The deep integration of industry, academia, research and application, led by enterprises, should be promoted to smooth the innovation chain spanning basic research, application development and commercialization, according to a symposium on strengthening basic research in April.

This vision is becoming a reality, with measures carried out nationwide to integrate technology and industry, providing the "maximum driver" for modernization.

A more resilient industrial chain

Located 150 km southeast of Sanya, Hainan province, "Deep Sea No. 1" — the world's first 100,000-tonne-class deep-water semi-submersible production and storage platform — produces up to 15 million cubic meters of natural gas and over 1,600 tonnes of condensate oil daily.

"Key core technologies cannot be bought but need independent innovation," said Wang Huifeng, vice president and chief engineer of Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd. From "Deep Sea No. 1" to "HaiKui No. 1," Asia's first independently designed and built cylindrical floating production, storage, and offloading facility, these breakthroughs have made China the third country globally capable of independently developing ultra-deepwater oil and gas resources.

Lei Zhensheng, chief expert of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' high-yield and quality wheat breeding innovation team, has developed 55 high-quality wheat varieties with his team. "These varieties are deeply integrated with processors through order-based production, generating 4.85 billion RMB in premium value and 6.99 billion RMB in processing efficiency gains," Lei said.

The resilience of industrial chains, consolidated in the deep sea and the fields, is branching out into more sectors. 5G and gigabit optical networks have been integrated into 91 major economic categories, with over 25,000 "5G+industrial Internet" projects nationwide. Key components of green energy including large-capacity wind turbines, ultra-long blades, floating platforms, and flexible DC converter valves have all been localized.

Industrialization of frontier technologies

The Nanjing Steel Group has partnered with Huawei to develop an AI large model that has transformed its ironmaking process. 

The model reduces coal blending adjustment times to mere minutes from the earlier three to six days and can predict furnace conditions an hour in advance. The cumulative revenue of the entire scenario is over 100 million RMB, said Li Jinyan, director of the group's AI research institute.

From January to May this year, China's high-tech manufacturing contributed nearly 40 percent of industrial growth. During the same period, the number of authorized invention patents increased by 12 percent year on year, and a batch of them were promoted in diverse scenarios.

A team led by Professor Zhu Jiaqi from Harbin Institute of Technology has developed diamond composite heat sinks for electronics enterprises. The thermal conductivity of the sinks is twice that of copper, significantly improving high-performance equipment's heat dissipation.

Meanwhile, an initiative spearheaded by Xie Mingyong of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Nanchang University vice president Nie Shaoping at the university's State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology transforms bioactive plant and mushroom polysaccharides into nutritional health food. This technology has been widely commercialized across China, generating cumulative economic benefits exceeding 15 billion RMB.

Rising industrial clusters

Agricultural machinery equipped with the BeiDou navigation satellite system can undertake complete rotary tillage, sowing and harvesting along a preset route. Such equipment is being used in more than 20 provinces and autonomous regions.

The domestic agricultural machinery navigation system, used extensively in China today, has formed an industrial cluster of enterprises such as sensors, electro-hydraulic valves, and big data platforms, giving rise to a market worth billions.

A technological breakthrough that enables safe, cost-effective, and ultra-fast charging capabilities in high-density power batteries, jointly developed by battery giant CATL, the Beijing Institute of Technology, Deep Blue Auto and others, is used in thousands of new energy vehicles (NEVs).

This collaboration of hundreds of enterprises from the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain is driving the entire industry forward. By the end of 2025, the cumulative sales volume of power batteries in China increased by 51.8 percent year on year, the shipment volume of cathode materials rose by 51.5 percent, and both the production and sales of NEVs exceeded 16 million units.

As the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) unfolds, original innovative achievements are stepping out of laboratories into production lines. Technology is adding momentum to new quality productive forces and becoming the driving force of China's modernization.