Manufacturing

In 2025, China's automotive industry demonstrated strong resilience with sustained momentum, supported by the continued implementation of policies aimed at promoting large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs. A range of key indicators hit record highs.

Annual automobile production and sales reached 34.531 million and 34.4 million units, respectively, up 10.4 percent and 9.4 percent year on year. Both figures set new historical records, making China the world's largest auto producer and market for the 17th consecutive year.

New energy vehicles emerged as the market driver. NEV production and sales totaled 16.626 million and 16.49 million units in 2025, each posting year-on-year growth of nearly 30 percent. NEVs accounted for more than half of domestic new car sales. China has now ranked first globally in NEV production and sales for 11 consecutive years.

China has made a new breakthrough in quantum computing, as its superconducting quantum computing prototype "Zuchongzhi 3.2" achieved quantum error correction below the fault-tolerance threshold on a surface code with a code distance of seven, according to a report by Science and Technology Daily.

The breakthrough demonstrated that logical error rates drop significantly as code distance increases, marking a key milestone for China in achieving quantum error correction that improves once the threshold is crossed.

The Chinese-developed regional jetliner, the C909, has so far safely transported more than 30 million passengers, marking a major milestone for the country's civil aircraft industry. In aviation history, there is an unwritten benchmark: Only after delivering 100 aircraft and transporting 10 million passengers can a plane be said to have completed the transformation from an "industrial product" into a true commodity. To date, 175 C909 aircraft have been delivered, accounting for more than 60 percent of China's domestic regional aviation market, with operations extending to 12 countries. As a trailblazer in China's commercial aircraft sector, the C909 not only achieved the breakthrough of moving domestic passenger aircraft commercial operations from "0 to 1," but also paved the way for the development of larger homegrown aircraft such as the C919.

A good aircraft is not only built on the production line but also proven in the skies. Over nine years of commercial operation, the C909 has undergone comprehensive market testing. In China, the C909 serves nationwide trunk-to-regional route networks and has become a mainstay on frontier and remote routes. Overseas, the aircraft has been delivered to Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam, and has obtained airworthiness certification from the Brunei civil aviation authority. In civil aviation, where safety is regarded as a lifeline, "safely transporting 30 million passengers" is by no means a superficial marketing slogan, but a hard-earned answer that China's civil aircraft industry has delivered to the market.