A Russian food booth attracts visitors during an expo in Harbin, Heilongjiang province. XINHUA

China's transition from rapid scale expansion to high-quality economic development, driven by the cultivation of new quality productive forces, is injecting new momentum into Sino-Russian cooperation and global economic stability, experts from both countries said.

The driving forces behind China's economic growth are undergoing profound changes, with high-quality development emerging as its defining feature. Bian Yongzu, a senior visiting scholar at Yale University, said the booming development of smart manufacturing and new energy industries is reshaping China's competitive edge in manufacturing.

This competitive edge is clearly reflected in the new energy vehicle sector. A joint report released by research institute EVTank, Ivey Business School and the China Battery Industry Research Institute showed that global NEV sales reached 23.54 million units in 2025, up 29.1 percent year-on-year, with China accounting for 70.3 percent of the worldwide total.

Looking ahead, EVTank projects global NEV sales will hit 28.5 million units in 2026, with China contributing 19.8 million units. By 2030, global sales are expected to reach 42.65 million units, achieving an overall market penetration rate of over 40 percent. This transformation grants the Chinese economy stronger resilience amid the restructuring of global industrial chains, Bian said, emphasizing the country's unwavering commitment to expanding institutional opening-up.

This domestic economic evolution is directly catalyzing a shift in bilateral ties, underpinned by robust and expanding trade. The General Administration of Customs said that from January to June, Sino-Russian trade reached $134.18 billion, surging 25.6 percent year-on-year.

During the period, imports from Russia rose 23.3 percent to $73.6 billion, while Chinese exports to Russia jumped 28.4 percent to $60.6 billion.

Against this backdrop of expanding scale, Xu Poling, director of the Russian economy department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, pointed out that Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation is accelerating its upgrade from a traditional "complementary" model of industries and commodities, to industrial chain collaboration and "innovative" cooperation.

The two nations have already engaged in deep cooperation in frontier fields such as quantum research, photonics, artificial intelligence and green/low-carbon development.

Looking ahead, macro-development strategies have charted a clear course for industrial docking, Xu said, adding that green transition, new energy, deep space exploration and digital information technology are expected to become crucial converging points for industrial synergy.

Reflecting on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Russian scholars highly commended the nation's development trajectory. Sergey Sanakoev, director of the Russian Asia-Pacific Research Center and deputy chairman of the Russia-China Friendship Association, praised China's early victory in eradicating absolute poverty as a vivid testament to the superiority of the socialist system and the CPC's outstanding leadership.

Sergey Sannikov, deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian political magazine State Figures, said that by successfully integrating Marxism with China's specific realities and long-established traditional culture, the CPC has led the country to achieve historic leaps in infrastructure, green energy and AI.

With significant economic complementarity in emerging sectors like the digital economy and smart manufacturing, China and Russia are well-positioned to further strengthen industrial synergy and achieve win-win outcomes.

Amid global turbulence, the two nations remain time-tested friends and "key constants" in a world experiencing profound changes. Guided by top-level strategic planning, bilateral pragmatic cooperation is poised for continuous quality upgrades, injecting stronger momentum into the deepening of major-country relations and global governance, Sannikov said.

renqi@chinadaily.com.cn