From "World Factory" to "Global Innovation Center": China's New Model of Scientific and Technological Innovation Creates New Manufacturing Wonders

Reference News Network reported on April 7 (by Wang Yongqian, Yao Yujie, Sang Tong, Zheng Juntian) From "the world's factory" to "the global innovation center", China has embarked on a new paradigm where "big manufacturing" gives birth to "big innovation", outlining the contours of a new industrial civilization. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan have successively raised their target point forecasts for the MSCI China Index in 2025; Goldman Sachs and UBS generally agree that China's economy is recovering... Since late March, five leading foreign investment banks have released views看好China's market, with overseas capital enthusiasm for investing in China assets continuing to rise. This is represented by Chinese companies such as DeepSeek and Unitree Technology, which have broken the stereotype of China's technological innovation capabilities, allowing the world to re-understand the underlying logic of "Chinese value". From "the world's factory" to "the global innovation center", China has embarked on a new paradigm where "big manufacturing" gives birth to "big innovation", outlining the contours of a new industrial civilization. As McKinsey Global Institute said: "China is writing a 'technology leapfrog manual' different from the Western industrialization path." "Buy China, Long China" On March 25, Morgan Stanley China Chief Equity Strategist Ying Wang and her team published the latest view, raising the target price of Hang Seng Index, MSCI China Index, and CSI 300 Index to 25,800 points, 83 points, and 4,220 points respectively by the end of 2025. On March 26, J.P. Morgan Asia and China Equity Strategist Mingdi Liu and her team raised the bear/baseline/bull scenario target points of MSCI China Index from 58/67/76 to 70/80/89 respectively. "There is still more upside potential in the fundamentals of the Chinese stock market." said Kenneth Peng, Chief China Equity Strategist at Goldman Sachs. Deutsche Bank expects that long-term capital inflows into China will further support the recent rebound. The fuse for this strong "longing" was represented by Chinese tech companies like DeepSeek and Unitree Technology, breaking the logic of "Chinese tech companies are constrained by technology and chip sanctions," allowing the world to see the strong potential and strength of China's technological innovation, driving China's assets to undergo a revaluation. The latest report released by the artificial intelligence analytics platform aitools.xyz shows that in February 2025, DeepSeek's traffic reached 525 million visits, surpassing ChatGPT's 500 million visits. DeepSeek's market share reached 6.58%, ranking third globally. China's market has returned to the global investor's field of vision, and international investors are actively seeking buying opportunities. HSBC Private Bank & Wealth Management China Chief Investment Director Zhengzheng Kuang said that since the Spring Festival, the A-share market has attracted $3 billion in overseas funds. Due to the valuation gap between US and Chinese tech stocks, Asian equity funds and emerging market equity funds have also adjusted some positions from the US to China. According to the latest data from the Korea Securities Depository, in February this year, the monthly trading volume of Korean investors in Chinese mainland and Hong Kong stocks reached $782 million, up nearly two-fold compared to the previous month. Data shows that since the beginning of 2025, the MSCI China Index has risen by 16%, and the Hang Seng Tech Index has surged by 23%, significantly outperforming overall stock indexes of developed markets and emerging markets. In addition to optimism about the valuation of Chinese assets, international investors generally agree that China's economy is in a recovery phase. Morgan Stanley and Citi Bank have recently raised their GDP growth forecasts for China this year by 0.5 percentage points. Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from January to February 2025, the year-on-year growth rate of the added value of large-scale industries nationwide was 5.9%, accelerating by 0.1 percentage points compared to the whole year of the previous year. The production index of the service industry, the total retail sales of consumer goods, and the national fixed asset investment (excluding farmers) achieved steady growth. The manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) in March was 50.5%, rising by 0.3 percentage points from the previous month, indicating continued improvement in the prosperity level of the manufacturing sector. Ruibao Securities China Stock Strategy Analyst Meng Lei introduced that during overseas roadshows, policy signals, fiscal stimulus scale, real estate activities, and the pace of household consumption recovery released by the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference occupied the focus of discussions, indicating that international investors are beginning to change their pessimistic expectations and are looking for investment opportunities in short- to medium-term economic trends. "In February this year, China held a private enterprise symposium, indicating that the government is actively embracing 'new productive forces'. This progress has been seen by many as a step that will drive China to open a new chapter in the science and technology sector." said George Efthymopoulos, Fund Manager at Fidelity International. In the view of Yu Xiangrong, Managing Director of Citigroup, 2025 is a turning point for China's economy. With the rise of new economies represented by artificial intelligence, once the old economy completes its bottoming out, it means that China's economic transformation has achieved initial success, and overall economic growth is expected to rebound. "Big Manufacturing" Gives Birth to "Big Innovation" Liu Yuanchun, President of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, believes that Unitree Robotics and DeepSeek are just a spark, and the core logic of the narrative of China's asset value revaluation is that China's scientific and technological innovation has created new miracles, walking a new paradigm where "big manufacturing" gives birth to "big innovation". In 2024, China's Global Innovation Index ranking rose to 11th place, making it one of the fastest rising innovative economies over the past decade, and also the country with the most top 100 science and technology innovation clusters, with the second-highest number of unicorn enterprises in the world. The full-time equivalent of R&D personnel increased from 3.247 million person-years in 2012 to 6.354 million person-years in 2022, remaining the highest in the world; the number of highly cited scientists selected worldwide grew from 111 in 2014 to 1,169 in 2022, ranking second globally. The latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2024, China's total social research and development expenditure exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, maintaining the second largest in the world, with a research intensity reaching 2.68%. "It is worth noting that the scale economy in the innovation chain and the scale economy in the manufacturing chain are starting to merge." said Liu Yuanchun. "Big manufacturing gives birth to big innovation. Being a manufacturing powerhouse is not only a reflection of hard power but also the basic soil for cultivating various innovative scenarios of the fourth industrial revolution and the industrial revolution. China is transitioning from 'the world's factory' to 'the global innovation center'." From flipping handkerchiefs to performing folk dances to performing 720-degree backflips and even "carp springing up", Unitree continues to refresh the acceleration of robotic "evolution"; the Zhiyuan robot, which can ride bicycles, sew grape skins, and learn housework from data collectors, has everyone hoping for an early realization of "household freedom"; Dongfeng Liuzhou announced plans to deploy 20 units of Ubtech humanoid robots, marking the first time globally that humanoid robots have been batch-deployed in an automobile factory... Morgan Stanley's research team reviewed the top 100 humanoid robot companies globally, with 60 of them located in China. At the exhibition hall of Shanghai Zhiyuan New Creation Technology Co., Ltd., visitors come in a steady stream. Within an hour, the reporter encountered multiple overseas enterprise delegations from Japan and Brazil. A Brazilian visitor said, "The close contact is very impressive, and I believe the world's most cutting-edge robotics innovation is in China." "Based on our strong manufacturing capabilities and complete industrial ecosystem, China is likely to take the lead in the humanoid robot track." said Yao Maoqing, Executive Dean of the Zhiyuan Robotics Research Institute and President of the Embodied Business Department. From electric vehicles to drones, China's high-end intelligent manufacturing innovation capability, efficiency, and cost advantages have been repeatedly validated. Zhiyuan is accelerating its expansion abroad, planning to build a factory in Kazakhstan to produce humanoid robots and collaborating with the Kazakhstan Ministry of Digital Development to launch a "data factory" for training robots and robot systems. This "key variable" of industrial technological innovation and the "maximum increment" of new quality productivity are undergoing a fascinating chemical reaction on China's vast manufacturing map, forming a mutually reinforcing positive spiral. At the seventh China International Import Expo last year, Time Technology signed a cooperation agreement with its overseas strategic partner Autocraft. According to Time Technology's founding partner and Chief Marketing Officer Jun Jiang, with the scaling up of eVTOL manufacturing and operation costs, the new intercity transportation model of "taking a flying taxi for 20 minutes and 300 yuan" is expected to gradually become accessible to ordinary people, and will give rise to a huge market and trillion-level industry. "The success of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China's C919 and China's annual production of over 13 million new energy vehicles, continuously ranking first globally for ten years, have laid a solid technical and talent foundation for the development of the low-altitude economy. From chips to high-energy-density batteries, from high-reliability motors and controllers to autonomous driving technology, China's aviation industry is expected to seize the favorable opportunity to surpass others." said Jiang. A research report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation of the United States believes that China has established an innovation system driven by market demand and a positive cycle, walking a new path of technological innovation. From artificial intelligence to quantum computing, from new energy to biomedicine, a series of breakthroughs in frontier fields are reshaping China's core competitiveness. In 2024, the added value of large-scale high-tech manufacturing in China increased by 8.9%, far higher than the 5.8% growth rate of large-scale industrial added value and the 6.1% growth rate of large-scale manufacturing added value. In the first two months of this year, the output of high-tech products such as integrated circuit wafers, industrial robots, EMU trains, and civilian drones in China increased by 19.6%, 27%, 64%, and 91.5% year-on-year respectively. Bidirectional Journey, Moving Forward with "Newness" "One reason I like China is because of the country's innovative spirit. There is fertile ground and policy support here, capable of unleashing innovative potential." "China is a hub of innovation and a gathering place for talents. China is not only an important market but also represents the world's top-tier innovation ecosystem." At the recently concluded China Development High-Level Forum 2025, several CEOs of multinational corporations gave positive evaluations of China's economy while unanimously highlighting China's "innovation power". "BMW is deepening strategic cooperation with leading Chinese tech companies, integrating cloud interaction capabilities and personalized experiences generated by generative AI, expecting to share a future driven by technology with Chinese companies." said Oliver Zipse, Chairman of BMW Group. Earlier on March 17, BMW announced a cooperation agreement with Huawei Terminal, considered a breakthrough move by BMW to quickly capture market initiative by embracing the wave of intelligence and connectivity through localized ecological cooperation. "The Chinese market has become a catalyst for global innovation, where many new technologies and models bloom impressively. China is gradually becoming a significant source of global innovation, not only having a lot of innovations from 1 to 100 but also increasingly seeing innovations from 0 to 1." said Hu Jie, Practice Professor at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Jiacai Robot Co., Ltd. of Shanghai is set to activate its new base in Toyohashi City, Japan, by the end of April. Vice President of Jiacai Japan Subsidiary, Sei Watanabe, said, "Jiacai Toyohashi Base will showcase more cutting-edge technology results to Japanese customers and provide scene validation and services, further enhancing localization collaboration and deepening scene expertise." Leveraging its outstanding precision manufacturing and flexible technology, Jiacai Robots have formed deep collaborations with well-known Japanese companies such as Toyota, Nissan, Aisin, Denso, Hitachi Johnson Controls, with product applications in more than ten processes including material handling, screw tightening, inspection, assembly, etc., helping local enterprises reduce production costs and improve efficiency. At the ongoing Hannover Messe 2025 in Germany, Jiacai's newly launched smart collaborative robot products received attention from peers due to their 0.1N force feedback technology and millimeter-level precision control capabilities. Jiacai's collaborative robots have seamlessly integrated with Siemens' industrial automation systems, accelerating their incorporation into the global digital transformation of manufacturing. "Jiacai has established branches in nine countries including Germany, Japan, and the United States. In the first half of 2024, the revenue from whole machine products grew by more than 50% year-on-year." said Chang Li, Vice President of Jiacai Robots. Unitree Robotics entered the University of California, San Diego to study seven key medical tasks, including auscultation, abdominal palpation, tracheal intubation, ultrasound-guided injection, and wound suturing; Fungtai Aviation Technology delivered the first eVTOL to a Japanese AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) pioneer operator for urban air mobility demonstration flights... The much-anticipated Chinese innovation power is moving forward bidirectionally with the world, creating a shared future of prosperity. "China is no longer just a synonym for market attractiveness but represents the innovation paradigm of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Through technological revolutions and institutional innovations, China is building a more inclusive global development partnership with all countries." said Hu Jie. Shanghai Noyaq Electric Co., Ltd., a young company under the giant of low-voltage electrical equipment, Zhengtai, fully leverages the technological advantages brought by "digital and intelligent" innovation to help Romania's Star Team stadium achieve intelligent early warning protection, assist Bulgaria's Millennium Center in achieving intelligent operations and maintenance, and participate in promoting a significant increase in electricity access rates in Southeast Asia, providing excellent comprehensive system solutions in Mexico... Noyaq has also embedded its self-developed intelligent distribution systems into livelihood projects participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, employing more than 50% of local employees while enabling more people to use safe, clean, and efficient electricity. "China's new generation of enterprises is transitioning from 'technology following' to 'original-driven', reshaping global competitiveness through greenification and digitalization." said Nan Er, Chairman of Noyaq. "Noyaq's practice demonstrates that only through transparent cooperation to break barriers and replace zero-sum games with shared value can sustainable development space be won in the process of internationalization. International partners should upgrade from transactional entities to innovation collaborators, building sustainable development communities." Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7490462636451938857/ Disclaimer: The article represents the author's personal views. Feel free to express your stance by clicking the 'upvote/downvote' buttons below.