Digital, intelligent transformation brings new opportunities for China’s economic and social uplift

Unmanned excavators carry out precision work while autonomous mining trucks plan their own routes in a smart mining system developed by Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co, Ltd. The example reflects the shift China is making from digitalisation to what its 15th Five-Year Plan calls “digital and intelligent transformation.”

The term describes the deeper integration of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, including intelligent decision-making and deep perception. These tools can analyse, predict and address complex problems while supporting practical applications. Its appearance in the 2026-2030 plan, replacing the simpler emphasis on digitalisation in the previous plan, signals China’s effort to keep pace with the latest technological and industrial transformation.

China’s digital sector once had considerable scale but lacked sufficient development, while its computing infrastructure needed major improvement. Investment and construction have accelerated in recent years. The country’s core AI industry exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan ($176.52 billion) in 2025. By the end of March this year, China had built 4.958 million 5G base stations. Its eight national computing hubs under the “East Data, West Computing” initiative have developed into major computing clusters, and total computing capacity now ranks second globally.

The transformation is changing how companies operate and creating new commercial opportunities. At Hunan University’s School of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, researchers developed a bionic dual-arm robot that can grasp glass bottles and place them on pharmaceutical spectrometers for testing. “We’ve created a ‘physical feedback learning’ mechanism, enabling the robot to become smarter through continuous practice,” said Zhang Hui, the school’s dean. Demand for such systems is also expanding markets for sensors, decision-making tools, execution systems and systems integration.

The article presents these developments as a source of fresh momentum for industrial growth and new quality productive forces. It also cites China’s successful test late last year of the world’s first 35,000-tonne heavy-haul train convoy system, though the supplied text ends while describing the system.

“

We’ve created a ‘physical feedback learning’ mechanism, enabling the robot to become smarter through continuous practice.