How China's Leading High Tech: 3 Cases

China's come a long way. From the world's low-cost manufacturing hub. To a technological powerhouse.

What got them here? Government R&D policy? Advantage of serving the world's largest domestic market? Drive towards self-sufficiency? Decades of their famous STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education paying off?

Here are three miracles from last year.

World's tallest crane

And strongest! R20000-720. Made by Zoomlion. At their Changde Industrial Park. In Hunan province.

Launched and demonstrated on Apr 20, 2023. From drawing board to rolling off the production line. In eight months flat.

1,312 feet tall. 720 tonne capacity. Max hoisting height 400 metres.

Close your eyes. For a moment. And visualise this flat-top giant. Heaving 500 cars. In one go. All the way up to 130 floors!

With a breakthrough movable weight balancing mechanism. Enhancing hoisting performance. By 60%.

With its ETI intelligent system. Comprising 50 advanced control systems. And 230 control strategies. Achieving millisecond response.

Both brain and brawn!

With an upper structure 20% lighter. Than standard tower crane designs. Easier to disassemble, ship, re-assemble. And instal.

Capable of weathering strong winds. And high humidity. That's real life up there!

With 305 patents on it. Including 60 for core technologies. 12 of them world firsts.

The result of 158 research innovations.

And of intelligent manufacturing. With 8 key and 18 parallel projects. With flexible tooling. And precision heavy-duty machinery.

R20000-720 has been deployed at Ma’anshan Yangtze River highway railway bridge construction site.

Did this lift your spirits? Wait till you read about the next.

World's most robotised country

China. By a mile.

Factories around the world installed 553,052 industrial robots in 2022. According to the World Robotics 2023 Report. By International Federation of Robotics.

290,258 of them in China alone. That's more than half!

China's cumulative installed base of operational industrial robots crossed 1.5 mill in 2022. No other country comes close.

What are these robots busy doing? Automating applications and processes. Like handling. Welding. And spray-painting. In its electrical, electronics, automotive, metals and machinery sectors.

Polishing die-cast metal. Palletising warehouse cartons. Preparing pharmaceutical reagents.

And now even in biotech! Flipping trays in vaccine cell factories.

China's local robotics companies have grown dramatically. Like Estun, Inovance, JAKA, Dobot and Aubo. Taking on German, Japanese and Swedish pioneers. Like ABB, Fanuc, KUKA, Yaskawa, Epson and Yamaha.

Did this give you a power surge? We've saved the best for last.

World’s first 5G-Advanced smart mine

Announced on Nov 20, 2023.

Caojiatan Coal Mine. Belonging to Shaanxi Coal Group. Collaborating with China Telecom, Huawei and TD Tech.

Applying unified standards. And architecture. Bringing together 5G-A. Big data. AI. Industrial IOT operating system. And cloud infrastructure. For digitalised mining.

With 6 smart mining faces. Deploying only 7 workers. From 17 earlier. More productive.
With a smart onsite railway network. Loading unmanned vehicles. As they enter the mine station. Via remote commands. From mobile phones. And with real-time monitoring. And robotic patrolling. Safer. More efficient.

Connecting hundreds of devices. In vast subterranean terminals. With reliable signal coverage.

Despite long, dark and narrow tunnels. Using REDCap technology.

Despite limited base station wattage. For explosion-proof operation.

116 sub-systems. One network. One platform.

Ultimate goal being to relieve all workers. From daily underground mining.

The world has more than 100,000 mines. Awaiting modernisation. Like at Caojiatan.

Time was when Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe rocked the heavy manufacturing scene. Then it was the turn of Japan and South Korea. And of the US, of course. All along.

Now, and for the foreseeable future, it's China.

Do you agree? Let us know. In the comments below.

Until next time! :)