Chinese troops unveil unmanned systems in joint drills with Mongolian counterparts

Chinese and Mongolian troops on Saturday wrapped up their "Steppe Partner 2026" joint drills in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with the drills featuring the adoption of Chinese unmanned systems.

Before the closing ceremony, the two sides conducted a live-fire exercise on the subject of joint operations against illegal armed groups, as a test for the week-long joint training sessions.

At 09:00, the Chinese troops participating in the training deployed drones and "robotic wolves" to conduct joint reconnaissance of the simulated enemy's outer perimeter positions in coordination with participating Mongolian forces.

Inside the joint command post, commanders from both sides conducted comprehensive analysis based on the transmitted intelligence and jointly directed their troops to complete the operation.

During the exercise, "enemy" combatants used fortified bunkers to launch a counterattack and set up temporary obstacles in front of their positions. Commanders from both China and Mongolia adjusted their deployments, leveraging the fire control advantages of the joint assault group's armored equipment to construct a fire network.

The "robotic wolves" that carried assault rifles on them smoothly crossed the obstacles and maneuvered precisely toward "enemy" guard positions with suppressive fires. Artillery fire teams, in coordination with the mobile assault team, annihilated the entire "enemy" force.

"Both China and Mongolia deployed multiple combat units, including reconnaissance, firepower, and air defense units, and various types of weapons and equipment to jointly complete tasks such as aerial reconnaissance and fire strikes. Relying on a joint command post, the two sides shared information in real time and conducted joint reconnaissance, joint planning, and joint clearing and crackdown operations according to the progress of the operation," said Lieutenant Colonel Ge Changyong, a member of the participating Chinese troops.

The joint exercise, in its second edition this year, was first held in 2024.

Chinese troops unveil unmanned systems in joint drills with Mongolian counterparts

In the first half of this year, the vitality of business entities in China and the high-end development of the industrial structure have been further improved, delivering solid achievements in high-quality development, an official with the State Taxation Administration (STA) said on Tuesday.

Hu Jinglin, the STA commissioner, told a press conference that the number of tax-paying business entities has increased during the period. "Tax data showed that the vitality of business entities in China has further improved from January to June. The number of active tax-paying business entities that are operating normally in China rose 20.2 percent year on year and the number of tax declaration companies gained 10 percent year on year," said Hu.

Hu noted that high-tech and digital economy industries saw a surge in sales revenue during the same period.

"The high-end development of the industrial structure has been further advanced. The sales revenue of high-tech industries and core digital economy industries increased 15 percent and 8.7 percent year on year, respectively. And their share of the total enterprise sales revenue expanded 1.7 percentage points and 1.1 percentage points year on year, respectively. At the same time, the profits of high-tech manufacturing enterprises and digital product service enterprises surged 29.2 percent and 64.4 percent year on year, respectively," said the official.

China's foreign investment inflows and foreign trade exports continued to demonstrate strong resilience in the six months, Hu added.

"The stability of [China's] opening up to the world has been further enhanced. The number of foreign-funded tax-paying entities rose 10.9 percent year on year. The total profit declared by foreign-funded enterprises increased 4.5 percent year on year. The number of export tax rebates processed by the tax authorities for enterprises gained 7.7 percent year on year. These figures indicate that China's introduction of foreign investment and foreign trade exports continue to maintain strong resilience," he said.

China's business vitality further enhanced in H1