Editor’s note:
China is cultivating the development of new quality productive forces, referring to growth of higher quality driven by breakthrough innovations and comprehensive sustainability. Let’s check out how businesses in Shanghai, which is base to many high-tech companies, fare on this route.
Shen Mengdan / SHINE
A CHCNAV model of Mt Everest.
“China would grasp our own technological core that no one else can take away. This is the real ‘Made in China’ in my mind.”
That is Chen Helin’s firm belief. As chairman of Zhejiang Aishida Electrical Appliances Co, he represents the determination of many domestic entrepreneurs.
Several Chinese enterprises in various industries, Aishida included, redefined the connotation of “Made in China” through their groundbreaking technologies as well as their faith in Chinese manufacturing.
One of them is CHC Navigation, or CHCNAV.
Zhao Yanping, founder of CHCNAV, created the company in 2003 to fill the gap in the domestic market when Europe and the US monopolized the GPS navigation industry in the 1990s.
In 2020, the first domestic mapping instrument made by CHCNAV was used to measure the elevation of Mount Everest, the latest height of which was 8848.86 meters. The result was announced jointly by China and Nepal.
“When measuring the height of Mount Everest, the air pressure at the summit is about one-third of the ground, and the temperature is over minus 40 degrees Celsius. But we have successfully solved the problem of equipment stability and overcome difficult testing conditions,” said Hou Yongtao, vice president of CHCNAV.
At present, the products and solutions of CHCNAV have been widely used in the segments of construction and infrastructure, geospatial information, robotics, and automated driving, and entered the emerging fields of smart city, automated driving, and artificial intelligence.
From 2014 to 2024, CHCNAV has grown rapidly, with sales growing from more than US $200 million to nearly US$3 billion, and the number of employees growing from less than 400 to 1,800, according to official data.
Shen Mengdan / SHINE
Unmanned surface vessels from CHCNAV use adaptive water flow straight line technology to replace dangerous manual measurements.
Aishida, originally a cookware manufacturer founded in 1978, is another example of transformation into a formidable force in the intelligent manufacturing field. In 2016, it took a controlling stake in QJAR, a high-tech industrial robot enterprise founded in 2013, to build a full ecological chain in the robotics industry.
In the exhibition hall of Aishida Intelligent Valley, Aishida’s self-developed RV reducer is on display. As one of the core technologies of industrial robots, the RV reducer has long been monopolized by foreign industrial powers, because this technology directly determines the fineness of the robot’s movements and the stability of operation.
At present, the RV reducer independently developed by Aishida has reached the international first-class level.
Shen Mengdan / SHINE
All-robot operations in the Aishida Smart Valley.
“It is crucial for Chinese enterprises to realize high-quality development and turn from simply manufacturing to ‘smart manufacturing.’ The construction of digital and intelligent factories would benefit the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing enterprises, enhancing the international competitiveness of national enterprises,” Chen said.
In September 2023, the Qingpu government and Shanghai Aishida Robotics Co built the Aishida Intelligent Valley with other enterprises. This high-tech industrial park provides a full range of support and services for emerging advanced manufacturing industries such as robotics, industrial internet, big data, and artificial intelligence.
Chen hopes to improve production efficiency, reduce operating costs, and shorten product development cycles through this high-tech park.
The first phase of Intelligent Valley has a construction area of 68,000 square meters. It is expected to be put into use by 2025, with 100 industrial chain enterprises settled, according to Aishida officials.
Shen Mengdan / SHINE
The manufacturing process of the fully automated logistics sorting center is demonstrated in the Aishida Wisdom Valley.
