Rise of Wuxi in China's industrial modernization journey

Editor's note: Xue Tianhang is a researcher at the Research Center for Regional Coordinated Development, Zhejiang University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. It has been translated from Chinese and edited for brevity and clarity.

As a major birthplace of China's modern industry, township enterprises and the "sunan" (southern Jiangsu) model, Wuxi is located by the Taihu Lake and in the heartland of Jiangnan (regions south of the Yangtze River). With favorable geographical conditions and a robust industrial foundation, it has earned the nickname "little Shanghai." In recent years, strategic emerging industries in Wuxi have flourished and new quality productive forces have rapidly burgeoned, positioning the city as a leader in high-quality development in the Jiangsu Province.

Wuxi has promoted the thorough implementation of an innovation-driven core strategy and actively driven the restructuring and upgrading of traditional industries, propelling industrial innovation through technological innovation and achieving remarkable results. 

On a macro level, Wuxi's added value of major industrial enterprises grew 7.8 percent year on year in 2023, with the total output exceeding 2.5 trillion yuan ($344 billion). The output value of strategic emerging industries and high-tech industries as a proportion of that of major industrial enterprises continued to rise, reaching 41.8 percent and 51.8 percent, respectively. Traditional and emerging industries in Wuxi have become increasingly integrated and social forces of production have continued to make new leaps forward.

From a meso-level view, Wuxi focuses on the development of industrial clusters, effectively enhancing innovation capacity by forming chains into clusters. In 2023, Wuxi ranked first in Jiangsu for the number of national and provincial small and medium enterprise characteristic industrial clusters and second for the intelligent manufacturing development index. 

On a micro level, owing to a strong innovation gene, a superior business environment and effective policy support, technological enterprise development in Wuxi has continued to burst with vitality. In 2023, Wuxi had 232 national specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises that produce new and unique products, ranking second in Jiangsu. It also had a total of 39 unicorn and potential unicorn enterprises, making it an important incubator for unicorn companies.

Supported by a multi-level modern industrial system, Wuxi's economy has thrived, achieving significant breakthroughs in key and core technologies. It leads internationally in fields such as new-generation information technology, biomedicine, new energy, supercomputing, and manned deep diving, making a range of achievements of vital importance to China. 

For instance, the full-ocean-depth manned submersible Fendouzhe, developed in Wuxi, was tested in Sanya in 2023 and successfully completed the world’s first manned deep-diving scientific expedition around Oceania.

The booming development of strategic emerging industries and the continuous enhancement of innovation capabilities in Wuxi are inseparable from long-term policy arrangements, planning and guidance. 

At a critical juncture of further deepening reform across the board and promoting Chinese modernization, Wuxi will continue to strengthen innovation-driven development, fully play the roles of an efficient market and a well-functioning government, and continue to advance the upgrading of traditional industries and the growth of strategic emerging industries. 

It will focus on its inherent endowment advantages and technological industrial foundation, concentrating on the five primary fields of general artificial intelligence, quantum technology, third-generation semiconductors, hydrogen and energy storage, and deep-sea equipment while exploring new directions in "X" fields such as the low-altitude economy, humanoid robots, commercial space, the metaverse, synthetic biology and high-end membrane materials. 

By guiding talents, technology and other innovative resources toward industries that most align with future development directions and have the greatest development potential, Wuxi will accelerate the development of a technological industrial system compatible with modernization, striving to become a crucial hub for the development of new quality productive forces nationwide.