China's industrial design has developed rapidly in recent years, driving innovation performance in industrial manufacturing.

Last year, the country joined the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs, an international treaty for design protection among 96 countries administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

According to WIPO data, China has sought protection for 2,558 designs, ranking second only one year after joining the system.

Lyu Guoliang, senior consultant of the WIPO Office in China, emphasized that the visual effect of products has become core competitiveness of enterprises.

China's industrial design

Industrial design can contribute to standardization and mechanization of products in manufacturing, which helps maximize industrial efficiency and create high quality products.

China's industrial design used to focus on structure, function, color, packaging and branding; however, with the advancement of technology, it has shifted to the development of technological and intelligent design.

Chen Dongliang, vice president of the China Industrial Design Association, said that design has become a strategic tool in boosting manufacturing.

"The most prominent products for industrial design are, for example, our cars, which with unmanned driving technology aided by big data analysis may predict what people need in the future," Chen added.

He also said that design is closely related to the progress of science and technology and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

The Economist reported last Thursday that Chinese cars are now "mostly as good as foreign ones" in design and assembly, and surpass other countries in terms of "software-driven digital experience that will define car brands in the future."

In the past 10 years, China has built 298 national industrial design centers and 3,515 provincial ones, and over 10,000 industrial design enterprises nationwide, said Yu Xiaodong, an official from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at a press conference last October.

The country's industrial design has developed rapidly in areas such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Rim and southwest China's Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, according to Yu.

China's innovation output climbed

China has climbed to 11th place on the WIPO's Global Innovation Index 2022, marking an ascent in 10 consecutive years. 

From 2019 to 2022, China ranked first in the number of Patent Cooperation Treaty applications. Yi Jiming, director at the International Intellectual Property Research Center of Peking University, noted that this figure indicates the country's high national innovation capacity.