demanding higher power output, prompting us to equip vehicles with larger motors," Li said. "Buyers are also requesting larger and wider tires and wheel rims, leading the company to adopt aluminum alloy wheels to better meet customers' specifications."

Zhang Hui, president of Xuzhou Zhibo Locomotive Co, said that in the long run, concerns over fuel supply disruptions and the search for affordable transportation alternatives will continue to drive the global adoption of electric three-wheelers.

Beyond traditional cargo and passenger-carrying three-wheelers, manufacturers are increasingly branching into specialty and recreational vehicles to diversify their product offerings.

He Shan, sales director at Jiangsu Shanming Shuixiu Environmental Protection Technology Co in Xuzhou, said the company's business originally focused on manufacturing cargo three-wheelers, but shifted toward developing and exporting specialty vehicles such as road sweepers after spotting growing demand in niche markets.

"We are rolling out upgraded models that can sweep streets, wash surfaces, spray water mist and suppress dust. A single sweeper can do the work of more than a dozen people," He said.

Household-use three-wheelers, passenger shuttles and leisure vehicles designed for tourist attractions and golf courses have become key growth segments for many traditional electric three-wheeler manufacturers, said Chen Bin, deputy director of the expert committee of the Beijing-based China Machinery Industry Federation.

Chen said the growing popularity of electric three-wheelers reflects a broader shift toward affordable, energy-efficient mobility solutions, creating new opportunities for Chinese manufacturers in global markets.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn

China has begun operations of the world's first undersea data center directly powered by offshore wind, as the country races to solve the soaring energy demands of artificial intelligence with greener and more efficient infrastructure.

The Shanghai Lingang undersea data center demonstration project, built by a subsidiary of China Communications Construction, officially entered operation in the waters off Shanghai's eastern coast in May.

The project combines offshore engineering, renewable energy and AI-focused digital infrastructure in a model Chinese officials and engineers describe as a potential template for next-generation computing systems.

Located about 10 kilometers offshore in Shanghai's Lingang area, the project has a planned capacity of 24 megawatts, which is enough to power roughly 20,000 households.

Its core innovation is what developers call a "direct offshore wind connection" model. Electricity generated by offshore wind farms is transmitted directly to submerged data modules through subsea photoelectric composite cables, bypassing traditional grid-routing systems.

The system also uses seawater as a natural cooling source through a circulating copper-pipe heat exchange design, reducing electricity consumption by 22.8 percent, eliminating freshwater use entirely and cutting land usage by more than 90 percent.

The move is not only an engineering breakthrough, but also a paradigm shift in the relationship between computing power, energy and geographic space in China, industry experts said.

The launch comes as China's AI boom fuels a rapid rise in demand for low-latency, high-density computing infrastructure. Shanghai has become one of China's leading AI hubs, home to large-model developers, autonomous driving firms, biotech companies, fintech groups and advanced manufacturing enterprises — industries where milliseconds can determine commercial performance.

The project also reflects a growing global scramble to tackle the energy and cooling crisis facing AI infrastructure.

Data centers have become one of the world's fastest-growing electricity consumers as companies expand AI model training and inference capacity. Cooling alone accounts for a large share of energy consumption in conventional data centers, particularly in densely populated urban markets.

Tsinghua University Professor Li Zhen said conventional data centers typically use about one-third of their total electricity consumption on cooling systems.

"For an undersea data center of the same scale, the electricity used for cooling would only account for about one-tenth of total power consumption," Li said.

China's data centers currently consume around 250 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, Li said, with roughly 80 billion kWh used for environmental cooling.

"If data centers of the same scale were placed underwater, even allowing extra margins, cooling consumption could fall to around 30 billion kWh," Li said. "That would save about 50 billion kWh of electricity each year."

He estimated the reduction would be equivalent to not burning roughly 15 million metric tons of standard coal annually, significantly lowering carbon emissions.

Globally, major technology companies are searching for new ways to reduce the environmental footprint of AI infrastructure as model sizes and inference demand expand rapidly. The combination of offshore renewable power and seawater cooling could become increasingly attractive in coastal markets where land, electricity and freshwater resources are constrained.

For China, Li said, the country that has built the world's largest manufacturing supply chains is now attempting to build a new generation of industrial infrastructure for the AI era — one where electricity, cooling and computing are engineered as a single integrated system beneath the sea.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn

China is stepping up efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into its energy sector, leveraging cutting-edge technology to drive industrial modernization, boost operational efficiency, and secure its energy future, according to industry reports and corporate milestones.

According to an action plan recently issued by the National Energy Administration, by 2030, the clean energy supply capacity for AI computing power infrastructure in China will be significantly increased, while the application of AI in the energy sector will also be considerably improved.

It also seeks to open up high-value application scenarios for AI in the energy sector, unlock the value of energy data, and strengthen AI model innovation within the energy field, it said.

According to the NEA, in 2025, China established 42 massive-scale intelligent computing clusters, pushing the total electricity consumption of national computing centers to 170 billion kilowatt-hours.

Globally, data center power consumption is projected to nearly double by 2030 compared to 2025, highlighting the urgent need for AI-driven optimization.

While this surging electricity demand presents a formidable grid challenge, China's robust energy infrastructure and rapid expansion of renewable capacity position the country uniquely to convert this power challenge into a global competitive advantage in the AI race, said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.

"The interplay of AI and the energy sector has moved from one-way support to deep integration, becoming the core pathway for cultivating new quality productive forces and building an energy powerhouse," he said.

According to the NEA, to manage this surging demand and streamline complex industrial operations, the domestic energy sector has successfully rolled out dozens of industry-specific large AI models.

These advanced platforms cover a wide spectrum of fields, including power grids, renewables, thermal and nuclear power, coal, as well as oil and gas, it said.

Exemplifying this trend, China National Petroleum Corp announced a major breakthrough on Thursday with the latest iteration of its "Kunlun" large model. The upgraded platform marks a crucial leap from passive question-answering to "active intelligence," allowing the AI to autonomously plan, dispatch tools, analyze data, and execute tasks across the production line.

As the first large model in the domestic energy and chemical industry to achieve large-scale, full-chain application, Kunlun is now deployed across 152 scenarios.

The practical impact is already reshaping traditional operations. In addition to slashing the processing cycle for three-dimensional acoustic wave inversion from 20 days to just three, cutting costs by over 30 percent, the model also boasts a drilling risk warning system with an accuracy rate exceeding 85 percent, issuing over 300 early warnings in the past six months to prevent accidents, it said.

Such breakthroughs underscore a broader transformation across China's industrial landscape, said Lin.

By shifting from traditional manual oversight to active, AI-driven management, the country's energy sector is building a more resilient, efficient, and secure foundation to power its digital future, he said.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn

Themed "Innovating at Scale", the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos, will be held in Dalian, Liaoning province, from June 23 to 25.

"We will explore how technology and innovation can be harnessed to address real-world problems and challenges, and to generate value across all of the economy and all of society," said Gim Huay Neo, managing director and member of the managing board of the World Economic Forum.

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions is a flagship meeting of the World Economic Forum. It is focused on entrepreneurship, new business models and next-generation companies.

She said that 1,500 leaders from different backgrounds, industries and geographies, representing government, academia, enterprises, international organizations and civil society, will attend the meeting.

Five priority areas will be discussed, including finding prosperity amid shifting trade and industrial realities, and driving energy and nature-positive transitions as a source of wealth and competitiveness, as well as China-specific topics.

"There is significant interest in China as the world's largest trading nation, one of the top investors and also, as a manufacturing and innovation powerhouse," she said. "The annual meeting will provide a direct pulse on China trends and opportunities, sharing of best practices and also an opportunity for international businesses to explore win-win partnerships and shared prosperity."

The forum will publish more than 15 research reports enriched with data and expert analysis, covering a full range of topics from the global economy, top emerging technologies, energy transition and others.

Neo said that the organizers are exploring how to bring in more innovative formats to the annual meeting, and bring the best of the spirit of Dalian to the world — a spirit that is open and one that embraces change, anchored in capability and connection, and fueled by ambition and vision.

Dalian has been home to the annual meeting since its first launch in 2007, hosting the annual meeting in alternate years, alongside Tianjin. This year marks the ninth time that Dalian will host the Summer Davos Forum.

Qiu Baolin, deputy mayor of Dalian, said work on this year's annual meeting is proceeding in an orderly manner.

Liaoning and Dalian have established a two-level working mechanism at the provincial and municipal levels and developed an overall preparation plan and a task list to ensure that all tasks are implemented efficiently.

"We will fully leverage the forum's role as a bridge to build more cooperation platforms and open up more channels for collaboration, aiming to attract more investors from both domestic and global markets to come to Liaoning and Dalian," he said.

zhangxiaomin@chinadaily.com.cn

China's private enterprises cemented their position as the country's main engine of innovation, jobs and green transition in 2024, accounting for more than 90 percent of high-tech firms and emerging as the largest contributor to high-tech trade for the first time.

The findings were part of the latest report by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce at its executive committee meeting that ended on Tuesday in Changsha, Hunan province.

According to the report, private companies greeted 48.5 percent of China's high-tech product imports and exports last year, while more than 70 percent increased their research and development spending.

R&D expenditure among the top 1,000 private firms reached 1.43 trillion yuan ($196 billion), with 112 companies ranking among the world's top 1,000 corporate R&D investors.

Private firms also accounted for over 80 percent of China's little giant companies listed on the Shanghai STAR Market, reinforcing their role in developing what policymakers called new quality productive forces.

Employment remained another pillar of the private sector's contribution. Nearly 34,000 surveyed firms employed a combined 12.75 million workers, with more than 71 percent reporting stable or rising staff numbers.

Private enterprises continued to absorb large numbers of university graduates, supported by a nationwide initiative that has generated more than 10 million job opportunities, the report said.

On the environmental front, 84.2 percent of China's top 500 private companies advanced green or low-carbon transition strategies last year. More than half of surveyed firms took part in ecological protection or climate change mitigation, while 4,676 companies were included in official green manufacturing lists, including 911 national-level green factories.

Philanthropy and social responsibility also featured prominently. Over 16,500 surveyed private firms engaged in charitable activities in 2024, contributing to investment promotion, disaster relief and other public welfare efforts.

ACFIC President Gao Yunlong said: "Recent policies, including a new law promoting the private economy and measures to encourage innovation and reduce barriers, have created unprecedented opportunities for private businesses."

"Private firms are expected to strengthen confidence, step up technological innovation and play a bigger role in building a modern industrial system and supporting regional development."

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn

BEIJING — China is reinforcing its job market with a mix of targeted policies and robust financial support, underscoring the country's efforts to promote high-quality and sufficient employment.

The country has created more than 12 million new urban jobs annually since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), laying a firm foundation for improving living standards and driving development momentum.

In East China's Jiangxi province, Jiujiang Golden Egret Hard Material Co Ltd recently received nearly 190,000 yuan ($26,528) in unemployment insurance refunds.

The funds, earmarked to help cover social security contributions for employees, have eased operating pressures and boosted confidence, according to the company's human resources manager Yan Zhiqiang.

The company is among more than 6,200 firms in the city of Jiujiang benefiting from the first batch of unemployment insurance refunds this year, totaling over 58 million yuan and helping safeguard more than 170,000 jobs.

Enterprises play a central role in keeping the job market stable. In July, China issued a notice detailing measures to help companies in job retention and expansion, including higher unemployment insurance refunds, phased deferrals of social security payments, and broader subsidy coverage.

Under the new policy, the maximum refund ratio for micro, small and medium-sized businesses has been lifted from 60 percent to 90 percent of the previous year's unemployment insurance payments, while for large enterprises the cap has been raised from 30 percent to 50 percent.

"Such differentiated measures provide precise support for companies of various sizes, helping them retain and expand their workforce," said Zhang Zhanwu, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Labor Science.

Official data showed that in the first half of the year, cuts in unemployment insurance rates saved firms over 90 billion yuan in labor costs. Meanwhile, 6.2 billion yuan in unemployment insurance refunds were granted to enterprises, and 11.3 billion yuan was spent on training and other pro-employment programs.

In Zhenjiang, East China's Jiangsu province, schools and enterprises are joining hands to offer customized training programs, boosting graduates' chances of landing jobs. In Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, training is being steered toward emerging sectors such as the digital economy and smart manufacturing.

China is stepping up efforts to ease structural employment mismatches, adapting to rapid technological and industrial changes by improving job surveys, issuing lists of urgently needed positions, and strengthening foresight in human resources development.

To address worker shortages in manufacturing, a key sector for both job creation and talent development, China has launched pilot programs in about 30 cities to integrate human resource services with manufacturing development.

A guideline was issued in June to launch a nationwide campaign to upgrade vocational skills through 2027, aiming to expand the pool of skilled workers in manufacturing and services.

China now has more than 200 million skilled workers, including over 60 million highly skilled professionals, a vital force for building a strong manufacturing base and advancing high-quality growth, official data showed.

Xinhua