BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Defying intense pressures at home and abroad, China's manufacturing sector has forged ahead, accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone, and solidifying the foundations for high-quality development.

China's manufacturing value-added accounts for nearly 30 percent of the global total, topping the world for over a decade.

That is no accident. It is the result of the insight and leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping over the past years. As early as 2018, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said that China was experiencing a decline in manufacturing's share of the economy that was too fast, and the problem demanded close attention.

At a national conference on advanced manufacturing recently held in Beijing, Xi stressed the need to accelerate the development of a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone and to reinforce the foundations of the real economy.

In May 2025, Xi visited Luoyang Bearing Group in Henan Province. Bearings are the joints of the entire manufacturing body, setting the performance ceiling for high-speed rail, wind turbines and aerospace alike.

Standing on the factory floor, Xi reflected on China's industrial journey. "From importing matches, soaps and iron products to becoming the world's largest manufacturing country with the most complete industrial sectors and categories, China has always adhered to the path of developing the real economy, which has proven to be the right path."

Over the years, Xi has walked the length and breadth of China's manufacturing landscape, and each stop has reinforced the same conviction that for a country of China's size, developing the real economy is non-negotiable.

At Gree Electric Appliances in 2018, he noted that advanced manufacturing is a key component of the real economy and that at no time should economic development become decoupled from the real economy and shift toward the virtual. At Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery the following year, he called manufacturing "the foundation of the real economy" and the real economy "the bedrock of the country's development." And at a "little giant" firm, Yangquan Valve, in 2025, Xi emphasized that the real economy should not be neglected, nor should the traditional industries within it.

Behind these instructions lies a profound reading of global economic history. International experience shows that manufacturing's share of GDP typically peaks and then declines as industrialization matures. When the decline goes too far, it hollows out industries and leaves an economy vulnerable to risks.

Under Xi's strategic vision, the country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) explicitly proposes moving faster to strengthen manufacturing, calling for maintaining a reasonable share of manufacturing in the economy and building a modern industrial system led by advanced manufacturing.

The president has also clarified the direction: high-end, intelligent, and green manufacturing.

China's manufacturing sector has been remarkably successful. In 2013, China sold just 17,600 new energy vehicles (NEVs), with market penetration at 0.08 percent. By 2025, annual sales had surged to 16.49 million units, with penetration reaching 47.9 percent.

In shipbuilding, China had held the top spot globally for 16 consecutive years by 2025, completing 56 percent of the world's ships and holding two-thirds of global orders last year. The same year, China's industrial robot exports grew 48.7 percent over 2024, surpassing imports for the first time and making China a net exporter of industrial robots.

BREAKING BOTTLENECKS THROUGH INNOVATION

While inspecting Wuhan HGLaser Engineering Co., Ltd. in June 2022, Xi attentively watched a display of innovative achievements in the chip industry and said earnestly: "With our country's further development, it is urgent to address the bottlenecks in core technologies in key fields."

For Xi, self-reliance and independent innovation are not slogans -- they are the fundamental guarantee for China's manufacturing to stand firm over the long run.

In the spring of 2023, a moment at the "two sessions," the annual meetings of China's top legislature and political advisory body, vividly showcased the confidence of China's manufacturing sector as it strides toward innovation and strength.

Shan Zenghai, a deputy from Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG), a leading heavy machinery manufacturer, said that the company's 220-tonne all-terrain crane can now be 100 percent domestically produced, during a deliberation of deputies from Jiangsu Province.

"What about the chips in the cranes? Are they also homegrown?" Xi inquired.

The answer was affirmative. Shan said that XCMG manufactured 91 percent of all components in its products, up from 62 percent previously. Xi commended the company's achievements in making world-class engineering machinery. "We need to upgrade to medium- and high-end manufacturing. This is a hallmark of high-quality development."

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee has repeatedly dedicated study sessions to frontier technologies. Concrete measures have followed. China has established national manufacturing innovation centers, launched major science and technology projects, rolled out a decade-long action plan for basic research, and focused on full-chain breakthroughs in critical sectors, including integrated circuits and industrial machine tools.

In the first half of this year, China's major industrial enterprises produced 279.8 billion integrated circuit units, surging 23.1 percent year on year.

From solar panels harvesting sunlight in Egypt's deserts to China-Europe freight trains carrying equipment across Eurasia, China's manufacturing has become deeply embedded in global supply chains, powering the world with affordable, high-quality products and technologies.

"As we further modernize our industrial system, we will provide the world with more and better products made and created in China, and with a Chinese market of a larger scale and stronger demand," Xi said at a meeting in 2023.

This pledge is being translated into concrete action. Today, China has fully eliminated market access restrictions for foreign investment in the manufacturing sector. The updated catalog of encouraged foreign investment industries channels foreign capital into advanced manufacturing and other high-end fields, while international standards exchanges in areas such as NEVs and artificial intelligence continue to deepen.

As the world's largest manufacturing country, China has built extensive, well-integrated production capacity across a wide range of industrial goods, allowing producers worldwide to access key equipment, components and intermediate goods at lower cost and with greater efficiency.

Through technological innovation and intense market competition, China has built the world's largest and most integrated supply chains for the new energy industry. Chinese solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and NEVs have made energy transition more affordable.

Attending the BRICS summit in New Delhi last week, Xi proposed five initiatives, including an intelligent manufacturing cooperation initiative. He said China stands ready to help fellow BRICS countries build smart factories, develop standards and norms, and jointly promote manufacturing transformation and upgrading.

Experts noted that Chinese products have won markets with their proven strength, and Chinese manufacturing has built deep confidence with its remarkable resilience. This is a powerful testament to the strategic vision of developing advanced manufacturing, and a vivid display of the broad horizons of innovation-driven progress.■