Every minute, the fastest Fuxing high-speed train travels 5.8 kilometers in China, and more than 600 shipping containers depart from the country's ports. Every hour, roughly 2,000 new energy vehicles roll off assembly lines while over 30,000 kilograms of crops are harvested by intelligent systems. Every day, a few thousand invention patents are created, and the national supercomputing internet platform processes over 1 million application programming interface calls.
These are not abstract statistics. They represent the rhythm of heartbeat of an economic powerhouse that has built the world's largest and most complete industrial system — a strategic foundation that has served as and will continue to serve as the bedrock of the nation's economic resilience, said experts and corporate executives. As China injects fresh momentum into building a modern industrial system, the country will move up value chains steadily, sharpen its edge amid global competition and create new engines for global economic growth, they added.
In January, President Xi Jinping said that building a modernized industrial system is an important strategic task to be fulfilled in the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, and he emphasized the need to promote intelligent, green and integrated development.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a study session for provincial- and ministerial-level principal officials at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing.
Last year, during his visit to Luoyang Bearing Group in Henan province, Xi said: "China has always adhered to the path of developing the real economy. From the past reliance on imported matches, soap and iron, to now becoming the world's largest manufacturing country with the most complete industrial categories, we have taken the right path."
Chen Yanbin, director of the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that over the years, China's economy has maintained strong resilience and vitality. "The strategic underpinning for this has been its complete industrial system."
Xi's emphasis on manufacturing shows that amid growing external uncertainties, "Made in China" will be backed by a stronger and smarter industrial system, Chen added.
China's manufacturing scale ranked first globally for the 16th consecutive year in 2025, providing strong support for higher-quality economic growth.
What makes China's industrial ecosystem unique is the speed at which scientific breakthroughs become commercial products.
Zhang Li, president of the China Center for Information Industry Development, calls this the "accelerator effect" of a modern industrial system.
China's comprehensive industrial ecosystem provides the perfect soil for industrializing technological innovations, Zhang said, adding that it solves the "perennial problem of scientific achievements struggling to find real-world applications".
The Beidou Navigation Satellite System, independently developed by China, boasts an extensive chain that spans upstream foundational products like chips, midstream terminal equipment such as vehicle navigation systems, and downstream operational services.
The value of satellite-enabled navigation and positioning services in China, especially those based on Beidou, is expected to surpass 1 trillion yuan ($148 billion) within five years, up from 629 billion yuan in 2025, according to official data.
Another shining example is robotics. In an industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, engineers put a four-legged robot through its paces. At 62 kilograms, it is no toy. In a three-minute test, it performs continuous back flips, side flips and a spinning jump that launches it 87 centimeters off the ground.
The secret lies in a local supply chain so efficient that the company can source all 30,000 components within half a day. That speed allows eight product iterations in just six months — a pace that leaves many overseas competitors struggling to keep up.
Zhang Yin, vice-chairman and secretary-general of Guangdong Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Industry Alliance, said, "The (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao) Greater Bay Area is the only region in the world that has both AI technology and mechatronics technology, and the ability to deeply integrate the two."
Hong Qunlian, a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission's Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research, said that as a new round of technological revolution accelerates, global economic competition has shifted from product rivalry and corporate battles to a competition between entire industrial ecosystems.
Quantum technology, AI, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, and brain-computer interfaces — these are among the battlefields in which nations are seeking dominance, Hong said. "Whether China can seize opportunities and meet challenges by building a modern industrial system aligned with this technological revolution will determine our strategic position in future development," he added.
At the World Intelligence Expo 2026 held in Tianjin last month, the message from international business leaders was unambiguous: China's intelligent manufacturing transformation is not just a domestic story, it is a global catalyst.
"China is not just a huge market, it is a global engine for innovation and manufacturing," said Rainer Kern, chief financial officer of Karcher Greater China. The German cleaning solutions provider sees China's complete supply chain, rapid technology adoption and vast market as unmatched strengths.
A recent European Chamber of Commerce survey found "signs of an uptick" in confidence among European businesses in China. Seventy-five percent of respondents said their China-based production is more efficient than operations elsewhere. "If you want to learn how to manage your business in a highly dynamic and fast-developing environment, come to China and learn from the fastest," said Christoph Schrempp, vice-chair of the European chamber's Tianjin chapter.
As China pushes deeper into intelligent manufacturing, with policies expanding the "AI plus" initiative and accelerating the commercial application of next-generation technologies, one thing is clear: the world's most complete industrial system is poised to become the most intelligent one as well. And that rhythm — measured in minutes, hours and days — shows no sign of slowing.