Automated guided automobiles are dealing with cargo on the totally automated terminal of Shandong Port Group’s Qingdao Port, on February 4, 2026. Photo: VCG
Leading enterprises in China have achieved a collection of new breakthroughs in delivery, power, space exploration and different sectors, as showcased by key tasks and improvements during the nine-day Spring Festival holiday which concluded on Monday.
Chinese analysts mentioned that the achievements exhibit the depth of China’s scientific and technological exploration, bolstered by the nation’s manufacturing prowess.
It additional proves that technological improvements and new high quality productive forces are reshaping China’s financial panorama, injecting recent momentum into the nation’s high-quality growth during the fifteenth Five-Year Plan interval (2026-30).
Innovation breakthroughs
On Saturday, China’s first commercially operated sensible container ship, Zhi Fei, slowly approached an automatic berth in Qingdao Port in East China’s Shandong Province counting on autonomous navigation. Then, the vessel accomplished automated operations, seamlessly coordinated with the terminal’s lifting cranes, clever guided automobiles, and different totally automated loading and unloading tools, earlier than finishing cargo operations.
The operation marks the primary time that China has achieved full-process unmanned operations for a container ocean ship, protecting navigation, berthing and cargo loading. The milestone marks a new stage in the collaborative growth of China’s clever delivery and sensible ports, Qingdao Port instructed the Global Times on Tuesday.
A day later, on the western Sichuan Plateau at an altitude of three,000 meters, the world’s largest hybrid pumped-storage energy station – the Lianghekou hybrid pumped-storage station – reached two main development milestones. Excavation of the underground powerhouse was accomplished whereas concrete pouring started for the downstream reservoir, the Xinhua News Agency reported. After completion, the undertaking is anticipated to generate 1.4 billion kilowatts hours of unpolluted electrical energy every year.
And, during the Spring Festival, a analysis group from the famend Tsinghua University developed a mannequin named ASTERIS (Astronomical Spatiotemporal Enhancement and Reconstruction for Image Synthesis), which makes use of computational optics and AI-powered algorithms.
According to the findings revealed on Friday in the journal Science, the mannequin can assist extract extraordinarily faint astronomical alerts, determine galaxies greater than 13 billion light-years away and generate the deepest deep-space photographs.
“China’s rapid progress in innovation stems from the determination and efforts to achieve high-level self-reliance in science and technology. This indicates that with the country’s persistent drive for across-the-board innovations, China’s science and technology sector has advanced steadily in recent years,” Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, instructed the Global Times on Tuesday.
It’s value noting that China is now a world chief in many frontier applied sciences. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization Global Innovation Index 2025 report, China has risen to the tenth place in innovation rankings in the world.
High-tech pushed development
According to the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, the nation goals to attain larger self-reliance and power in science and know-how by way of advancing the event of new high quality productive forces during the approaching 5 years.
Six future industries, together with quantum know-how, bio-manufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied synthetic intelligence and 6G telecommunications, are explicitly highlighted in the doc which was launched in October.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a convention on February 3, calling for intensified efforts to mobilize assets, deepen the implementation of nationwide main science and know-how tasks and nationwide key R&D applications, systematically conduct analysis on unique and pioneering applied sciences, and promote technological breakthroughs in these future industries.
Pan Helin, a member of the consultants committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, instructed the Global Times on Tuesday {that a} collection of insurance policies are set to prop up top-level planning for the expansion of main industries, backed up with supporting mechanisms.
Looking forward, China’s scientific neighborhood ought to firmly seize the new alternatives in scientific and technological innovation and industrial growth, speed up efforts to attain high-level self-reliance in science and know-how and proceed striving for breakthroughs, Cao famous.
“With the cultivation of new quality productive forces at its core, China is expected to step up breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies such as biotechnology and artificial intelligence, driving global industrial chains toward higher value segments. Meanwhile, China’s ultra-large market provides application scenarios for global innovation achievements, accelerates technological iteration and industrial upgrading, creates new space for economic growth,” Cao mentioned.
Thanks to speedy 5G roll-out in China, digital transformation has turn out to be a key lever for multinational enterprises to reinforce their competitiveness. A current KPMG report on the outlook for multinational corporations working in China despatched to the Global Times confirmed that 90 % of the multinationals surveyed plan to ramp up digitalization funding.
China’s structural innovation and upgrading are driving multinational enterprises to re-examine their methods in China, Jiang Liqin, head of purchasers and markets for KPMG China, was quoted as saying.
“As can be seen from the report, multinationals have expressed confidence in long-term development prospects in China. An increasing number of enterprises are shifting their strategic focus from a sole pursuit of business expansion to transforming their profit models. By leveraging localized innovation and digital investment, they aim to improve operational efficiency, optimize pricing strategies, boost profit margins, and build strategic competitiveness in the Chinese market,” Jiang mentioned.