Out of Hainan Island’s Nanshan Port in the Chinese Horse Year 2026
On the second day of the Horse Year 2026 of the Chinese lunar calendar (February 18, 2026), “Jiaolong Manned Submersible” (abbreviated as Jiaolong), carried by the Chinese “Deep Sea No.1” vessel, conducted the first deep-sea scientific research operation of this year in the Western Pacific Ocean. Jiaolong is a high-tech deepwater equipment independently designed and integrated by China. It possesses various capabilities for exploring the ocean, including underwater operation and a positioning system, etc.[i]. An unmanned remotely operated submersible, or named as an autonomous deep-sea submersible robot (ADSR), worked with Jiaolong together during a period of this scientific exploration voyage. It marked a new model of “one ship, two dives” running operation, making the hands of a real person and a robot join together to conduct scientific research in the deep ocean[ii].
The most prominent active feature of ADSR is fully controlled by artificial intelligence. ADSR is associated with Nanshan Port in a bay of the Yazhou District, Sanya City, Hainan Province, China. This port is the first public wharf located at the southernmost tip of China’s territory, serving scientific research. In other words, ADSR swims out of the Nanshan Port to dive into the deep ocean. Further speaking, the guidance of China’s reform and opening-up strategy contributes to this port’s achievement in the Hainan Island in serving Chinese major ocean-going scientific researchful project.
ONE National Strategic Guidance
The geographical environment of the bay in Yazhou District, Sanya City, in Hainan Province, is superior, naturally forming favorable external conditions for building a seaport. The country’s long-term reform and opening-up strategy has led to the macroscopic and massive productive growth, promoting the overall economic prosperity of Hainan Island. This is a core element of the internal conditions for Nanshan Port’s rapid construction and application.
For example, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the whole year was RMB140,187.9 billion yuan (approximately 19,944.784 billion US dollars) with preliminary calculation in 2025. Calculating at constant prices, it increased by 5.0% compared with the previous year[iii]. China formulates and implements a national social, economic, and cultural development plan every five years. According to authoritative statistical data, China’s economic developmental contribution rate to global economic growth had remained at about 30% during the period of the national 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025)[iv].
It is well known to all that China’s remarkable economic performance has been achieved in an uncertain or poor global environment. The Global Risks Report 2026, released at the renowned Davos Forum Annual Meeting, Switzerland, last January, pointed out that now the pressure on the multilateral system, unstable supply chains, heightened protectionism, along with prolonged conflicts at risk of regional spillover, etc., in the world[v]. These have disturbed the global original commercial and cooperative pattern.
China’s strategic guidance is correct, and the people have worked together to overcome numerous difficulties and maintain a stable growth in total production. There is a Chinese saying: “When the big river is full of water, the small rivers also are full.” Nanshan Port’s economic procreative performance is a typical example. A further detailed analysis reveals that the prosperity of Nanshan Port in Yazhou District stems from the boom of Sanya City.
The land of Sanya, located at the southern tip of Hainan Island, China, was incorporated into the governance map of the centralized imperial court and under the jurisdiction of Xiang Prefecture during the period of the ancient Chinese Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 207 BC), with a history of more than 2,200 years[vi]. After a very long historical period of construction, on May 19, 1984, the State Council of the PRC approved the official establishment of Sanya City with modern elements. In recent years, especially with the constructive upsurge of Free Trade Port (FTP) in Hainan Island, a large number of outsiders and various industries have moved into Sanya. The functions of the original old urban areas have become overburdened, necessitating renovation absolutely.
Scholar Oddrun Helen Hagen, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, regarded as in the context of densification and urban renewal efforts, deconstructing “the appeal of central areas in small and medium-sized cities is a critical planning challenge[vii].” European cities started modernization earlier, accordingly accumulating more well-established operational rules, so Chinese builders should learn a lot from them. The viewpoints of “appeal” and “planning challenge” proposed by Hagen can be traced back to the polarization-diffusion theory, connecting with developmental economics and new institutional economics. Karl Gunnar Myrdal, a laureate of the Nobel Economics Prize 1974, elaborated on this new theory in detail by applying the dynamic mechanized method. He stated that a city could rapidly grow into an economic center by relying on its own advantages, such as geographical location, preferential policies, etc., to attract talents, capital, and equipment, and so on. Its formative economic power can spread to surrounding areas and drive regional industrial development[viii].
Since the establishment of Hainan Island as a province in April 1988, the central government has adopted a favorable strategy: Hainan Island leverages its geographical advantages to absorb advanced international theory and technology in the background of opening up to the outside world, and to innovate again based on the actual situation to build the island into the largest economic special zone in the country. The full launch and operation of Hainan Island FTP in 2025 was a recent example of the national strategic implementation. Sanya City enjoys coastal advantages such as excellent conditions for ocean-going ports, a tropical agricultural climate, and good soil. FTP construction in the early stage has been in full swing.
Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China’s reform and opening up, pointed out: “Science and technology constitute primary productive force[ix].” Governments at all levels and enterprises in Sanya City have accelerated economic and cultural development under the strategic guidance of “innovation-driven, technology-empowered”. For example, in April 2024, the Sanya Municipal Government launched a series of preferential policies to encourage and support the reputed international or domestic leading enterprises in the core areas of the digital economy to settle down there and to create a new engine for the accelerated development of the digital economy[x]. These strategic measures have achieved remarkable results, promoting a new quality industry to accelerate its rise and an advanced manufacturing industry to speed up.
In 2025, the Sanya Digital Economy Industrial Park added 386 new enterprises, and the total revenue of the city’s core digital economic industry reached ¥23 billion (about $ 3.343 billion), representing a year-on-year growth of 24%. The corporate ability to produce new products and gain economic benefit mainly relies on the professionals’ efforts through tackling scientific and technological projects.
In the year alone, the professionals from Sanya City’s various industries granted 107 projects by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, received 337 provincial-level research project approvals, and 174 municipal-level ones. The total amount of support funds exceeded 330 million yuan, setting a new historical record. Production led by technological innovations, such as the digital economy, continues to grow. In 2025, Sanya City’s GDP increased by 5.4% compared with the previous year, and the corresponding general public budget revenue increased by 5.7%. The increasing social wealth raised the public’s living standards. For instance, the annual per capita net income of people lifted out of poverty was ¥31,219 yuan, up by 5.7% year-on-year. Throughout the year, 45,900 new urban jobs were created, and 17,100 units of social welfare housing (relocation housing) were newly built, etc.[xi]. It truly interprets Deng’s view that science and technology constitute the primary productive force.
Facts show that through perseveringly exploring, China has steadily embarked on a developmental path guided by a strategic orientation that centers on the interests of the people. This strategy has led the national economy to achieve sustained and relatively fast growth, attracting worldwide attention. For example, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, at the famous Davos World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on January 22, 2026, outright stated: “China, with its strategic vision, has become one of the world’s leading powers[xii].” Nowadays, all countries are striving to be at the forefront in the wave of the digital economy. Who first stands on the waved crest becomes the key.
TWO AI Supersonic Tsunami
Elon Reeve Musk, a globally renowned entrepreneur and inventor, explicitly stated at an important meeting in mid-January that artificial intelligence(AI) was advancing at an unprecedented speed. He specifically explained that AI computing power could increase nearly tenfold every six months. “A powerful AI ‘supersonic tsunami’ is rapidly reshaping the future of technology and work[xiii].” Musk expressed vividly. Sanya relied on its comprehensive strength to deal with this unprecedented “AI supersonic tsunami”.
Sanya City is located at the southernmost tip of Hainan Province, which is the largest area of free trade port under large-scale construction in China. The city’s advantage lies in its vast sea. There are 1,921.40 square kilometers of land, 3,226 square kilometers of sea, and a length of 264.42-kilometer coastline, like a blue ribbon, connecting 19 natural bays and 68 scattered islands in Sanya[xiv]. Based on its geographical advantages, a crucial strategy of Sanya is to “strengthen itself through the sea”, including deep-sea access, deep-sea exploration, deep-sea development, and deep-sea protection, etc., anchoring the fast, high-quality marine economic growth. This strategy inherits and innovates the core theory of the national strategies, meanwhile, also demonstrates distinct characteristics of the island. Let’s take the Jiaolong manned submersible mentioned earlier as an example to illustrate again. The operative information of Jiaolong is a topic that many researchers discuss in Nanshan Port. This is because Jiaolong’s many previous operations are closely related to the support from various parties in the wharf and Hainan Province, and such cooperative projects increase day by day.
On June 17, 2013. Jiaolong completed its first diving mission of the first experimental applicative voyage in the South China Sea surrounding the Hainan Island. The various important supports provided by some departments in Hainan Province are manifested within it. After years of construction, by the end of 2024, a series of modern deep-sea scientific and technological research complexes, named the Public Platform for Deep-sea Technological Innovation (abbreviated as PPDTI or the Public Platform), stood in Yazhou Bay, Sanya[xv]. The main building is a semi-circular arc-shaped structure standing proudly by the seaside, as if a giant stretching out his arms and opening his heart to the boundless and mysterious ocean. This building is equipped with classrooms, laboratories, academic conference halls, etc., and its operations comply with the central control room. There are also several high-rise buildings around it, each equipped with various typological facilities for scientific research. The central control room comprehensively handles most of the research affairs related to the facilities within each building, undertaking the majority of the workload by AI. PPDTI has attracted a large number of talents and enterprises. As early as 2024, 58 research teams from universities and technological institutions in the deep-sea field joined this public platform, forming a deep-sea scientific and technological collaborative innovative system covering 46 domestic units. The platform also gathered over 1,000 deep-sea technological enterprises, including well-known ones such as China State Shipbuilding Corporation(CSSC), Harbin Electric Corporation(HEC) etc.[xvi].
The operation of Nanshan Port is integrated with the running. PPDTI includes a comprehensive experimental area, an academic alternating center, an innovative R&D base, and an experimental testing base, etc.. It is particularly worth mentioning that the public platform includes the first circular extreme oceanic collective wave pool(EOCWP) in China, a leading experimental center of waveguide simulative pool, and the world’s advanced multi-functional test water pool for deep-sea equipment. Technicians researched, debugged, and made multiple new deep-sea scientific pieces of equipment in PPDTI, and then installed the new equipment on ships moored in Nanshan Port. Those ships sailed into the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the new equipment played an important role in marine development. “Since 2020, the average annual quantitative growth rate of the scientific researchful ministrant marine trials provided by Nanshan Port has reached 224%[xvii].”
Artificial Intelligence is an indispensable manager in PPDTI. AI implements operational operations such as equipment allocation, capacity calculation, and change monitoring in PPDTI. For example, before the operation of the first circular EOCWP, AI must calculate in advance to propose some schemes, involving various kinetic technological guarantees linking with generating oceanic waves and their measurable indicators, graphic curves, etc.. Before each artificial wave surges, AI must calculate and determine the wave height, wavelength, amplitude, wave number, and fluid motional pattern. Relying on AI’s precise control, these top-notch facilities provide strong technical support and experimental conditions for Jiaolong and other similar operations. Facing “AI supersonic tsunamis”, Chinese scientific and technological workers and leading enterprises study diligently, innovate again, and increase production more.
THREE Advanced Technology Nurtures Talents
It should be emphasized that no matter how surging the AI supersonic tsunami is, human is the ultimate controllers of AI manufacturing and application. The operation of Nanshan Port falls under an administrative series of a newly-built city, namely the Science and Technology City(STC) in Yazhou District. STC rapid completion is a typical case of the concerted hard efforts and full wisdom of the people of Sanya City, Hainan Province, and even the whole country. In 2019, the People’s Government of Sanya City determined a strategy to build a new city with a total area of 70 square kilometers on a precious coastal plot in Yazhou District. With the concerted arduous work and clever efficiency of people from all walks of life, in just five years, this STC rose from a flat land. In the STC high-tech industrial park, more than ten thousand research institutions, universities, and enterprises have gathered, operating officially. Nanshan Port is closely related to STC in geography, business, and management. According to incomplete statistics, STC’s various economic entities have completed 432 technical reformatory projects, gaining cumulative revenue of nearly 100 billion yuan [xviii].
A little later, personages of all circles redoubled their efforts and completed another new project in Yazhou Bay, namely University Town. The first public teaching building complex has run there, consisting of two 11-story buildings, named by the teachers and students as “Innovation Research and Learning Valley(IRLV)”. The total area of the buildings in IRLV is approximately 121,600 square meters, which can satisfy the needs of 4,000 teachers and students for shared teaching, research, library borrowing, academic meetings, accommodation, and basic living facilities, etc.[xix]. Another batch of buildings is under construction. Students from different majors of 20 renowned universities, such as Beijing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ocean University of China, and Zhejiang University, etc., diligently study there. They are mainly postgraduate and doctoral students and have participated in many scientific research projects, such as an unmanned remotely operated submersible. Facts have proven that labourers who have mastered knowledge create all social wealth.
Prospect Theory, sweeping the global economics community, was first proposed by Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024), a former psychology professor at the renowned Princeton University in the United States, in 1979[xx]. This theory enabled him to share the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics with Vernon L. Smith, a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. Prospect Theory, expounding through economic and psychological analyses including advanced mathematics, states that many young people are bold and adventurous, willing to take risks and face challenges to achieve higher returns. At the same time, they strive to avoid risks and minimize losses[xxi].
In STC and IRLV, new technological reformatory project centers on AI and high-quality teaching do exist, similar to scholar Hagen’s viewpoints of “appeal” etc. in the previous text. There is no doubt that people must confront risk and overcome challenges to achieve performance, just like the Prospect Theory praised by the Nobel Prize in Economics. Facts show that all the students on the Chinese mainland yearn for them and sincerely aspire to become talented individuals through those works and trainings.
For example, students from Tianshui Normal University(TNU) in Gansu Province are very concerned about the information coming from Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City and University Town, Sanya City, because they are prospecting those opportunities. Ma Ping (1) and Ma Ping (2) are two students with the same name and surname from the same Class 4, English Major, Grade 2024 of TNU. The two studied the message about the 4th World University Underwater Robot Competition, concluding in Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City from August 12th to 13th, 2025. Over 130 teams from 27 domestic and foreign institutions, including Yazhou Bay University Town, competed on the same stage[xxii]. Among them, an autonomous submersible robot of the team from Ocean University of China attracted much attention because it demonstrated some similarities with the autonomous deep-sea submersible robot that partnered with Jiaolong last January. This competition, relying on the unique geographical advantages of Hainan Island, focused on the industrial demands in the shipbuilding and marine fields as well as the cutting-edge challenge of underwater intelligent equipment. It involved three categories: autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and creative concepts, covering multiple technical directions such as underwater detection, intelligent control, and autonomous decision-making, concerning advanced technological innovations such as autonomous navigation, precise underwater operation, and collaborative control, etc.. The AI role occupied a core position in the competition.
The two students of TNU said that those classmates participating in the competitions, like us college students, were very innovative and hardworking, and we would learn from them carefully and earnestly as our role models. The two also learned some AI knowledge by themselves during the last winter vacation. TNU management layer also pays double attention to AI. The goal is to absorb and innovate advanced technology to cultivate high-quality talents. These managers organized some teachers to study for 7 days at the renowned Tianjin Normal University during the last winter vacation. TNU teachers listened to “special courses of AI+ education” taught by professors from famous Chinese universities such as Beijing University, Nankai University, etc., discussing their advanced educational concepts and methods. The special courses involved a generative AI teaching application, construction of a virtual emulational laboratory, etc. The aim was to enhance TNU teachers’ capabilities in instructional design, implementation, and evaluation in an AI environment and to provide students with a high-quality course. All of the teachers and students learn together in different ways, enhance their own abilities, and move forward fast. The benefits of the free trade port operating in Yazhou Bay, Sanya, and the entire Hainan Island have spilled over and shone brightly.
Authors:
Minzu University of China Wang Tianjin
Tianshui Normal University Ma Ping(1)，Ma Ping(2)