Editor's note: Yu Li is a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

China's technological progress in 2025 was neither subtle nor confined to specialist circles. It unfolded in public view and often in unexpected forms.

The rise of DeepSeek was perhaps the most striking signal. Its rapid advance captured international attention, as it became evident that Chinese large language models had entered the world's top tier in both capability and scalability. Some observers noted that the technology rivaled that developed by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, while costing a fraction of the cost to develop.

Beyond artificial intelligence, technology increasingly stepped into everyday life. Humanoid robots ran marathons, danced and played soccer – not as publicity stunts but as demonstrations of coordination, endurance and learning capacity.

In cafes and retail spaces, service robots pour coffee and deliver food to customers with increasing efficiency. On public roads, Level 3 autonomous vehicles are being piloted, allowing cars to take full control of driving tasks under defined conditions, an important step toward large-scale deployment.

Meanwhile, progress continued at the technological frontier. Long-distance surgery expanded the boundaries of modern medicine, as doctors in Beijing performed ultra-long-distance procedures in Lhasa, China's Xizang Autonomous Region. At the same time, advances in aerospace, materials science, biotechnology and quantum research steadily progressed.

Energy innovation followed a similar trajectory. China's record-breaking "artificial sun" experiment brought controlled nuclear fusion closer to practical application, strengthening hopes for a future source of clean, near-limitless energy. At the same time, projects such as "Super Carbon-1" advanced toward commercialization, converting industrial waste heat – linked mainly to carbon emissions – into usable electricity.

Taken together, these developments reveal a familiar pattern. Innovation in China is no longer fragmented or experimental. It is increasingly systematic, application-oriented and integrated into broader economic activity.

While technological spectacles attract attention, export data offers a more rigorous test of industrial strength.

According to data from China's National Bureau of Statistics, in the first 10 months of 2025, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 8.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 60.7 percent of the total export value. Among them, exports of integrated circuits and automobiles grew by 24.7 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively. The export performance of high-tech products also showed positive momentum, with export value rising by 7.3 percent in the first 10 months, outpacing the growth rate of total exports.

This shift signals a deeper transformation in China's industrial structure. High-tech exports require complete supply chains, skilled labor, reliable infrastructure, and sustained research investment. They cannot be built overnight, nor easily replicated elsewhere.

China's emphasis on science and technology has long been explicit, but recent performance has given it renewed credibility. In an article by Party Secretary of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology Yin Hejun, he said that in 2024, China ranked 10th globally in comprehensive national innovation capacity. Total spending on research and experimental development exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan (around $510 billion). The country has also ranked first worldwide for several consecutive years in the number of high-level international academic papers, international patent applications, and research and development personnel.

These indicators matter because innovation thrives on density. It requires large numbers of researchers, sustained funding and institutions capable of translating ideas into products.

Equally important is the role technology plays in broader social and economic development. Innovation policy in China is closely linked to industrial upgrading, healthcare improvement, energy transition and digital governance.

Scientific progress is not treated as an abstract pursuit, but as a practical tool for addressing structural challenges. This alignment helps explain why breakthroughs increasingly move from laboratories to factories, and from domestic markets to international ones.

One clear reason is China's need to avoid strategic vulnerability. Reliance on external suppliers for critical technologies, such as advanced chips and lithography equipment, has exposed the economy to external pressure, including export controls and tariff threats. Reducing this dependence is therefore seen as a matter of economic security rather than ideological choice.

This also explains why China has placed such strong emphasis in the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development on accelerating high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and fostering new quality productive forces as the foundation for future growth.

Furthermore, technological self-reliance enables broader global participation. By mastering core technologies, China can offer the world products that are not only more affordable but also more reliable and widely accessible. In this sense, self-reliance supports openness rather than undermines it.

Through innovation, China promotes a development model that emphasizes green growth, openness and shared benefit. New-energy vehicles offer a clear example. According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2024, China's production and sales both exceeded 12.8 million units, ranking first globally for the 10th consecutive year.

At a time when unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, China's efforts to promote science and technology, as well as to sustain and upgrade its industrial chains, help strengthen global supply-chain resilience.

In an interconnected world, such resilience is a collective good, especially for a country committed to advancing high-level opening-up and contributing ideas and solutions to the building of an open world economy.

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