By Liu Juanxi, People’s Daily

“Digital and intelligent transformation” is a frequently quoted term in the outline of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for National Economic and Social Development.

What exactly does this term mean?

As the term suggests, it represents the deep integration of digitalization and intelligent technologies. Building on the foundations of digitalization, it incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including intelligent decision-making and deep perception, to analyze, predict, and address complex problems and support practical applications.

The shift in wording, from “digitalization” in the 14th Five-Year Plan to “digital and intelligent transformation” in the 15th, reflects China’s efforts to embrace the latest technological revolution and industrial transformation. Driven by the rapid development of AI, the country is steadily moving toward a new stage of high-quality development.

In the past, China’s digital industry was large in size but not sufficiently developed, and the country’s computing-power infrastructure needed significant improvement. 

In recent years, however, construction and investment have accelerated. In 2025, China’s core AI industry exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan ($176.52 billion). By the end of March this year, the country had built 4.958 million 5G base stations. The eight national computing hubs under the “East Data, West Computing” initiative have developed into major computing clusters, and China’s total computing capacity now ranks second in the world. These advances have laid the foundations for the country’s digital and intelligent transformation.

Why, then, is China placing such emphasis on this transformation?

Digital and intelligent transformation represents an evolution in the development philosophy of enterprises.

To address challenges in mining operations, Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co., Ltd. has developed a smart mining solution. Guided by an intelligent dispatch system, unmanned excavators can perform precision operations while autonomous mining trucks automatically plan their routes.

In the past, mining relied heavily on manual labor, involving high risks and significant margins of error. With the smart mining solution, the entire process can be operated without human intervention, reducing safety risks while significantly improving efficiency.

An increasing number of companies are using digital and intelligent innovation to develop new equipment, build smart workshops and intelligent factories, and improve efficiency and productivity. The transformation is injecting fresh vitality into industrial development.

Digital and intelligent transformation is empowering a wide range of sectors, creating new business models and opening up fresh sources of economic growth.

The intelligent robotics industry provides a vivid example.

At the School of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics of Hunan University, researchers have developed a bionic dual-arm robot capable of grasping glass bottles and placing them onto pharmaceutical spectrometers for sample testing. The robot is able to think and analyze like humans and perform complex experimental tasks.

“We’ve created a ‘physical feedback learning’ mechanism, enabling the robot to become smarter through continuous practice,” said Zhang Hui, dean of the school.

Digital and intelligent transformation requires industrial equipment to possess adaptive and self-learning capabilities, driving strong market demand for intelligent robots. In turn, this demand is creating new business opportunities throughout the industrial chain, including sensing systems, decision-making systems, execution systems, and systems integration, generating new engines of economic growth.

Digital and intelligent transformation will also provide powerful momentum for developing new quality productive forces.

At the end of last year, China successfully tested the world’s first 35,000-ton heavy-haul train convoy system. Seven 5,000-ton freight trains operated in coordination without being mechanically coupled in the traditional way. Instead, they relied on a domestically developed intelligent system that enabled them to accelerate and brake simultaneously.

This transition in railway freight transport, from “mechanical coupling” to “intelligent connectivity,” offers a model for developing new quality productive forces across industries.

What more efforts are needed to complete the shift from “digitalization” to “digital and intelligent transformation?”

China’s 15th Five-Year Plan provides a clear roadmap.

The country will coordinate the development of computing infrastructure, model algorithms, and high-quality data resources to strengthen the foundations for digital and intelligent development. 

It will fully implement the “AI Plus” initiative, integrating AI with scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, cultural advancement, public services, and social governance, while striving to seize the commanding heights of AI applications and comprehensively empower all sectors of the economy.

At the same time, China will pursue development and regulation in tandem, improve the basic institutions and rules governing data, strengthen AI governance, and foster a development environment that is beneficial, secure, and fair.

By making effective use of cutting-edge technologies, enhancing productivity and social governance capabilities, and helping build a society that is more resilient, dynamic, and efficient, China is embracing digital and intelligent transformation across all industries and sectors.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

The 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum (WEF), also known as the 2026 Summer Davos forum, wrapped up in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning province on June 25 after three days of discussions on the future of technology, industry and global innovation cooperation. 

Against a backdrop of slowing global growth, geopolitical tensions and mounting uncertainty, the forum sent a positive message of seeking new solutions and advancing together through cooperation. 

Inside and outside the conference venue, one consensus has grown increasingly solid: driven by innovation, China is elevating its development opportunities. As it delivers greater market dividends, the country is also sharing a rising stream of innovation dividends with the globe.

Innovation has consistently been central to Summer Davos themes. This year’s “Innovating at Scale” discussions emphasized the crucial shift from technological breakthroughs to widespread application, transforming new ideas into tangible productivity that drives economic growth and improves lives.

Discussions on advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics generated significant interest. A focal point became the rapid emergence and adoption within China of new technologies, products, and business models.

In recent years, China has demonstrated swift uptake across large AI models, new energy, electric vehicles, advanced manufacturing, humanoid robots, and the burgeoning low-altitude economy. This transition, moving specific innovations into broad industrial applications, has yielded replicable models and valuable experience.

Stephan Mergenthaler, WEF managing director and chief technology officer, highlighted this by noting AI technology’s shift towards industrial use. He suggested many developing countries could leverage China’s experience to identify their own competitive advantages and effectively integrate into the global AI value chain.

Given the complex international landscape marked by slowing economic growth and turbulence, innovation stands out as a vital path to counter downward pressures and unlock new momentum. Addressing challenges like shifts in global trade patterns, accelerating the energy transition, and maximizing AI investment benefits requires intensified international cooperation.

China’s sustained openness serves as a critical enabler in this equation. Increasing numbers of multinationals are expanding their research and development activities such as building R&D centers and regional headquarters in China, not simply to manufacture products but to participate in local innovation and industrial chains.

Their focus increasingly moves from tapping into “Made in China” manufacturing capacity to participating in “Created in China” innovation. Building on this trend, foreign-invested enterprises in China’s scientific and technical services sector surged by 27.2 percent year-on-year in 2025, adding 14,000 new businesses.

For global enterprises, this represents “China Opportunity 2.0”: deep innovation integration and rewarding investment prospects. For worldwide development, it signifies broader access to advanced technologies and more inclusive sharing of its outcomes.

The forum also devoted considerable attention to China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, helping participants gain a clearer understanding of the vast opportunities generated by China’s innovation-driven development. 

Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese economy has continued to demonstrate new vitality and renewed dynamism. The demand potential of its enormous market has been further unleashed, with service consumption, green consumption and new forms of consumption emerging as particular bright spots.

This demonstration of resilience is contributing needed stability to an uncertain global environment. A prevailing view among attendees was that the 15th Five-Year Plan’s strategies for developing “new quality productive forces” and nurturing emerging industries present significant “historic opportunities” for international development partners.

Ultimately, innovation delivers its greatest value when it is shared across the globe. As China’s innovations go global and are deployed on a larger scale, more countries, especially developing ones, are gaining access to affordable new technologies and products, injecting fresh momentum into modernization worldwide.

China stands ready to work with all parties to tear down walls and build bridges, stimulate innovation through exchanges and mutual learning, and achieve common growth through mutual success. By enlarging the pie of the global economy through innovation, China seeks to ensure that the dividends of innovation benefit all and provide a continuous source of Chinese strength for the recovery of the world economy.

By Cao Wenxuan, People’s Daily

On Dec. 18, 2025, the Hainan Free Trade Port officially launched island-wide special customs operations. Since then, many businesses have shifted from a wait-and-see stance to strategic layout, and from tentative trials to in-depth development.

Statistics show that between the launch of island-wide special customs operations and May 31, 2026, a total of 172,100 new market entities were registered in Hainan, a year-on-year increase of 61.07 percent. Among them, 139,500 were newly established enterprises, up 123.04 percent.

What underpins this magnet effect? How do policy advantages translate into developmental thrust? Three illustrative cases provide insights:

Global Repair Hub Redefining Value Chains

On the first day of island-wide special customs operations, the Haikou branch of SonoScape Medical Corp fulfilled the first order of bonded maintenance services for both-ends-abroad clients for endoscopes. The company, headquartered in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong province, sells independently developed products to more than 170 countries and regions.

A July 2025 Hainan policy revision classified endoscopes among 38 approved items eligible for internationally oriented bonded maintenance. As general manager Li Xiaoxi explains, offshore service centers often lack advanced repair capabilities, while some replaced components historically faced import restrictions. The Free Trade Port now enables comprehensive refurbishment, reuse, and value-chain upgrading.

“This facilitates the repatriation of high-value industrial segments previously anchored overseas,” Li emphasized.

Six Hainan enterprises now hold bonded maintenance licenses, with three activating operational frameworks. Fifteen international maintenance batches exceeding 3.5 million yuan ($516,620) have been processed under the updated regulatory regime.

Advanced Manufacturing Anchor Ignites Development

At the Yangpu Economic Development Zone in Danzhou, Hainan, construction is in full swing on the Siemens Energy Hainan Gas Turbine Assembly Base and Service Center, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.

“This is a comprehensive facility integrating manufacturing, final assembly, engineering services, and research and innovation,” said Li Rui, deputy general manager of the energy development department at Yangpu International Investment Consulting Co., Ltd. “It is also the first landmark foreign-invested manufacturing project to be established in Hainan after island-wide special customs operations were launched.”

The relationship between Yangpu Economic Development Zone and Siemens Energy dates back more than three decades.

“In 1994, just two years after the Yangpu Economic Development Zone was established, development was still in its early stages. We introduced two Siemens gas turbines to address power shortages,” recalled Hu Cheng, chief engineer of Yangpu Power Plant. 

At the time, the turbines were among the most advanced in the world and played a crucial role in supporting the development zone’s early growth. Over the years, Siemens Energy regularly dispatched specialists for maintenance work, and engineers from both countries forged lasting friendships.

Siemens Energy conducted inspection tours for potential cooperation in 2023, set up its Hainan innovation center in 2024, and has now launched a brand-new facility here. The company keeps ramping up investment out of not only long-standing ties but also full confidence in the Hainan Free Trade Port’s long-term growth, an executive of Siemens Energy Greater China explained.

While serving Hainan, the facility will also be developed into a regional center for high-end clean-energy equipment manufacturing and services covering Southeast Asia.

“Hainan enjoys clear geographical advantages and is building itself into a clean-energy island. Yangpu has a deep-water port located close to major international shipping routes. Combined with free trade port policies such as zero tariffs and visa-free access, the conditions for development are highly favorable, ” the executive added.

Longtime partners are expanding their presence, while new investors continue to arrive. Between the launch of island-wide special customs operations and May 31 this year, Hainan registered 1,240 new foreign-invested enterprises, representing year-on-year growth of 37.62 percent.

A New Exploration

Before island-wide special customs operations, the Hainan Free Trade Port’s hallmark policies, characterized by zero tariffs, low tax rates, and a simplified tax system, were primarily designed to support industrial development and businesses.

How can these benefits more directly reach everyday consumers?

In February this year, Hainan introduced a new policy granting zero-tariff treatment to imported goods purchased by residents within the Hainan Free Trade Port. The first five duty-free stores for daily consumer goods opened in Haikou, Sanya, and Danzhou.

 The initiative spans 202 categories of high-turnover consumer goods, including foods, personal care items, household essentials, and maternal & infant products. Eligibility extends to Hainan-registered residents, local residence permit holders, and qualifying foreign permanent residents, each entitled to shop duty-free with an annual cap of 10,000 yuan. This enables island residents to globally source premium goods locally — without leaving Hainan.

The new policy quickly attracted widespread attention. Shao Yuanyuan, manager of a duty-free daily consumer goods store operated by China Duty Free Group, recalled that hundreds of shoppers packed the store on the opening day, eager to explore the new shopping experience.

According to Haikou Customs, between the launch of island-wide special customs operations and May 31 this year, sales for offshore duty-free shopping reached 20.34 billion yuan, up 20.5 percent year on year.

“I believe the duty-free policy for Hainan residents will continue to be refined, just as the offshore duty-free policy has evolved over time,” said Hao Zhiqiang, deputy general manager of Haikou International Duty Free City. “It will enhance the quality of life for local residents while creating even greater opportunities for businesses.”