China's light industry sector comprised 136,600 enterprises in 2024, reflecting an average annual growth rate of 5.89 percent since 2020, according to recent data.

Retail sales of key light industrial products reached 7.93 trillion yuan ($1.12 trillion), representing 16.2 percent of total retail sales of consumer goods. Exports totaled $925.4 billion, with an average annual increase of 7.17 percent since 2020.

"In recent years, the light industry has achieved steady expansion and significantly strengthened supply chain resilience, establishing China as the world's largest producer and exporter of light industrial products," said Zhang Chonghe, president of the China National Light Industry Council.

At an interconnected refrigerator factory of Chinese home appliance giant Haier in Jiaozhou, a county-level city in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, robotic arms move with precision, rolling a new refrigerator off the line every 10 seconds. Through 5G-enabled industrial internet connectivity and advanced computing, hundreds of components quickly find their designated positions on the assembly line, where various refrigerator models are produced in sequence.

"The entire workshop operates under the coordination of artificial intelligence, enabling mixed-model, on-demand manufacturing," said Yin Dongdong, the factory's process director, pointing to an industrial robot applying product labels.

This task, once reliant on manual labor and prone to human error, has been replaced by AI-powered visual positioning technology, achieving virtually zero defects.

"Product quality has improved significantly, and production capacity has doubled compared with traditional factories. Around 5,000 premium refrigerators leave this facility daily for destinations around the world," Yin said.

To date, five Haier facilities have been recognized as excellence-level smart factories by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, covering refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters and other product categories.

"Overall, AI applications in the home appliance sector are not only driving the industry toward the mid-to-high end but also contributing to the global development of the home appliance industry," said Jiang Feng, executive chairman of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), smart home appliances' share of the home appliance market surged from 38 percent to 62 percent, becoming a new growth engine for the sector. In 2024, the home appliance industry's main business revenue reached 1.95 trillion yuan, up 31.6 percent from 2020.

Throughout this period, China's light industry has undergone continuous optimization and upgrading, propelled by the twin engines of intelligent transformation and green development.

Among the country's 1,260 national-level 5G factories, the light industry sector accounts for 167, or 13 percent. Industrial internet applications have been widely adopted across the industry, covering more than 60 percent of enterprises above designated size.

As of 2024, 1,321 light industry enterprises had been designated national-level green factories, spanning home appliances, paper manufacturing, food processing, battery production and other fields.

"During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with scientific and technological innovation as the key driving force, enterprises in the light industry have accelerated the creation of a collaborative innovation system linking companies, universities, research institutes and end users, propelling the sector toward the mid-to-high end of the value chain," Zhang said.

Investment in innovation has continued to rise. Industry-wide R&D spending intensity increased from 1.72 percent at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) to 2.31 percent in 2023, an average annual growth rate of 9.2 percent.

Scientific and technological innovation has yielded abundant results. The light industry has been granted more than 1.79 million invention patents to date, with valid invention patents rising from 127,000 in 2020 to 214,000 in 2024, an average annual growth rate of 12.3 percent, according to industry statistics.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's light industry sector has further enhanced its market competitiveness.

In 2024, light industry exports accounted for 25.9 percent of China's total exports, maintaining the top spot nationwide for five consecutive years.

From 2020 to 2024, exports of light industrial products to Belt and Road partner countries rose from 30 percent to 33 percent of total exports, while exports to ASEAN nations grew from 13.7 percent to 15 percent, reflecting a more balanced international market layout.

China aims to cultivate more than 10 globally recognized new brands and more than 50 regionally distinctive new brands in the light industry by 2030, maintaining its leading global market share in light industrial products, Zhang said.