Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

A recent Bloomberg report has drawn attention by citing unnamed "people familiar with the matter" to claim that "China has suspended issuing new licenses for autonomous vehicles," implying that the country's fast-growing autonomous-driving industry faces a gloomy outlook.

In reality, this report is completely unfounded. The cited regulatory tightening stemmed from China's work meeting focused on the "regulated and orderly road testing and demonstration application of intelligent connected vehicles" on April 14. The meeting urged local authorities to conduct comprehensive self-assessments in light of recent safety events, strengthen safety oversight across the entire process, and enhance emergency response capabilities to ensure safe and orderly testing and demonstration activities. Nowhere did it mention "suspending issuing new licenses." Distorting a routine regulatory meeting with an anonymous source is neither professional nor responsible.

While some foreign media were hyping the "suspension" narrative, China's autonomous-driving industry continued advancing at full speed. In December 2025, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially granted the country's first permits for Level-3 (L3) conditionally automated vehicles, with two domestically developed models approved for pilot road operations on select areas in Beijing and Chongqing. It marked a major step toward commercial application. That same month, China's first license plate for L3 autonomous driving was granted in Chongqing. By late March this year, another automaker's in-house developed Robotaxi secured a Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving test permit in Chongqing. These developments stand in stark contrast to the foreign media narrative.

The contrast also highlights a double standard in Western media coverage. In December 2025, a mass power outage in San Francisco disrupted traffic lights and caused thousands of Google-owned Waymo robotaxis to stall and block streets, sparking public frustration. Yet Western media largely framed the incident as a normal problem in technological development, rarely portraying it as evidence of industry failure. In China, however, an isolated malfunction or even routine safety meetings are quickly exaggerated into a "collapsing tech myth" or a "hard brake on autonomous driving." The selective reporting exposes the Western media's bias. 

Developing autonomous driving vehicles is a long and complex engineering process. Accidents and setbacks are unavoidable, but they also provide opportunities to improve technology and strengthen regulation.

China has chosen a path centered on safety, unified national standards, and tiered access. The country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) has identified intelligent connected new energy vehicles as an emerging strategic industry. China has already established a four-pillar regulatory framework combining national laws, mandatory standards, recommended standards, and pilot guidelines. Multiple cities in China have opened road access for autonomous operations and issued dedicated license plates. This framework ensures clear safety boundaries and an orderly commercialization process. Technologically, China is pursuing a dual-track development combining single-vehicle intelligence with connected infrastructure construction, using networked capabilities to compensate for single-vehicle limitations, reducing costs while improving reliability in complex conditions.

Five key advantages define China's autonomous driving landscape: unified policy standards, advanced 5G and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) infrastructure, diverse market scenarios, a self-contained supply chain, and rapid scalability. These five major advantages have together created China's outstanding edge of high quality and cost-effectiveness in autonomous driving.

China's passenger vehicle autonomous driving industry is currently progressing steadily through a three-stage pathway: rapid L2 adoption, gradual L3 expansion, and breakthroughs toward L4/L5 deployment. At the recently concluded 2026 Beijing Auto Show, companies hosted numerous launch events showcasing intelligent driving technologies and demonstrating a clear transition from assisted driving to L4 unmanned driving. These signals make one thing clear: In 2026, China's autonomous driving sector is accelerating from technological experimentation toward commercial expansion, with a trillion-yuan industrial landscape rapidly taking shape.

As technological competition intensifies and industrial restructuring accelerates, the competition over technological standards and industry paths exists not only in labs and production lines but also in the arena of public discourse. The deliberately crafted narrative of China's autonomous driving "setbacks" and "suspension" reflects Western media's "AI anxiety" - habitually amplifying negative information about AI and autonomous driving-and attempts to undermine confidence in China's intelligent connected vehicle industry.

In fact, China's commitment to openness and cooperation in autonomous driving has never changed. Singapore, for example, has collaborated with Chinese autonomous driving companies to support the operation of autonomous buses on its local streets. China's advantages in scale, cost, and policy are the enduring competitive strengths in this industry race.

Despite the headwinds, the trend remains unchanged. China's autonomous driving industry is steadily writing its own answer through technological breakthroughs, expanding road access, and an increasing number of approved vehicle models. Facts and real capabilities speak far louder than any "sensationalized narratives."

The author is the executive director of the China Automobile Dealers Association. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn