Chinese manufacturers are constantly shifting their focus from scale and quantity to quality and innovation during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), leading the new pattern of world industrial development with eye-catching achievements.
China has kept strengthening the research and development of key core technologies and their applications during the period, driving the development of new quality productive forces with sci-tech innovation.
One typical highlight of China's manufacturing is foldable, curved, or retractable screens used for mobile phones and tablets. Over one million of these high-tech screens are now produced in China every day. One single screen could be the subject of over 18,000 patents.
From steel softer than paper to glass harder than diamond, from a three-hour "flash delivery" to space to a ship that is expected to penetrate the earth's crust, Chinese manufacturing is constantly pushing the boundaries of imagination.
Over the past five years, the number of China's "Lighthouse Factories" has increased sixfold, ranking first in the world. In the field of advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data technologies are driving traditional manufacturing towards intelligent manufacturing.
The WEF, along with consulting firm McKinsey, launched the Global Lighthouse Network in 2018 to identify manufacturers that are actively pushing toward the "fourth industrial revolution" by pursuing high efficiency, intelligence and green technologies.
Over the past five years, China's manufacturing value added has increased by eight trillion yuan (about 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars), contributing more than 30 percent to global manufacturing growth.
China's manufacturing moves towards high-quality, innovation over past 5 years
Highlighting the "Future Energy" as a key direction for China's strategic emerging industries, the country's nuclear energy development, guided by its three-step strategy, has seen major strides in the past year, said a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
In a recent press briefing, Xin Feng, also deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), updated the media on the progresses China has achieved under the strategy.
"China's three-step strategy for nuclear energy development -- from the thermal reactor to the fast reactor and the fusion reactor -- was formulated in 1983 as a medium- and long-term plan. For the thermal reactor, over the past year, our 2.0 version of the Hualong One technology has been approved. This is a unified and fully self-owned intellectual property based third-generation nuclear power technology solution. And the Linglong One small modular reactor also successfully completed its cold-state functional test last year and is expected to be put into commercial operation this year," he said.
For the second and third steps, Chinese researchers and engineers have achieved milestones in the past year with the government support, Xin noted.
"Then for the fast reactor, last year, a closed-cycle system for an integral fast reactor successfully achieved preliminary standard design. We will continue to solve its engineering technology challenges. As for the fusion reactor, in 2025, with national support, we established the China Fusion Energy Company in Shanghai. And our Huanliu-3, a platform for conducting research and development of fusion technology, made a big stride, with an iron temperature in it achieving 117 million Celsius and an electron temperature reaching 160 million Celsius. We will continue to adhere to the development strategy and focus on technological research and engineering technology development," Xin said.
The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, respectively.
The "two sessions" -- which refer to the annual meetings of China's supreme organ of state power, the National People's Congress (NPC), and its top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC -- are a key event on the country's political calendar and offer a window into the country's development direction.
China's nuclear energy development makes great strides with three-step strategy: CPPCC member
