Plush toys of Paris 2024 Olympics mascot Phryge are on display for sale at a licensed merchandise store in Shanghai. Photo: IC

Along with Team China, 35,000 high-performance ping pong balls and a wide array of high-tech sports gear descended on the Paris Olympics. Chinese experts and industry players said the situation reflected a profound change in the Chinese industrial sector in the past decade. 

From chip-embedded soccer balls that allow a referee a firmer grasp of match dynamics to a nano-coated judo mattress that resists stains and is easier to clean, the infusion of tech ingredients is the latest case of Chinese companies' growing manufacturing prowess, in addition to cost performance, flexibility and first-rate services, observers said.

"Our company's illuminated table tennis table is a product of constant improvement and innovation for over two decades. The three-dimensional logo utilizes advanced tooling techniques to achieve the desired balance between looks and user friendliness," Lou Shihe, general manager of Shanghai-based DHS, told the Global Times on Monday. DHS is a long-time provider of sports gear to the Olympics.

Yang Xuefeng, brand operations manager at Guangdong-based Double Fish Sports Goods Group Co, told the Global Times on Monday that his company provided 35,000 table tennis balls of "top quality" to the Paris Olympic Games.

"The ping pong balls have an elasticity tolerance under 4 millimeters, a weight tolerance of 0.015 grams, and hardness tolerance of 0.03 millimeters, surpassing International Table Tennis Federation standards. The stringent quality ensures more stable flight, precise landing and better feel," Yang said.

For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the company has innovatively incorporated ball-serving machine technology into the referee table, replacing manual labor with a machine that can precisely send the ball from the table's server to a spot in front of the player, Yang said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a routine press conference on Friday that "made in China" is one of the ways that China participates in the Olympics.

High-quality Chinese products will provide technical and service support for the Paris Olympics and make the event even more stunning visually and technologically, Mao said.

Chinese sports gear was already predominant in many major sports events before the Paris Olympic Games, but it is the Olympics that command the unparallel media spotlight and attention of the masses.

"Just as the 1988 Seoul Olympics demonstrated to the world of the capability of Corporate Japan in factory assembly production, I think the Paris Olympics showed the leading position of Corporate China in the era of smart and intelligent manufacturing," Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Monday.

The realization of complex processing techniques requires best-in-class machine tools, as well as constant and hefty investment in a plant's production line. Sports gear production has become a miniature model of Chinese manufacturing's transformation from large-scale assembly line production to module-based intelligent production featuring high-level automation and informatization, Cao said.

From 2021-23, China has launched smart manufacturing pilot projects and built 421 national-level demonstration factories along with over 10,000 provincial-level digital workshops and smart factories, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

At an executive meeting in May, the State Council adopted an action plan aimed at advancing manufacturing digitalization, and it vowed to channel more energy into the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector to foster new quality productive forces.

Observers said the impressive debut of these high-tech sports gear products at the Paris Olympic Games epitomized the nation's steadfast efforts in transforming and upgrading its manufacturing sector, and the increased brand value and orders of numerous producers across the country showed the tangible benefits of embracing the digital trend.

In the first half of 2024, Chinese manufacturing companies' investment into technological upgrades grew 10 percent year-on-year, which was 0.5 percentage points higher than overall manufacturing investment growth, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

In addition to the technology elements that Chinese companies brought to the Olympics, the traditional advantages of Chinese manufacturing companies, such as advantages in scale and cost, continue to give them an edge.

Some 80 percent of the "Phryge" mascot dolls for the 2024 Paris Olympics were produced by Chinese companies, CGTN reported on Thursday, citing the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee.

Shi Lei, a manager with Ningbo-based Ningbo Donggang Sports Co, told the Global Times on Monday that the company's shuttlecock production is at full throttle to meet an uptick in demand brought by the Games, although summer is not the traditional peak season for badminton products.

"Our orders increased by some 20 percent as the Games approached, and our annual production capacity was fully booked as early as March," Shi said, adding that the value of exports to France alone increased by 35 percent year-on-year in the first half.