China's NEV industry drives smarter manufacturing

The entire manufacturing process for new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China is becoming increasingly intelligent, with marked efficiency improvements ranging from assembly and inspection to data collection.

China's push for technological innovation is already taking shape on factory floors. At the Seres Super Factory in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, a symphony of more than 3,000 robots operates in perfect coordination, with key manufacturing processes fully automated.

Workers mainly focus on verifying results during quality checks, while the most complex inspection tasks are handled by AI, which can complete analysis within one second.

"(We have our) gap and flushness examination AI station there. (Those) four robots will examine all the gaps and flushness of this vehicle, the surface (alignment). All the results will be transferred immediately to the pad here. Right now, we have more than 50 examination stations here (in this factory)," said Cao Nan, general manager of the Seres Super Factory.

Hu Jingguang, a staff member responsible for inspection, said the introduction of automated equipment has significantly improved inspection precision while reducing labor demand.

"After introducing this automated equipment, the precision has improved significantly, reaching 0.1 millimeters. Labor costs have also been reduced. Previously, manual measurement required around five workers. Now we only need two people to recheck the points identified by the robots. Overall efficiency has improved by nearly 70 to 80 percent," he said.

Helping make the entire production process smarter, more efficient and safer is the factory's data center, where AI analyzes information, predicts potential risks and supports decision-making, while humans remain in control.

"(The amount of) data in this factory is much, much more than in the traditional factories. Everything we can see in this factory -- the conveyor lines, the AGVs, the air conditioning, the lights -- all these data can be transferred by our 5G technology to our database within one second," Cao said.

Already intelligent NEVs from Chinese brands are now rolling off increasingly smarter assembly lines, a trend that is also paving the way for deeper international cooperation in the sector.

"China's NEV industry has become globalized to the point where we can co-develop technologies and products with overseas automakers. We hope that in this process, we will not only sell our products overseas, but also bring our technologies to work together, develop jointly, and pursue common development. I prefer to see it as a great balance between globalization and localization," said Zhang Xuming, secretary-general of the World New Energy Vehicle Development Organization.

The country's determination to advance technological development was evident in the government work report and the draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), both approved by Chinese national lawmakers on Thursday.

China will build three international centers for sci-tech innovation and turn them into world-class innovation engines, according to the government work report.

The plan outline calls for strategic deployment in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology, biotechnology and new energy.

China's NEV industry drives smarter manufacturing

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday called on all parties to conflict to comply with their obligations under international law to protect civilians.

The call came as the Security Council held its annual day-long open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. At the debate, the Security Council was briefed that while civilians continue to suffer because parties to the conflict choose to ignore their legal obligation to protect them, adhering to the rules of war and enforcing accountability when they are broken can produce a different result.

Edem Wosornu, director of the Crisis Response Division in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said one civilian was killed approximately every 14 minutes in 2025.

"Protecting civilians in armed conflict is not charity. It is the minimum that humanity and civilian civilization require. It is central to peace and security. It is the responsibility of this Council and of every Member State that signed the United Nations Charter, and it is what many people around the world expect the Member States of the United Nations to do. It cannot be outsourced. It cannot be postponed. It cannot be diluted. It is the choice we have to make now," said Wosornu.

The United Nations recorded over 37,000 civilian deaths across 20 armed conflicts last year, compared to the 36,000 civilian deaths recorded across 14 armed conflicts in 2024.

Addressing the debate, Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said "Wars fought without rules transform wars between combatants into wars against civilians. In recent weeks, I have undertaken several missions to the Middle East, where the impact of conflict on civilians is painfully clear. But brutal patterns of warfare are becoming pervasive across regions from the Middle East to the Horn of Africa, to eastern Europe, and beyond. We can no longer pretend that what we are witnessing across war zones is in accordance with the law."

Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said at the debate that civilians are the biggest victims of armed conflict, underlining the need to promote the political settlement of hotspot issues and eliminate the threat of violence to security.

It is an obligation that all parties must fulfill in accordance with international humanitarian law, he said, adding that any double standards or selective application are unacceptable.

"The world today is rife with turmoil and escalating conflicts, claiming countless innocent lives and tearing families apart. The secretary-general's report indicates that more than 20 conflicts worldwide this year have resulted in at least 37,000 civilian deaths and displaced over 100 million people. This harsh reality once again warns us that we must act with greater urgency and stronger measures to protect civilians," said Fu.

UN Security Council calls on all parties to conflict to protect civilians