China's high-quality economic development has achieved remarkable results in 2024, with the development of new quality productive forces in steady progress, sci-tech achievements springing up, and industries promoting innovation and green transition.
At present, China has over 4.14 million 5G base stations, with 29 base stations per 10,000 people, marking the early completion of a development goal set for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).
As of the end of August, China had 6.03 million enterprises in the manufacturing sector, according to statistics from the China Organization Data Service.
Among them, 515,300 are related to the strategic emerging industries, up 6.35 percent from the end of last year and accounting for 8.55 percent of the total, data showed.
China's annual production of new energy vehicles has surpassed the 10 million milestone for the first time.
The output of the "new three" products, namely new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, are all expected to hit new highs this year.
The market size of humanoid robots in China is expected to reach three billion yuan this year.
These rising numbers reflect the expansion of the already broad space for China's high-quality development.
In 2024, China's first large cruise ship "Adora Magic City" began its maiden commercial voyage; the country's first domestically designed and built deep-ocean research drilling vessel, the Meng Xiang, was officially commissioned; the world's first low-earth orbit satellite to test 5G and 6G space-ground integrated network was launched; and the world's first 18-megawatt offshore wind turbine was successfully installed in China. "Leading the world in digital infrastructure construction, China has built the world's largest fiber optic and mobile broadband networks. China's technological innovation capabilities in cloud computing and big data are in the world's top tier, and its capabilities of supplying digital products and services such as industrial robots and industrial software have kept improving," said Liu Wenqiang, vice president of the China Center for Information Industry Development under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
In fact, these achievements are hard-won.
In the first half of the year, industrial production slowed down, and the monthly growth rate of the total added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size remained below one percent, according to official data.
Industrial enterprises above the designated size refer to industrial enterprises with revenue from principal activities reaching 20 million yuan or more.
The growth sped up significantly in September, with the year-on-year growth rate exceeding five percent in the month and the month-on-month growth rate also on the rise.
In November, the added value of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing enterprises surged by 7.9 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively, providing strong support for industrial production.
The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector stood at 49.2 percent in January and remained in the contraction zone until October, when it rebounded back to 50.1. In November, the index rose further to 50.3 percent.
The positive changes can be attributed to a series of policies adopted by the Chinese government this year.
In January, China released a guideline on promoting the innovative development of future industries, pledging vigorous support for new industries integrated with advanced technology, such as humanoid robots, brain-computer interface and 6G, and laying the foundation for the cultivation of new growth drivers.
China released a guideline on accelerating the green transition of the manufacturing sector in February and an action plan on promoting large-scale equipment upgrades and trade-in of consumer goods the next month, making arrangements to upgrade its traditional industries at a faster pace.
Addressing the slowdown in industrial economy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a circular in June to step up support for more than 1,000 "little giant" firms in the country to forge new growth drivers, tackle technological challenges, develop new products, and build up the supporting capacities of the industrial chain.
"Little giants" refer to the novel elites of China's small and medium-sized enterprises that are engaged in manufacturing, specialize in a niche market and boast cutting-edge technologies.
In September, China unveiled plans to build manufacturing pilot-scale testing platforms and new material pilot-scale testing platforms, so as to facilitate the application of new technologies in factories.
China has allowed private enterprises to participate in major national projects and provided them with data and financial support to promote innovation.
This year, the new energy vehicle section of the national key research and development project is led by a private company, the Beijing WELION New Energy Technology Company, which is working with nine other teams to lower technological and material thresholds limiting mass production of semi-solid-state batteries. "We are working with leading upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain for joint development to achieve large-scale mass production of materials and ensure the quality of products. Currently, the semi-solid-state batteries installed in electric vehicles can enable them to travel more than 1,000 kilometers without being recharged. We expect to realize large-scale mass production of all-solid-state batteries in 2027," said Yu Huigen, founder and chairman of the company.
As of the end of October, the number of valid invention patents in China had reached 4.66 million, of which 3.417 million patents were held by enterprises, accounting for over 73 percent of the total.
Jinan City in east China's Shandong Province has launched financing guarantee products tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, an innovative move to support small businesses and boost economic development.
In Anyi County, the "capital of aluminum" in east China's Jiangxi Province, local authorities are working on the first case in the province to count industrial big data as assets.
"In the past, our data, including product designs, profile specifications, sales areas and logistics information, were used only within our company. Now, they have become assets. After this data platform is established, we can learn about the industrial and market demand to further improve the quality of our products and improve our sales channels," said Sun Lan, general manager of Baerdick Anyi.
China now has 74 "lighthouse factories", ranking first in the world. It is also home to all the sustainable "lighthouse factories" designated this year.
The Global Lighthouse Network is a global initiative created by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey in 2018. It has since released 12 lists of 172 "lighthouse factories," which are considered to represent the leading level of intelligent manufacturing and digitization in the global manufacturing industry.
One of them is a factory of the Foxconn Industrial Internet in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province. It has hundreds of autonomous devices operating in a dark area of nearly 1,000 square meters.
"In fact, we have basically fully achieved unmanned operation. All the production facilities are controlled by intelligent devices and systems," said Wu Zhenting, director of intelligent manufacturing of the company.
Using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, the factory has optimized material recycling, realized real-time recording of its carbon footprints, and made innovations in the production process, reducing carbon emissions and raising the proportion of recycled materials in metal and plastic raw materials to 75 percent.
The factory has not only reduced carbon emissions, lowered costs and improved efficiency, but also transferred its digital transformation experience, solutions and platform technologies to other companies, improving the capacities of more than 200 workshops in 10 factories.
It is providing services for more than 1,500 companies in 10 industries, including electronic manufacturing, automobiles and parts, and home furnishings. "One of our purposes of building lighthouse factories is to set an example. This not only involves the application of advanced technologies, but also the transformation and upgrades of our management process and personnel organization. They should be good references for other companies," said Liu Zongchang, chief data officer of the company.
The annual Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing earlier this month called for efforts to make scientific and technological innovation drive the development of new quality productive forces and build a modernized industrial system, charting the course for the industrial economic development next year.
Looking ahead to 2025, China's industrial investment is expected to maintain rapid growth, the integration between real economy and digital economy will further deepen, the upgrades of large-scale equipment will accelerate, the transformation of traditional industries will continue to advance, and the cultivation of emerging industries and future industries will speed up to create new growth vitality in a constant manner.
Highlights of China's industrial economy in 2024
