China’s flourishing display industry mirrors country’s passion for innovation

By Zou Xiang, Source: People’s Daily

At the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the interaction between a huge ground LED display covering 11,000 square meters and a gigantic LED screen standing in the middle of the venue caught the eyes of the world. This innovative combination of digital technology and aesthetics has built an ice world that only exists in dreams.

Display technologies have become part and parcel of our daily lives, which is indicated by the ubiquity of TV sets, tablets, smart phones, LED walls on urban buildings, as well as augmented reality and virtual reality devices.

China, launching a series of high-profile products and technologies, such as 8K screens, narrow bezel screens, full-view display, foldable screens and transparent screens, and integrating new display products with 5G, ultra HD videos, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, is moving toward the higher end of the display industry.

Behind these screens, there is a huge market. Over the recent decades, China has constantly upgraded its display technologies. The screens made in the country are getting lighter, faster and more energy-efficient, usually coming with higher definition.

These displays, featuring increasingly diverse functions and manufactured in different shapes, mirror the continuous progress of the industry, and are making people’s life more splendid.

New displays and integrated circuits are of high strategic importance in the sector of high-end manufacturing. For a long time, China’s display industry had been hindered by the short supply of chips and screens, and the technologies to produce big-size screens had been in the hands of foreign enterprises. Chinese TV makers were in no position to bargain with foreign suppliers. They had no choice but to swallow the high price, which once made TV sets very expensive in China.

Today, China has grown into one of the front-runners in the display industry, and TV prices have dropped significantly in the country. It was made possible by the wisdom and efforts of many researchers.

How China has turned the table is a miniature of the country catching up with the world. It is enhancing the country’s resolve and courage to accelerate independent innovation and strive for independent development of high technology.

From a follower to a leader, China’s progress in the display industry is inseparable from the country’s solid industrial foundation and continuously improving industrial and ecological chains.

According to statistics, China’s new display industry recorded direct revenue of 446 billion yuan ($70.44 billion) in 2020, the highest in the world .

In the digital era, the new display industry will play a more important role in upgrading information consumption, expanding digital economy and developing the electronic information industry. Artificial intelligence, internet of things and cloud computing will expand the space of application for a number of display technologies and create more opportunities for development.

At the same time, China is still facing challenges on its way to gain a foothold in the medium and high ends of the industrial chain, such as insufficient supply of core technologies, as well as the dependence on imports of key materials.

Therefore, the country is promoting integrated innovation among enterprises of all sizes in the medium and low ends of the industrial chain, so as to break bottlenecks, increase import substitution rate, and better drive the high-quality development of the new display industry.

There’s no limit of innovation. China is witnessing leapfrog development. The high-definition and smart screens reflect the efforts and resolution, as well as the innovation and energy of China’s advanced manufacturing sector on its way to secure a place on the higher end.

China will further accelerate its deployment on the higher end of the industrial chain, continuously improve industrial eco-system, and enhance synergy of the industrial chain, so as to take an active approach to industrial development.