A robot plays table tennis during the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai, East China, July 18, 2026. [Photo/Xinhua]

China will turn frontier technologies into new growth engines by putting emerging and future industries, artificial intelligence-enabled manufacturing and next-generation communications at the center of its 2026-30 industrial agenda, the country's industry regulator said on Wednesday.

The approach is designed to turn technological breakthroughs into large-scale industrial applications and build an innovation-led modern industrial system during the country's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), said Xin Guobin, vice-minister of industry and information technology, at a news conference in Beijing.

According to Xin's ministry, integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, the low-altitude economy, new energy storage and intelligent robots will be developed into emerging pillar industries. China will also foster future growth points including quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence and 6G.

AI is expected to be a central link between frontier research and industrial upgrading. On the technological supply side, the ministry will support the research and development of key technologies such as high-end training chips and multimodal algorithms, and pursue breakthroughs in frontier technologies including brain-inspired intelligence and world models, Xin said.

On the ecosystem front, high-standard AI open-source communities will be leveraged as key platforms to develop a group of high-quality open-source projects for AI-facilitated manufacturing, the senior official added.

As new information and communications infrastructure provides another foundation for emerging industries, the country is also looking to push forward the development of next-generation communications and computing networks, and expand the industrial use of 5G and the industrial internet, according to the ministry.

"6G will be a top priority during the 15th Five-Year Plan period," said Liu Yulin, head of the ministry's information and communications development department. The ministry will accelerate research on core 6G technologies, continue technical trials and standards development, and promote the maturation of the 6G industry and development of its ecosystem to lay the groundwork for commercialization, Liu added.

Smaller firms will also be integral to the new-growth agenda. "Small and medium-sized enterprises are closely linked to technological innovation and industrial-chain resilience, as well as employment and people's livelihoods," Xin said.

In this regard, the ministry will improve its tiered system for cultivating high-quality companies, foster specialized and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, and develop more "little giant" firms and single-product champions in manufacturing. It will also provide greater support in digital services, talent, financing and data, while strengthening protections for intellectual property and mechanisms to prevent overdue payments.

"A national plan promoting high-quality SME development will be released soon," Xin said, adding that the ministry will also establish the second phase of the national SME development fund, strengthen inclusive financing and listing support, and improve a nationwide service network for smaller businesses.

The future-facing agenda is anchored in a manufacturing base that continued to expand during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25). China's manufacturing value-added rose from 26.5 trillion yuan in 2020 to 34.7 trillion yuan during the period, while its share of GDP remained about 25 percent, data showed.