Stories of High-Quality Development | Uncovering the 'AI Plus' initiative
Artificial intelligence is now at work across society, from AI agents that respond to residents' requests in communities around the clock, to AI that helps keep equipment in factory workshops running smoothly. Meanwhile, China's AI-powered meteorological early-warning solution, MAZU, reaches across mountains and seas to help safeguard countless households worldwide.
Covering government, commercial and civilian use, these three vivid stories reflect AI's enormous potential to reach millions of households and empower a wide range of industries. As the 24th episode of People's Daily's "Stories of High-Quality Development" is about to launch, take a glimpse at the profound changes the "AI Plus" initiative is bringing to work and daily life.
From the fields to the skies, technology is changing the way China farms.
China now has more than 300,000 agricultural drones — the largest fleet in the world — covering an annual operation area of over 460 million mu (about 30.7 million hectares).
Compared with manual farming methods, crop protection drones can boost operational efficiency by more than 20 times, cut water use by over 50%, and reduce pesticide application by 20% to 40%.
As China's low-altitude economy takes off, agricultural drones are becoming an increasingly common sight in the fields.
China's first comprehensive aerial survey aircraft, the fixed-wing Y-12F atmospheric survey aircraft, completed a full-subject demonstration flight involving all test scenarios on Tuesday in northeast China's Harbin, successfully detecting multiple pollutants and analyzing cloud-water chemistry with high sensitivity. The aircraft conducted 12 flights during the tests, logging nearly 30 flight hours in total.
China's Shenzhou-23 crew has spent more than five months aboard the Tiangong space station. Last week, the astronauts conducted behavioral tests using VR headsets, deployed a materials exposure experiment device outside the station, and carried out other scientific experiments.
A Chinese-led international research team has identified the fastest-rotating near-Earth asteroid known to date and improved methods for determining the physical characteristics of asteroids that require short-term early warning.
The research results show that near-Earth asteroid 2024 XA1 has a rotation period of just 1.63 seconds, surpassing the previous record of 2.58 seconds held by asteroid 2024 BX1 to become the fastest-rotating near-Earth asteroid known to date.
The findings, which have been published in the international journal The Astronomical Journal, mark a breakthrough in the observation and study of rapidly rotating near-Earth asteroids and are expected to enhance capabilities for advanced monitoring, early warning and defense against asteroid threats that allow little time for response.
China's manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong has carried out a total of 473 dives since it completed its maiden sea trial on August 18, 2009, according to the latest data.
The Jiaolong submersible will welcome more scientists aboard, allowing them to conduct joint dives and share data, while promoting the global understanding of the deep sea.
Profits at China's major industrial firms rose 15.5 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2026, driven by strong performance in electronics and high-tech manufacturing amid rising demand for AI, computing infrastructure and other emerging technologies, official data showed Tuesday.
China targets over 22 high-value invention patents per 10,000 people by 2030
China aims to increase the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people to more than 22 by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030), up from 16 at the end of 2025, according to the intellectual property plan recently issued by the State Council.
The target reflects a shift from patent quantity toward quality, with greater emphasis on innovation value and practical applications.
Focusing on high-value innovation
China classifies high-value invention patents into four categories: those in strategic emerging industries, those with corresponding patents granted overseas, those maintained for more than 10 years, and those that have received national science and technology awards or China Patent Awards.
More than 70 percent of China's high-value invention patents are in strategic emerging industries, including artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, integrated circuits, biomedicine and new energy. This share is expected to rise further during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, supporting the development of emerging industries and the cultivation of future industries.
To improve patent quality, China is encouraging universities and research institutions to assess inventions before filing patent applications. More than 1,200 universities and research institutions have established pre-application evaluation systems to improve application quality and direct innovation resources toward key fields.
Enterprises drive innovation
Enterprises are major contributors to high-value invention patents. By the end of 2025, about 280,000 Chinese companies held 1.764 million such patents, accounting for 77 percent of the national total.
As businesses invest more in research and intellectual property, high-value patents are helping drive technological innovation and strengthen market competitiveness. Feedback from commercial applications can also help align research with industry needs.
Turning patents into practical results
Alongside efforts to improve patent quality, China is promoting the commercialization and practical application of intellectual property to better translate research into economic and social benefits.
By the end of 2025, the average examination period for invention patents had fallen to 15 months. In 2025, technology contracts involving patents reached a total transaction value of 1.18 trillion yuan, up 18.8 percent year on year.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China plans to further strengthen intellectual property protection and improve the commercialization of patent results, supporting technological innovation, industrial development and high-quality economic growth.
Robots climbed steep stone stairways and navigated challenging terrain during the qualifying round of the inaugural CMG World Robot Mount Tai Competition on Monday in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province.
The about 3.8-kilometer course, from Hongmen to Zhongtianmen, features more than 3,100 stone steps, testing the robots' motion control, environmental perception, dynamic balance and overall adaptability.
How do you protect crop yields as the climate changes? Chinese researchers have proposed a new irrigation strategy to balance water conservation and food security: first, improve water-use efficiency in existing irrigated areas; then, within available water resources, use the water saved to convert some rainfed farmland into irrigated land.
They also found different optimal strategies for China's three staple crops: maize, wheat and rice. For maize, the preferred approach is to adopt more advanced irrigation technologies while moderately expanding irrigated areas. For wheat and rice, less expansion is needed, and medium-efficiency water-saving technologies in newly developed irrigated areas could be enough to ensure food security under future climate conditions, meet water-saving policy targets and maximize investment returns.
China's manned submersible Jiaolong recently completed multiple 7,000-meter dive tests in the Philippine Basin and returned safely, reaching a maximum depth of 7,056.9 meters. The tests have confirmed the reliability and safety of the upgraded submersible and its domestically produced key components.
Australia returns two ancient cultural relics to China
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People's Daily, China@PDChina
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) handed over two Chinese cultural relics to China's National Cultural Heritage Administration in Canberra at 2:52 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
The two relics are the head of a military official statue and the head of a civil official statue, both dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). According to the NGA, both relics are made of limestone and originated from central China's Henan Province.
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) handed over two Chinese cultural relics to China's National Cultural Heritage Administration in Canberra at 2:52 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
The two relics are the head of a military official statue and the head of a civil official statue, both dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). According to the NGA, both relics are made of limestone and originated from central China's Henan Province.
A Chinese research team has developed a new strategy to overcome a longstanding challenge of power conversion efficiency and lifespan losses when scaling up flexible perovskite solar cells.
The team developed a novel research and development strategy called "decoupled co-deposition," enabling the production of large-area, commercial-size flexible photovoltaic devices with power conversion efficiencies consistently exceeding 20%. The new study was published online in the journal Science.
The ±800kV ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission project, spanning 2,370 km from northwest China's Gansu to east China's Zhejiang, completed the large-span stringing construction across the Yangtze River on Monday in the city of Wuhu, Anhui Province. @AnhuiChina
Once operational, it will be able to transmit more than 36 billion kWh of electricity to Zhejiang Province annually.
China's research vessel Deep Sea No. 1, carrying manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong, on Monday visited Naoero and held an ocean-themed open day event in the island country.
China's snow leopard population has doubled to about 5,000 from around 2,500 in 2013, reflecting progress in protecting the species and its habitat, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Friday.
China has the world's largest snow leopard population and protects more than 60% of the species' global habitat, according to the administration. Its habitat covers about 2.08 million square kilometers across eight provincial-level regions.
From China's only national nature reserve located in the heart of a city to green buildings, waste-to-energy plant and everyday products, Shenzhen in south China is stepping up efforts to protect nature and promote zero-carbon development.
China's innovation capacity continued to strengthen last year, with the innovation environment improving and new growth drivers expanding, providing solid support for high-quality development, official data showed.
The country's innovation index stood at 185.5 in 2025, up 6.4% from a year earlier, according to an annual report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The sub-indices measuring the innovation environment, input, output and impact all kept rising last year.
The report noted that multiple indicators performed well, including the share of science and technology appropriations in government budget spending, business R&D spending as a share of operating revenue, R&D spending as a share of GDP, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 R&D personnel, overall labor productivity, and high-tech products' share of goods exports.
China welcomes more countries to join the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, explore more pathways for international cooperation on AI capacity-building, and promote global artificial intelligence (AI) development for good and for all with concrete actions, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday at a regular news briefing when asked to comment on China's Progress Report on the AI Capacity-Building Action Plan for Good and for All, released at the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiongan), and China's views on the role of AI capacity-building in global governance.
