Chinese VP meets Russian President Putin

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Han conveyed Chinese President Xi Jinping's cordial greetings and best wishes to Putin. He noted that China-Russia relations have remained stable and resilient amid an international landscape of intertwined changes and turbulence, thanks to the strategic stewardship of the two presidents.

The two heads of state held successful talks in Beijing recently and reached important new consensus on bilateral ties and cooperation across diverse fields, Han said.

China stands ready to work with Russia to well implement the important consensus, constantly consolidate political mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, strengthen international coordination, and continuously enrich the connotations of bilateral relations, he said.

Han said both countries are important constructive forces for safeguarding global strategic stability and improving global governance. A high-level China-Russia relationship is not only an inevitable requirement for the development and revitalization of the two countries, but also the responsibility of the era that both sides shoulder for promoting world peace, stability and development.

China looks forward to enhancing coordination with Russia to foster a more just and equitable global governance system, he said.

Putin asked Han to convey his sincere regards to President Xi and welcomed Han's visit to Russia for the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Putin said Russia-China relations are at an unprecedented high level. During his recent successful visit to China, he had in-depth exchanges with Xi on a wide range of topics and defined the future direction of bilateral cooperation, Putin said.

This year, the two countries will jointly celebrate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Russia-China Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, and launched the Russia-China Years of Education, Putin said, noting that Russia is committed to unswervingly deepening political mutual trust and good-neighborly friendship with China, advancing exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and contributing stability to global peace and development through the certainty of Russia-China ties.

Chinese VP meets Russian President Putin

Chinese VP meets Russian President Putin

The Caixin Robotics Industry Index (RII) was released at the Inaugural AI High-Quality Development Conference held in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, on Saturday.

The index, a comprehensive benchmark dedicated to the robotics sector, reached 125.1 last month, up nearly 25 percent from two years ago.

According to Caixin, Beijing topped the city robotics industry index, which measures the share of robotics-related industrial inputs in a city's overall economic inputs.

Nanjing, Xi'an, Hangzhou, and Suzhou also ranked among the top five.

In 2025, China produced more than 770,000 industrial robots and over 18 million service robots, with output expected to continue rising in the years ahead.

The climb of the index comes as robotics has been elevated in China's national planning, underscoring the sector's growing role in industrial transformation and future economic strategy, according to Wang Zhe, senior economist with the Caixin Insight, the compiler of the index.

"The robotics industry was mentioned in both the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), and the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) . Over the past five years, this industry has fully developed. From these two plans, we can see that the position of this sector has been upgraded. Five years ago, robots were just part of manufacturing upgrades, but now and looking ahead to the next five years, robotics, alongside many other emerging industries, is poised to grow into a pillar industry for China," said Wang.

Climb of robot industry index point to industrial growth