China’s New Quality Productivity Drives Industrial Upgrading Across Sectors in 2026

BEIJING, June 6 — China is fostering robust industrial transformation through new quality productivity in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, balancing industrial upgrading and steady economic growth across traditional, emerging and future industries. Driven by technological innovation and institutional optimisation, industrial sectors nationwide are achieving dynamic progress featuring traditional industry upgrading, emerging industry expansion and future industry commercialisation.

Cutting-edge technological breakthroughs are bringing future industrial sectors from conceptual design to practical application. A home-grown field-reversed magnetic mirror fusion device, FLAME, has achieved its first plasma discharge at the laboratory of Hefei Xingneng Xuanguang Technology. The 18.5-metre integrated facility, composed of five series-connected vacuum chambers, was independently developed and completed within two years since the company’s founding, marking a key step forward in China’s fusion energy industrialisation.

Anhui Province is building a full-chain innovation system to unlock industrial potential, smoothing bottlenecks spanning basic research, conceptual verification, pilot testing and mass production. The region has cultivated a complete industrial ecosystem for fusion energy, enabling original technological innovations to fuel the explosive growth of future industries.

Traditional manufacturing sectors are also gaining new vitality from intelligent and digital transformation. Shandong-based Yantai Xingye Machinery has maintained full-capacity operation on automated production lines, with business orders secured through to the end of the year. The company’s independently developed unmanned remote-controlled scraper loaders have been put into operation in Zambia, supporting unmanned and minimally manned operations in deep mines across multiple African countries. Ongoing digital workshop construction will further empower the enterprise to build high-end, green and intelligent mining equipment systems.

Emerging intelligent industries are demonstrating strong developmental momentum. Humanoid robots developed by Shandong UBOT Intelligent Robotics have completed professional marathon tests in Beijing and been deployed in multiple scenarios including public security, power supply, fire rescue and rail transit. The enterprise plans to achieve large-scale shipment targets in 2026 and advance the research and development of visual language artificial intelligence models to expand industrial application boundaries.

Smooth transformation and industrial synergy rely on efficient conversion of scientific and technological achievements. Anhui Technology Market has deployed professional technical managers to bridge gaps between universities, research institutes and market entities, providing full-process services including patent evaluation, business planning and investment docking to accelerate project implementation. Nationwide, collaborative mechanisms integrating governments, enterprises, universities and research institutions have been continuously improved, facilitating two-way integration of innovation and industrial chains.

Regional coordinated innovation has become a core driver of high-quality development. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have formed world-class innovation clusters and advanced manufacturing systems, undertaking core tasks of cultivating new quality productivity. Policy support and resource integration have promoted the shift from single-city breakthroughs to integrated regional development, while underdeveloped regions are fostering characteristic industrial advantages through technological spillover and local innovation cultivation.

Supportive institutional and financial systems are being comprehensively optimised to consolidate industrial development foundations. According to official releases from the State Council Information Office, the 15th Five-Year Plan prioritates consolidating the real economy and cultivating new quality productivity. Multiple national authorities have launched targeted supporting measures, including increased re-lending quotas for technological innovation, optimised capital market access standards and gradient cultivation mechanisms for small and medium-sized specialised and innovative enterprises.

Industry researchers note that China will continue to strengthen basic research and market-oriented technological research mechanisms, improve pilot testing platforms and incentive policies for first-set equipment applications. Continuous optimisation of innovation ecology and balanced development of diverse industries will sustain steady industrial upgrading, injecting enduring momentum into the country’s high-quality economic advancement.