China

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Guangdong’s Rise as a Global Leader in AI-Driven Manufacturing and Innovation

Jan. 15, 2026 | Technology & Innovation

Guangdong province has evolved from producing traditional goods to becoming a global powerhouse in advanced technologies and AI-driven manufacturing.

**Guangdong’s product landscape has transformed dramatically since the 1980s, when the region was known for items like Pearl River water and Lingnan clothing.**
Today, it leads China’s cross-border e-commerce trade, accounting for more than one-third of national exports and imports. Guangdong-based companies command significant market shares—DJI produces 70 percent of the world’s consumer drones, and the province manufactures one out of every three smartphones sold worldwide.

**This manufacturing dominance traces back to Guangdong’s early reform and opening-up policies, especially the “three supplies and one compensation” model, which matched global trends with affordable, quality production.**
Enterprises such as the Taiping Handbag Factory exemplified labor-intensive beginnings, while Midea evolved from making plastic bottle caps into a Fortune 500 conglomerate spanning smart home appliances, new energy solutions, and robotics. Over time, industrial clusters expanded into high-value sectors—consumer electronics, biotech drugs, and 5G phones—shifting the region’s advantages from land and cheap labor to engineering expertise and innovation dividends.

**As the world enters the AI era, Guangdong companies have seized emerging markets with products like smart glasses and intelligent robots.**
The province accounts for about 40 percent of China’s smart glasses manufacturing capacity, centered in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and saw that market expand 25-fold during the 2025 Double Eleven sales. Firms such as Thunderbird Innovation are rapidly gaining global share in consumer AR glasses. In robotics, Unitree deploys humanoid robots autonomously in service roles, while Guangzhou Ligong Industrial produces hundreds of industrial robots each month for aerospace, automotive, and research applications. Guangdong also leads global production in AI-related technologies: it makes 70 percent of consumer drones, 40 percent of smartphones and industrial robots, 80 percent of service robots, and holds significant shares in integrated circuits.

**To build on these strengths, Guangdong will launch the “Guang Products Travel the World” Spring Campaign in January 2026.**
Around 30 events, supported by major commercial platforms and involving thousands of enterprises, will promote the province’s diverse product range and expand its global footprint.

**At the Central Economic Work Conference in December 2025, leaders emphasized the role of major provinces like Guangdong in driving China’s economic growth for 2026, prioritizing industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and the low-altitude economy.**
Guangdong’s strategy focuses on expanding its high-quality AI industry and broadening application across regions and sectors. Its ecosystem already includes over 1,600 AI core enterprises and platforms such as Huawei’s Ascend and Tencent’s Hunyuan, aligning with the State Council’s “AI+ Action” objectives and the action plan released on January 7, 2026, which targets globally competitive AI manufacturing capabilities by 2027.

**In early 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reaffirmed its commitment to advance strategic sectors—robotics, quantum technology, and brain-computer interfaces—by enhancing research, product development, and ecosystem support.**
Guangdong’s extensive manufacturing base and innovation capabilities underpin its emergence as a new center for AI-driven industrial innovation.

China Advances Industrial Internet Platforms with New Action Plan for 2026–2028

Jan. 15, 2026 | Technology & Innovation

China is accelerating its digital-intelligent transformation of manufacturing through a new Action Plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for 2026–2028.

The plan aims to raise the number of influential industrial internet platforms from over 340 to more than 450 by 2028, while connecting upwards of 120 million industrial devices and achieving over 55 percent nationwide platform penetration.

**It centers these platforms as hubs for aggregating data, developing models, expanding applications, ensuring ubiquitous connectivity, and allocating resources efficiently.**
The plan emphasizes integrating industrialization and informatization through differentiated development: specialized, industry-focused, and collaborative platforms. It also establishes a multi-tier cultivation framework that guides platforms through basic, advanced, and ecosystem maturity stages to boost professionalism and industry specificity.

**Artificial intelligence integration forms another key pillar.**
The plan encourages enterprises to intensify research and development of high-quality industrial datasets, large models, and intelligent agents, leveraging platforms’ existing strengths in data and model accumulation to drive “AI + manufacturing” innovations. A complementary AI action plan aims to upgrade at least 50,000 enterprises’ industrial networks by 2028, using AI to redefine manufacturing processes and generate new productive forces.

**The plan deepens scenario-based applications by identifying targeted entry points for technology integration, enhancing service capabilities, and scaling solutions.**
It promotes flexible service models—such as pay-after-use, subscription, and performance-based payments—to lower adoption barriers and spur widespread platform usage across manufacturing subsectors.

**To underpin these efforts, the plan outlines four cornerstone initiatives: cultivating a multi-level platform system; aggregating industrial data for smarter analytics; driving extensive, scenario-driven applications; and reinforcing the broader industrial internet ecosystem.**
It calls for improved data collection, dataset construction, and intellectual property protection; the development of open-source communities and international cooperation; and innovation through ecosystem partnerships.

**Finally, the plan tasks local and regional authorities with tailoring support via funding mechanisms, tax incentives, and talent development programs.**
Policies will ensure equal treatment for private firms and small and medium-sized enterprises, expand public service capabilities, and accelerate platform deployment in line with local industrial strengths.

Monitored Intelligence for China - Jan. 16, 2026

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Erudite Risk takes an all risks approach to intelligence reporting. We categorize key intelligence into one of 40 different risk intelligence categories.

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China Is Said to Ease Loan Extension Rules for ‘White List’ Property Projects

Yicai Global | English | News | Jan. 16, 2026 | Regulation

Chinese regulators have introduced new guidance allowing real estate projects on the government-backed "white list" to apply for longer loan rollovers than previously permitted. The extension period may increase from the former limit of half the original loan term to the full original loan term, effectively allowing a five-year loan to be extended up to 10 years. This change aims to alleviate near-term debt repayment pressures on developers and is expected to be clarified with detailed implementation rules soon.

Currently, more than 40 percent of developers’ outstanding loans are medium- and long-term debts maturing between 2024 and 2026. Under the previous rules, most loans could only be extended through the end of 2026. The new extension policy will push major debt maturities beyond 2028, helping developers manage repayments in a prolonged sector downturn and supporting project completion and market confidence.

The "white list" system, introduced in early 2024, identifies eligible projects that meet criteria such as active construction, adequate collateral, and closed-loop fund supervision. Projects on this list receive policy support including priority loan approvals, faster disbursement, and eligibility for extensions. Since its launch, the balance of approved loans for white-listed projects has grown from over CNY520 billion in March 2024 to more than CNY7 trillion by November 2025.

Experts note the policy seeks to balance the interests of banks and developers by preventing forced repayments that could lead to asset fire sales and depress local property prices. However, some caution that the success of the loan extension policy depends on actual real estate sales performance, warning that persistent market sluggishness could merely delay banking system risks.

Hong Kong pledges all-out efforts in fire aftermath, mulls reform to strengthen building safety

Xinhua | English | News | Jan. 16, 2026 | Accidents

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee pledged comprehensive efforts to address the aftermath of the deadly fire that occurred on November 26, 2025, in the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po district. During the first meeting of the eighth-term Legislative Council on January 14, 2026, Lee outlined the government's response and detailed planned reforms to enhance building safety and fire control.

Authorities have arrested several individuals on suspicion of manslaughter and corruption related to the incident. The development bureau has mandated the removal of all scaffolding nets on buildings undergoing maintenance and is revising the approval and inspection systems for these nets. The government has also introduced subsidies and relief measures to support affected residents.

An independent committee has been established to investigate the fire's cause and assign accountability, with a report expected within nine months. The HKSAR government has committed to implementing the committee's recommendations and undertaking systematic reforms and targeted improvements across various sectors.

China Focus: China to expand sci-tech innovation hubs into regional clusters for global influence: minister

Xinhua | English | News | Jan. 16, 2026 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

China plans to expand its science and technology innovation hubs from single cities into larger regional clusters over the next decade to establish globally influential innovation centers by 2035. The expansion will incorporate the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region into Beijing's innovation hub, the entire Yangtze River Delta including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui into Shanghai's hub, and maintain the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) as the third major cluster. This strategy marks a shift toward integrated regional coordination to enhance innovation capabilities, high-end industry leadership, and talent aggregation.

The innovation hubs in Beijing, Shanghai, and the GBA have already produced notable achievements and advanced manufacturing clusters. In 2024, their R&D intensities reached 6.58%, 4.35%, and 3.6%, respectively, ranking them as China’s top three innovation-driven regions. The GBA's Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster was ranked first on the World Intellectual Property Organization's 2025 Global Innovation Index, surpassing Japan's Tokyo-Yokohama cluster for the first time.

Enterprises such as JoyGovAI, an IT service provider from Chengdu, have expanded operations within these hubs to leverage the cluster effect for resource sharing, innovation cost reduction, and faster R&D cycles. This cluster effect is expected to accelerate the commercialization of technologies and help integrate technological innovation with industrial advancement. The Ministry of Science and Technology prioritizes fostering integration, enhancing enterprises as key innovators, and supporting a modern industrial system over the next five years.

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