China's sports industry is now positioned as a dynamic growth engine for the national economy, with the General Administration of Sport recently releasing a plan for building a leading sports nation during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).
Setting a target of exceeding 7 trillion yuan (about 1.03 trillion U.S. dollars) in total industry value by 2030, the plan identifies event economy as the core lever for driving sports industry development. It explicitly calls for improving the competitive sporting performances industry chain, and establishing an event economic ecosystem centered on independent intellectual property events.
"The plan, on the one hand, leverages the influence and comprehensive driving effect of city leagues such as for football and basketball. On the other hand, it continues to support grassroots mass events such as Village Super League, Village Basketball Association, and Village Volleyball, strengthening the sports event economy at different levels," said Wang Zhaohong, vice dean of the School of Physical Education and Sports at Beijing Normal University.
In Rongjiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Guizhou Province, this year's "Village Super League" has reached new heights in scale, with 137 village teams actively participating and more than 520 exciting matches held so far, fully demonstrating the vigorous vitality of mass sports.
The local authorities have integrated the new season's events with intangible cultural heritage performances, creating an entirely new "Village Super League Village Gala". This uniquely rural-flavored event intellectual property has attracted approximately 5.06 million visits over the past six months through the "traveling with events" trend, which led to an increase in the number of visitors by 7.20 percent year on year.
Professional events are equally booming. Since the start of the 2026 season, attendance figures for the Chinese Super League have continued to climb, repeatedly setting records. Tickets to multiple home stadiums including Beijing Workers' Stadium, Chengdu Phoenix Hill Stadium, Dalian Suoyuwan Stadium, and Shanghai Stadium have been sold out like hot cakes. With its overall booming market, the Chinese Super League firmly holds the top spot in Asia for average attendance per match.
"Clubs are no longer focusing solely on 90-minute matches. Instead, through various home venue activities, they are transforming their home grounds into destinations for fan socializing, cultural check-ins, and family consumption, turning fans from 'spectators' into 'participants', and from 'consumers' into 'co-creators'," said Li Kemin, president of the Chinese Professional Football League (CFL).
From hosting international comprehensive sports events to independently creating event intellectual properties, China is innovatively building a distinctive and diversified sports event ecosystem.
"Sports will be an important field for unlocking the potential of service consumption. A single event drives not only ticket consumption, but also related consumption including dining, accommodation, transportation, tourism, and cultural and creative products. Looking ahead to the next five years, sports will be more deeply integrated into economic and social development," said Wei Guoxue, Director of the Strategic Planning Research Office, Institute of Social Development Research, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
China targets 7 trillion-yuan sports industry, building event-driven economic ecosystem
China's exports of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and innovative drugs, which all represent the country's new core strategic industries and fresh economic growth engines, saw significant growth in the first half of the year, and are becoming new calling cards for the shipping lists of Chinese-made goods.
Since the beginning of this year, exports of AI products have grown rapidly. From optical fibers and optical modules to servers, products along the AI industry chain now account for more than 50 percent of the increment in mechanical and electrical product exports. AI technology is no longer confined to stand-alone hardware exports. It is now exporting algorithms, computing power, and digital solutions to the world.
At a factory in Dongguan City of south China's Guangdong Province, production is in full swing for liquid cooling products used in computing server heat dissipation, with shipments destined for overseas markets. As the Chinese server hardware provider accelerated building its global computing centers, its export orders have continued to surge.
"Our export revenue for the first half of this year doubled, compared with the same period last year. Our export orders for the second half are already booked through the first quarter of next year," said Shan Xiaojun, general manager of Dongguan Liminda Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.
Meanwhile, Chinese robotics exports have formed a complete product echelon, with consumer, industrial, and cutting-edge humanoid robots all flourishing. In the first half of this year, China's combined exports of cleaning robots and bionic robots reached 18.09 billion yuan (about 2.67 billion U.S. dollars), while its industrial robot exports hit 6.29 billion yuan (about 929.60 U.S. dollars), up 18.6 percent year on year, with products sold to 141 countries and regions worldwide.
At a robotics company in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, a variety of cleaning robots are being tested in different scenarios. It only began production in the first half of this year, but overseas orders are already scheduled through December.
Behind this order growth lies an ever-accelerating pace of innovation. In the Wuzhong District of the city, more than 1,600 upstream and downstream enterprises, including radar, sensor, and core motor suppliers, have clustered around the robotics industry, shortening the supply chain radius to within 10 kilometers.
"Our project cycle has been shortened from nine months to as little as six months. We used to release one generation of products per year, but we can now rapidly iterate and launch two core generations annually," said Wu Qi, global product director of Ecovacs Robotics. Innovative drugs have also posted impressive export performance. In the first half of the year, the total transaction value of out-licensing deals for Chinese innovative drugs exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars, setting a new record high. These deals cover 10 therapeutic areas, such as oncology, metabolism, immunology, and neurology, with buyers spanning more than 20 countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
"From the ‘old trio' that opened up international markets, to the ‘new trio' that consolidated high-end manufacturing, and now to the ‘new new trio' to lead the future, the evolution and iteration of three generations of signature products showcase China's systemic leap from the world's factory to 'made in China' and to 'innovated in China', indicating that China is moving from a global manufacturing center to a global innovation hub. This transition will steer China's economy from a ‘scale dividend’ toward an ‘innovation dividend’," said Jin Ruiting, a researcher with the Institute of Foreign Economics under the National Development and Reform Commission.
The 'old trio' refers to labor-intensive clothing, furniture, and home appliances which were the backbone of China's early export boom while the 'new trio' is represented by electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and solar cells which showcase China's competitive edge in the global energy transition. The ‘new new trio’ or ‘new new-three' is marked by robotics, AI, and innovative drugs.
Robots, AI, innovative drugs emerge as China's new export calling card
