A robot is on display at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. Photo: Wu Xue

The latest data released by the State Taxation Administration (STA) reflects the robust and accelerating development momentum of China's new quality productive forces in the first half of the year, STA officials said at a press conference on Tuesday.  

China's industrial sector maintained steady improvement, with key sectors associated with new quality productive forces expanding rapidly and driving industrial transformation and high-quality economic development, officials said. 

Key industries closely associated with new quality productive forces, including equipment manufacturing, information transmission, software and technology services, continued to expand. 

These core sectors accounted for 23.5 percent of the sales revenue of all enterprises nationwide in the first half of the year, up 2.2 percentage points year-on-year, with their share rising rapidly year by year. The share would be even higher if other emerging industries and the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries were also taken into account, Hu Jinglin, head of the STA, said.

China's industrial sectors maintained solid growth in the first half. Sales revenue of industrial enterprises rose 7.1 percent year-on-year, while manufacturing sales revenue increased 7.3 percent. Industrial enterprises accounted for 36 percent of the sales revenue of all enterprises, up 2.2 percentage points from the same period last year. Equipment investment by industrial enterprises rose 9.8 percent year-on-year, further strengthening the foundations of the economy, according to the STA.

Preferential tax and fee policies provided strong support for technological innovation and the high-end development of manufacturing. 

Tax and fee cuts and refunds under major policies supporting technological innovation and manufacturing development totaled 1.91 trillion yuan ($282 billion) in the first half of the year. Specifically, tax incentives for corporate research and development investment hit 659.6 billion yuan to bolster input into innovation. Policies supporting high-tech enterprises and emerging industries, including the preferential 15 percent corporate income tax rate for high-tech enterprises, delivered 252 billion yuan in tax cuts. 

Policies including additional value-added tax deductions for manufacturing enterprises provided nearly 1 trillion yuan in tax and fee cuts, supporting efforts to overcome key technological bottlenecks and promote high-end industrial development, officials said.

Global Times