China’s emerging industries are gaining momentum in global markets, with artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and innovative drugs becoming new drivers of export growth.

In the first half of the year, AI-related exports expanded rapidly, with products across the industry chain, including optical modules, servers and computing solutions, contributing more than half of the growth in mechanical and electrical exports. Beyond hardware, China is increasingly exporting AI-powered algorithms, computing capacity and digital solutions worldwide.

The robotics sector has also seen strong international demand. Exports of cleaning and bionic robots reached over 18 billion yuan, while industrial robot exports rose 18.6 percent year-on-year to 6.29 billion yuan, reaching 141 countries and regions.

Meanwhile, Chinese innovative drugs achieved record growth, with overseas licensing deals exceeding US$100 billion in value during the first half of the year, covering fields including oncology, metabolism, immunology and neurology.

Together, these industries represent China’s shift from manufacturing scale to innovation-driven growth, forming a new generation of export strengths alongside traditional goods and emerging sectors such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar products.