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At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the morning of July 20, officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) briefed the media on the development of industry and information technology in the first half of this year.

China’s integrated circuit exports surge 88.7% year on year in the first half of the year

Wang Weiming, chief engineer of the MIIT, said that global demand remains strong in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and green and low-carbon transition. In the first half of the year, RMB-denominated exports of products such as integrated circuits, electronic components, and wind turbine generators grew year on year by 88.7%, 62.6%, and 35.6%, respectively.

China’s intelligent computing capacity reaches 2,185 EFLOPS

In the digital economy era, computing power has become a key infrastructure resource. China’s computing capacity continued to grow in the first half of the year. By the end of June, the country’s intelligent computing capacity had reached 2,185 EFLOPS (2,185 quintillion floating-point operations per second). The overall rack utilization rate of computing facilities nationwide reached 71.4%, and 52 intelligent computing facilities, each equipped with more than 10,000 accelerator cards, have been built. Computing power transmission infrastructure has also continued to expand. Over the past two years, more than 70 high-speed computing interconnection links have been built around the national computing hubs, improving network performance among these hubs by 10%.

Looking ahead, the MIIT will continue optimizing the deployment of computing infrastructure resources, developing interconnected computing power nodes, and improving the efficiency of computing resource utilization. Key measures include:

Optimizing the allocation and deployment of computing resources and strengthening monitoring and coordination of computing power.

Advancing breakthroughs in new transmission protocols, accelerator interconnect technologies and other key technologies.

Continuing to advance the city-wide “millisecond access to computing power” initiative to improve the user experience of computing applications, promote interconnection and interoperability of computing resources, further implement inclusive computing service programs to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and enhance the accessibility and ease of use of computing services.

China-developed humanoid robot products account for over half of the global total

According to MIIT data, several globally competitive industries continued to expand rapidly in the first half of the year. In the intelligent robotics sector, China-developed quadruped robots account for nearly 70% of global sales, and China has developed more than 400 humanoid robot products, representing over half of the global total.

A number of global unicorn companies have emerged in fields such as AI, semiconductors, new energy and biomedicine. These companies are actively offering Chinese solutions in areas including international standards development and industrial governance.

Global downloads of China-developed open-source AI models exceed 10 billion

Wang Weiming, chief engineer of the MIIT, said that China is further advancing the “AI Plus” initiative and expanding the application of AI across industries. More than 30% of manufacturing enterprises above the designated size have adopted AI technologies, while cumulative global downloads of open-source AI large models have exceeded 10 billion. China is accelerating efforts to establish a closed loop linking technology, services and industries. The country has released the second group of 111 key pilot test platforms and recognized 14 excellence-level and 402 standard-level technology business incubators.

China is also leveraging major national science and technology projects to accelerate breakthroughs in key core and foundational technologies. The quantum computing prototype “Jiuzhang 4.0” has set a new world record in quantum photonic information technology, while the world’s first invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) medical device has been approved for marketing.

China will accelerate development of next-generation communications networks

The MIIT said that research is currently underway on the development of next-generation communications networks. What makes these networks “next generation”? Xie Cun, spokesperson for the MIIT and director general of the Bureau of Information and Communications Management of the MIIT, ed four key features:

First, connectivity will expand beyond traditional individual users to encompass diverse entities such as people, machines, objects and embodied intelligent systems.

Second, coverage will expand beyond the constraints of traditional terrestrial networks toward integrated coverage across air, space, land and sea.

Third, network capabilities will achieve significant improvements in reliability and deterministic performance, better meeting the differentiated needs of various industries and applications.

Fourth, network functions will evolve from basic information transmission toward deep integration of multiple capabilities, including communications, sensing, computing, intelligence and security. In essence, next-generation communications networks are not merely a conventional upgrade to existing networks, but a major innovation in digital information infrastructure for the intelligent era.

Going forward, the MIIT will prioritize the planning and deployment of next-generation communications networks as a key initiative to advance the information and communications industry. Efforts will focus on three areas: network deployment, industrial support, and application innovation and promotion.

Strengthen innovation and breakthroughs in core technologies, including 6G mobile communications, ultra-high-speed optical communications, submarine optical cables and satellite communications; accelerate related product development to support the high-quality deployment of next-generation communications networks.

Promote deeper integration of brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence and intelligent connected vehicles with 5G-A, 6G and satellite Internet technologies.

Leverage next-generation communications networks as a digital foundation to enable innovative integrated applications across water networks, new-type power grids, computing networks, urban underground utility networks and logistics networks.

Source: CCTV News (Official WeChat Account)