DeepSeek’s rise helps push China’s ‘little giants’ into spotlight at ‘two sessions’

In the work report he delivered to the legislature on Wednesday, Premier Li Qiang vowed to nurture more innovative manufacturing champions, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) occupying technological niches in the global supply chain for specialised products.

Unicorns are start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion, while gazelles – a term coined by American economist David Birch in 1987 – are small start-ups that see annual sales growth of at least 20 per cent in their first four years of operation.

Beijing wants China’s little giants and its potential unicorns and gazelles to help move the country’s manufacturing sector up the value chain, rekindle private sector growth and spawn more innovations.

Most little giants excel in advanced materials, biotechnology, automation, robotics or AI – fields deemed by Beijing as critical for winning the tech war with the US and modernising China’s traditional industries.