BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- From DeepSeek, the rising star in artificial intelligence (AI), to Unitree Robotics, a pioneer in humanoid robot development, and the creative force behind the animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2, innovations emerging from China's private sector have recently grabbed global attention.
AT FOREFRONT OF INNOVATION
Official data shows that the percentage of private enterprises in China's high-tech enterprises has increased from 62.4 percent in 2012 to over 92 percent to date. Private companies contribute to more than half of China's export of "new trio" products, namely electric vehicles, solar batteries, and lithium-ion batteries.
This progress reflects the broader expansion of the country's private economy, which has grown in both scale and influence. Currently, there are around 30 Chinese private companies on the Fortune Global 500 list.
According to data from East Money Choice, a financial data service platform in China, the total market value of private enterprises listed on China's A-share market has reached 34.3 trillion yuan (about 4.78 trillion U.S. dollars), surpassing that of central state-owned enterprises and their subsidiaries, as well as that of local state-owned enterprises.
With private enterprises at the forefront of advancement in artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics, international financial institutions have expressed strong confidence in their future prospects.
Chinese companies are delivering superior value for money and often superior quality across multiple spheres of manufacturing and increasingly services too, Deutsche Bank noted in a report earlier this month.
BETTER BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
To support private enterprises in the new wave of technological and industrial transformation, governments at all levels have actively introduced measures to overhaul the business environment while fostering new quality productive forces.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, established a bureau for private economy development in 2023. From September 2023 to December 2024, the bureau addressed 1,097 issues raised by private enterprises, ranging from overdue payments to policy updates and infringement disputes, with another 1,169 items currently being processed. Provincial-level bureaus have also been set up.
Data from the People's Bank of China shows that by the end of 2024, the balance of loans for technological small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) reached 3.27 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 21.2 percent.
Local governments have ramped up their support for sci-tech innovation by private firms, a trend exemplified by emerging tech hubs like Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province. Famed for entrepreneurship, the city is home to e-commerce giant Alibaba and the headline-grabbing "six elite companies," the cohort of tech startups including DeepSeek and Unitree Robotics.
Innovation requires talent, policy guarantees and funding, said Yu Jun, deputy director of the Hangzhou municipal bureau of science and technology.
The government in Hangzhou has ensured an over-15-percent annual growth rate of municipal fiscal investment in science and technology and tailored their support policies to match different development phases of tech startups.
Authorities follow the principle of "no bothering unless necessary, but always ready to help," according to local officials working on supporting companies including the "six elite companies."
More supportive policies are in the pipeline. The NDRC announced Tuesday that it would revise and publish a new negative list for market access as early as possible, address overdue payments owed to private enterprises, and continue efforts to ensure fair private sector access to competitive infrastructure sector and major national scientific research facilities.
In a milestone move, lawmakers will review a draft of the country's first-ever basic law specifically focused on the development of the private sector next week, which covers areas such as fair competition, investment and financing environments, sci-tech innovation, regulatory guidance, service support, rights and interests protection and legal liabilities.
"The private economy and private enterprises have a good development outlook in 2025," said Tan Haojun, a professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. "With the legislative process of the law advancing, both private investment growth and private entrepreneurs' confidence will improve." ■
