Beijing: When China’s top industry official sought to prove that the nation’s innovation momentum was surging, he began with a formidable list of heavy engineering marvels.
According to Namibia Press Agency, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng, at a press briefing on Tuesday, cited the Chang’e lunar missions, China’s space station, the homemade C919 passenger jet, the launch of the Adora Magic City luxury cruise liner, and the domestic breakthrough in vital ECMO medical devices. This evidence, he argued, shows China is rapidly shifting from “following” to “pacing” and increasingly “leading” the world.
Li then pivoted from aerospace and heavy equipment to molecular science, highlighting new cancer treatments like Brukinsa (zanubrutinib) as globally recognized “star products” and further proof of this surging momentum. Developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company BeOne Medicines Ltd., Brukinsa is recognized as a potential best-in-class BTK inhibitor, approved in 75 markets including the United States, Europe, and Japan. The company’s self-developed medicines have already benefited over 1.8 million patients globally.
This breakthrough reflects a decade-long transformation in China’s innovative drugs sector, demonstrating clear advances in terms of the quantity of drugs in clinical trials and the quality of first-in-class assets, as per an analysis by Tianfeng Securities. The acceleration is built upon complete industrial supply chains, a deep engineering talent pool, improving basic research, and massive, sustained investment in research and development (R and D).
Innovation spending has risen steadily, with large-scale manufacturing firms spending more than 1.6 percent of their operating revenue on R and D over the past five years. This push has placed over 570 industrial companies on the global top 2,500 list for R and D spending, while 64 Chinese manufacturing firms entered the Fortune 500 in 2024.
This R and D focus is translating into advanced automation and modernized production, with 46 Chinese cities piloting new technological transformation projects. China’s newly installed industrial robots now account for more than 50 percent of the global total.
The frontier of manufacturing is also advancing, with China possessing full-chain manufacturing capabilities for humanoid robots and expanding applications for brain-computer interfaces beyond medicine into education and industry.
This progress has captured international attention, with Juha Roening, vice president of euRobotics, describing China’s robotics progress as a “miracle.” He called for deeper cooperation between Europe and China in the robotics supply chain, highlighting a “win-win situation.”
Industrial partnerships are expanding globally, exemplified by the China National Chemical Engineering Corporation’s agreement with Kazakhstan’s QazaqGaz Scientific and Technical Center for a major coal-to-gas project. This partnership will leverage China’s leading coal chemical technology to transform Kazakhstan’s coal resources into cleaner natural gas.
China’s manufacturing value-added output is expected to have contributed over 30 percent of global manufacturing growth during the 2021-2025 period, maintaining its position as the world’s largest manufacturer for 15 years. China’s core advantage is its systemic completeness, covering the majority of 504 major industrial product categories worldwide.
This global market leadership was evident at the IFA Berlin 2025, Europe’s largest consumer electronics trade fair, where Chinese enterprises accounted for more than one-third of all exhibitors. Nelson Holzner, CEO of global FinTech firm MODIFI, noted Chinese appliance firms’ international stance and win-win cooperation with global partners.
Morii Go, chairman of Yamazen Shanghai Trading Co., Ltd., emphasized China’s role as a dynamic manufacturing and innovation source in intelligent and digital industries, a sentiment echoed in a report from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing. The report concluded that China is upgrading its role from “world’s factory” to a global supply chain hub.
Reinforcing this hub status, China has joined multiple countries in launching an initiative to enhance the resilience and stability of industrial and supply chains, aiming to safeguard global supply chains and foster more inclusive, stable partnerships, Li added.