In early September, I joined the SASAC News Center’s “Entering New SOEs—Gathering Momentum for a New Journey” tour, visiting Shenyang, Changchun, and Baicheng. The three central state-owned enterprises—AECC Gas Turbine, FAW Group, and CGN—did not offer nostalgic stories about the old industrial base. Instead, they showcased their hardest products in strategic emerging industries: gas turbines, solid-state batteries and hydrogen internal combustion engines, and concentrated solar power (CSP).
Gas turbines are known as the “jewel in the crown of the equipment manufacturing industry” and have long been controlled by a handful of international giants. For China, buying gas turbines has meant high prices, lead times often exceeding 36 months, and dependence on foreign suppliers for maintenance, spare parts, and technical services. After more than two decades of effort, AECC Gas Turbine has built a complete product matrix covering 1 MW to 110 MW power classes, with cumulative operation exceeding 130,000 hours.
Order trends tell the story more clearly: the company’s total domestic and overseas orders rose from RMB 120 million in 2019 to more than RMB 3 billion today. On September 8, 2025, the first commercial unit of “Taihang 110,” the most powerful domestically produced commercial heavy-duty gas turbine, rolled off the line at its Shenyang base—marking its transition from prototype to commercial product.
During a roundtable discussion, a question directly related to AI was raised: what is the relationship between gas turbines and today’s booming AI computing power? The answer was measured: data centers need stable, fast-responding backup and peaking power, and gas turbines are one option. The direction is clear,