The value added of Chinese industrial companies above the designated size grew 5.3 percent year on year in the first seven months of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.
Industrial enterprises above designated size are those with annual revenue from principal business reaching or above 20 million yuan (about 2.97 million U.S. dollars).
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui said industrial production maintained relatively rapid growth during the period, with equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing showing strong momentum.
"From January to July, the value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size rose 5.3 percent year on year. By sector, value-added of the mining industry grew by 2.5 percent, manufacturing by 5.6 percent, and production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water by 5.4 percent. The value-added of the equipment manufacturing industry rose by 9.7 percent, while that of the high-tech manufacturing grew by 13.8 percent, outpacing the overall growth rate of industrial enterprises above the designated size by 4.4 and 8.5 percentage points, respectively," he said.
Products such as lithium-ion batteries and industrial robots posted extraordinary growth, according to the spokesperson.
"By product, output of 3D printing equipment, lithium-ion batteries, and industrial robots rose 52.3 percent, 40.2 percent, and 28.5 percent year on year, respectively," Fu said.
The NBS also revealed that the value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size grew 4.5 percent year on year in July.
China's large firms' industrial output rises 5.3 pct in first 7 months
Iran has warned regional countries that any support for the United States in the event of a renewed armed conflict would be regarded as a hostile act toward Tehran, an Iranian official said on Friday.
Iran would be able to identify which regional states are prepared to back American forces if military action resumes, said Fada Hossein Maleki, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, speaking with Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
He added that in such a scenario, Iran could take actions beyond strikes on the military bases of those countries, and those countries themselves will be classified as hostile states.
Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on the same day that the United States has spent 11 billion U.S. dollars in taxpayers' money on missile defense for Israel within the past three years.
"It has fired more interceptors defending Israel than Israel has," Araghchi said. "That is not a symbiotic relationship. It is a parasitic one."
The U.S. and Israeli militaries have drawn up concrete plans to launch another military strike on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing U.S. officials and other informed sources.
However, it remains uncertain whether U.S. President Donald Trump will approve the plan.
A senior Iranian security official has warned that global energy markets will remain volatile "for the next three years" if the U.S. continues its current pressure campaign against Iran.
"Perpetuating the current situation will carry strategic consequences, not least that the energy markets will not find calm for the next three years," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said in an interview, published Thursday, with U.S.-based news outlet Drop Site News.
Rezaei said that if another war is imposed on Iran, Tehran still has the capacity to launch missiles and drones at various U.S. assets across the region and will expand its target list to include "cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities."
The official also said Gulf states "are rapidly redefining their relationship with Iran" as they realize that "the U.S. military is incapable of defending its own bases."
Iran warns regional countries against support for US in case of renewed armed conflict
