Visitors eagerly leaned forward to experience the C919 simulator cockpit, danced interactively with embodied intelligent robots, and watched rich hand gestures on brain-computer interface screens for people with disabilities. These vivid scenes capture the atmosphere of the 28th China Beijing International High-tech Expo, where people are witnessing countless visions of future life gradually turning into reality. The three-day Expo, with the theme “Science and Technology for a Better Future”, brought together more than 800 domestic and international enterprises and institutions, showcasing cutting-edge technological achievements and innovative application scenarios centered on “AI+.” As China's first large-scale international science and technology exhibition, it highlighted the country's breakthroughs in hard technologies across various fields as well as its soft innovation capabilities.
Experiences at the Expo showed how high-end technologies in fields such as information technology, medicine and health, green low-carbon solutions, and intelligent manufacturing are rapidly integrating into everyday life and reaching ordinary people. Sergey, a Belarusian working in education in Jiangsu province, told the Global Times that he flew to Beijing specifically to attend the Expo. “This is the first time I've seen an expo with such rich displays of AI technology. It's dazzling. What impressed me most were the AI+ intelligent education applications. I really hope these can reach Belarus and more countries.” AI and robotics featured far more prominently at this year's Expo. Humanoid robots, embodied interaction control systems, bionic intelligent robots, and other cutting-edge equipment were prominently displayed. A towering 6-meter-tall ultra-realistic humanoid robot made its debut at the Expo, currently the world's tallest and largest humanoid robot. A robot that can play music performed a lively rendition of Beijing Welcomes You, becoming a popular photo spot at the exhibition.
A wearable exoskeleton robot could intelligently recognize the user's body weight, age, joint mobility, and physical condition in real time and dynamically adjust its operating mode accordingly. The technology empowers people's lives, bringing hope and better living experiences to more individuals. Yang Yongtao, Deputy General Manager of the wearable exoskeleton device company China Beijing Ai Robot Technology Co, told the Global Times that the growing international attention on Chinese exoskeleton robots has brought more focus to the technology. Foreign buyers have specifically come to customize products. In the future, they are expected to become an important direction for AI-enabled health and wellness applications – helping elderly people with daily mobility assistance while also reducing the physical burden and fatigue for hiking enthusiasts, thereby supporting the “Healthy China” initiative, Yang said.
The Expo also gathered top domestic research institutes and sci-tech innovation organizations, showcasing a batch of globally pioneering, independently controllable key core technologies. Beijing AIForce Technology Co, established with support from the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was a standout at the event. Its display of the world's first pure-electric intelligent high-horsepower tractor attracted significant attention, with foreign visitors stopping to inquire about details. An Zhijian, Strategic Director, told the Global Times that core technologies for high-horsepower tractors had long been monopolized by companies in Europe and America. Over the past two years, leveraging China's strategic layout in the new energy industry and its complete industrial chain advantages, the company has not only successfully applied new energy technologies to agricultural development but also overcome multiple critical technical bottlenecks that had long been controlled by others. The company is currently in talks with several Global South nations regarding exports. In the future, this pure-electric agricultural machinery is expected to significantly reduce production and operating costs for farmers, according to An.
In response to recent hyping of the "China Shock 2.0" narrative by some Western media outlets and think tanks, which suggest that China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus sending more serious shock waves to the global economy, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said that from the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. China's high-tech products represented by the “new new three” of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies, Lin added. “What really creates “shocks” to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development,” Lin said, as reported by the Global Times.
