BEIJING — With an over 970-fold increase in its industrial output between 1952 and 2018, China has emerged as the world's manufacturing hub, and growing sci-tech strength has brought qualitative changes to "Made in China."

From backward manufacturer to front-runner

The country's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, had surged to over 30 trillion (about $4.2 trillion) in 2018 from 12 billion yuan in 1952, official data showed.

Due to weak industrial infrastructure and backward technologies in the early days of the People's Republic of China, the country could only manufacture few textile products and even had to import leather shoes and soaps from other countries.

World Bank data showed that China overtook the United States as the world's largest manufacturing country in terms of added value in 2010 and has retained first place ever since.

Among over 500 kinds of major industrial products announced by the United Nations, China sees its output of more than 220 kinds rank first globally, with its modern industrial system taking shape.

In 2017, China's manufacturing value-added accounted for 27 percent of the world's total, making it a major powerhouse of global industrial growth.

From "made in China" to "created in China"

China's high-tech manufacturing led the overall industrial output growth with its 6.1-percent increase in August, demonstrating renewed momentum of industrial upgrading, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Decades ago, more than 80 percent of China's export commodities were primary products, whereas high-tech and high-value-added products are now becoming mainstream.

In 2018, the country's exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 9.6 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly 60 percent of China's total export value, official data showed.

China dominated the list of the world's fastest supercomputers by the number of systems for the fourth consecutive year, according to a semiannual ranking of the Top 500 published earlier this year.

International supercomputing scientist Erich Strohmaier said that China, which tops the supercomputer list with 219 systems, has become a major producer and consumer of global supercomputing systems.

China had 934,000 valid invention patents in industries above the designated size in 2017, making it the second-largest international patent filer of the year, said a report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Seventy years on, the country's industrial innovation capability continues to improve, and the "world factory" is advancing towards new heights of innovation.