(Yicai) July 16 -- Five entrepreneurs in China’s private sector, including Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing, said their companies are stepping up innovation thanks to a series of policies that the government has rolled out since the start of the year to support the private economy.

“I’m fully confident in the development of the private economy because there are excellent policies and fertile ground,” Wang, who is also the robotics unicorn’s chief executive officer, said at a press conference held yesterday by the State Council Information Office. “This gives everyone greater confidence to invest in research, development, and production, creating more future-oriented new products and technologies.”

These policies span multiple areas such as financial support, tax cuts and fee reductions, scientific and technological innovation, market access, and legal safeguards, with the aim of enhancing the private sector business environment, stimulating corporate vitality, and promoting high‑quality development.

“The prospects for China’s private enterprises are very broad,” Zhang Bo, chairman of Weiqiao Pioneering Group, a textiles and aluminum giant, said at the same briefing. “I’m very optimistic about the future of China’s private economy.”

Since 2019, Weiqiao has relocated more than two million tons of aluminum smelting capacity to Yunnan province from Shandong province, using Yunnan’s hydropower instead of coal to achieve a green transformation, Zhang noted, adding that the Binzhou-based firm commissioned its second green aluminum base in Yunnan on July 9.

Originating as a small oil and cotton processor, Weiqiao has grown into a multinational enterprise with 100,000 employees that spans the traditional textiles and aluminum industries, and actively extending into emerging fields such as new energy and new materials. It is now expanding into emerging fields such as new energy and new materials.

Unprecedented Support

China’s attention to and support for the private economy are unprecedented, with policies continuously being reinforced, said Liu Changyun, chairman of major drug distributor and healthcare services provider Jointown Pharmaceutical Group.

China has the world’s most promising consumer market, with a pharmaceutical sector that is worth nearly CNY5 trillion (USD696.3 billion), Liu noted. As health consumption upgrades, the market will further expand, and digitalization and artificial intelligence will reshape the pharmaceutical industry, he added.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission announced new policies on June 18 to introduce a new “growth tier” to Shanghai’s Nasdaq-like Star Market aimed at supporting promising science and technology startups. Commercial aerospace was included in the fifth set of listing standards, a regulatory pathway allowing unprofitable firms to go public, noted Liu Baiqi, CEO of Galactic Energy, a leading space launch company.

“I think it’s not just me -- entrepreneurs across the commercial spaceflight sector are thrilled,” Liu pointed out.

He said that China is placing greater emphasis on the private economy, and as the policy environment continues to improve, it is creating a wide opening for private companies. These firms play an increasingly important role in tech innovation, and more are joining the commercial aerospace industry, pushing its rapid development, Liu added.

The manufacturing sector is in a profound period of transformation, facing challenges on multiple fronts: a tidal wave of technological revolution and global industrial chain restructuring, said Wang Zhen, chairwoman and CEO of Erdos Group, a conglomerate in cashmere, energy, and metallurgy.

Achieving high‑quality growth through innovation and systemic upgrading remains at the core of development, she said, adding that innovation spans technology, management, and the market.

Editor: Futura Costaglione