A technician at a smart spinning enterprise maintains automatic winding production equipment in Jimo District of Qingdao City, east China's Shandong Province, on March 25, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- As winter sets in and the garment industry hits its peak, the production lines are working overtime at Bosideng's smart factory in Changshu, Jiangsu Province. Bosideng is a leading manufacturer in China's down-apparel industry.

Thanks to the brand's smart solutions, a single jacket goes from raw fabric to finished product in just three to four minutes.

In the 2025 government work report, China vowed to effectively combine digital technologies with its manufacturing and market strengths. It will support the extensive application of large-scale AI models and develop new-generation intelligent terminals and smart manufacturing equipment.

Powered by big data and artificial intelligence (AI), the textile and garment industry in China is stepping toward high-end, smart and green manufacturing.

INTELLIGENCE INSIDE GARMENTS

Bosideng has used the AI to overhaul its legacy design process and build a research and development model driven by AI and big data since 2024, said Wang Chenhua, vice president of Bosideng.

Bosideng has teamed up with Zhejiang University to launch an AI innovation and application laboratory. With upgraded algorithms, the lab has developed a generative model that cuts down prototype development time from 100 days to just 27, while reducing sample garment costs by over 60 percent.

On the retail front, Bosideng has deepened its partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com to roll out AI-powered try-ons and digital-host livestreams, making shopping more efficient and enjoyable for customers.

By the end of September, the brand has owned 1,520 patents, forging a competitive technological moat around its core innovations.

Today Bosideng down jackets are sold in 72 countries worldwide, with the total global sales exceeding 200 million pieces.

In Changshu, more than 5,000 textile firms churn out over 500 million garments a year. A pivotal global textile-and-apparel hub, the city's marketplace links 179 countries and regions, logging more than 200 billion yuan in both online and offline turnover every year.

Changshu is now fostering digital transformation services to propel its apparel makers to achieve smart upgrades and digital transitions. In October, the city issued a white paper to boost the development of textile and apparel industry through AI-driven initiatives.

EMERGING NEW PATHWAY

This August, the country unveiled a set of guidelines on deeply implementing the AI Plus initiative, providing a systematic action plan to embed AI into various sectors and support high-quality social and economic development.

The guidelines proposed to promote the intelligent transformation of all factors of production across industries, and helping to upgrade and transform traditional sectors.

In north China's Shanxi Province, a major traditional coal mining enterprise Huayang Group established its new material enterprise in 2023. The enterprise specializes in the production of T1000-grade carbon fiber, utilizing state-of-the-art technology among the latest generation of ultra-high-strength carbon fibers in an almost fully automated manner.

At a lab of the group, the compared data showed that a single carbon-fiber filament's diameter was less than one-tenth that of a human hair. And tensile tests confirmed that the T1000-grade carbon fiber exceeded 6,400 MPa in strength, meaning a one-meter-long fiber can lift an object weighing approximately 200 kilograms.

"We have built a digitalized, visualized, and smart quality-traceability system that helps us win the trust of high-end markets in aerospace and new-energy sectors," said Ge Peng, deputy general manager at Huayang.

They are also pushing to build a "lights-out factory", enabling an even higher level of unattended operation and intelligent decision-making, said Ge.

The coal-rich province is moving beyond its resource-based economy. With Huayang leading the way toward advanced materials, Shanxi has launched a total of 298 smart coal mines, boosting the share of advanced coal-production capacity to 83.5 percent.

In the suburban area of Luoyang, Shanxi's neighboring Henan Province, Pangcun Township is recognized as the "steel furniture industry base of China". More than 1,000 varieties of steel furniture made here are sold in over 120 countries and regions worldwide, with an annual output value exceeding 16 billion yuan, and they account for over 70 percent of the national market share.

This steel furniture base is promoting the intelligent transformation in manufacturing. "Our AI and IoT-powered smart archive solution essentially gives the repository a 'brain,' enabling intelligent retrieval and automatic warning," said Zhou Xuguang, general manager of a furniture company in Pangcun.

The township is now home to 35 national high-tech enterprises and 65 national small and medium-sized sci-tech enterprises, boasting over 100 invention patents and more than 1,000 utility model and design patents.

From smart factories to intelligence-powered production lines, manufacturers across China are driving a robust industrial revival through sweeping digital transformation. This tech-led overhaul represents far more than an efficiency gain -- it is the key engine unlocking a new era of innovation and competitiveness.