木棉花的春天

中国上海，2026年8月3日，瑞士专业运动品牌On昂跑正式官宣中国全新马拉松运动员及跑者阵容。李健晋升为签约运动员，盛旺加入为签约运动员，携手甄超清、甄越清，共筑品牌路跑精英矩阵；陈泯宇、王一以签约跑者加入，注入新生代竞速潜力。         Air China flight CA723 takes off from the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, on August 12, 2026. China launched the first international route featuring its homegrown C919 aircraft, connecting Beijing with Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia. Photo: VCGAt around 4:58 pm on Wednesday, Air China flight CA723, a China-designed and manufactured C919 aircraft carrying 121 passengers, landed in Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, marking the latest milestone in the C919's commercial operation since its maiden commercial flight on May 28, 2023. The journey, which started in Beijing, was more than another takeoff, as it marked the C919's first international commercial flight and the beginning of regular international operations for China's homegrown large passenger aircraft.
As the C919 climbs higher and flies farther beyond China's borders, the runway behind it gradually disappears. What comes into focus instead is a much broader journey - one in which China's advanced engineering capabilities are reaching new markets, new partners and new possibilities around the world.
Historic moment
Hours before takeoff, a passenger surnamed Zhang, who was completing check-in procedures at Beijing Capital International Airport, said with a smile that he had stumbled into a "historic moment" by chance.
"I didn't pay much attention when I booked the ticket. I had heard that our homegrown C919 would soon begin international service, but I never expected it would be this very flight," Zhang told the Global Times on Wednesday. "I feel incredibly proud and excited."
From its maiden flight in Shanghai in 2017, when its first takeoff had many watching with bated breath, to its first scheduled international commercial service today, the C919's journey reflects China's sustained push to build up its capabilities in advanced aviation manufacturing. 
In recent years, China's top-level policies have strongly supported the development of high-end manufacturing. As the nation enters the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), Chinese high-end manufacturing is increasingly translating technological breakthroughs into globally competitive products and solutions to contribute more broadly to industrial development and connectivity worldwide, Chinese experts noted.
And the C919 program is one of China's most ambitious endeavors to push the frontiers of high-end manufacturing.
The C919 is China's first self-developed trunk jetliner in accordance with international airworthiness standards and registered with independent intellectual property rights, according to the Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday.
Industry experts said the C919's progress reflects the rapid advance of China's broader manufacturing capabilities. Only a handful of countries are capable of developing single-aisle mainline passenger jets, and even fewer can bring a certified aircraft into commercial service.
The C919 aircraft's biggest achievement is that China has built the capability to take a large passenger jet from the drawing board all the way to a certified commercial product, covering overall design, airframe manufacturing, system integration and airworthiness approval, Wang Ya'nan, editor-in-chief of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Much of the aircraft's design, major structural manufacturing and key systems are completed in China. He said this marks a significant step forward in China's civil aviation manufacturing capability, placing the country among the few able to develop a modern trunk-line jet and bring it into commercial service. Its expanding operations now represent the next stage of that progress, he added.
As of Monday, the C919 aircraft had served 57 routes linking 25 cities and handled more than 7.5 million passenger trips, said the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), the jet developer, according to Xinhua.
However, the C919 still faces intense competition in a global market dominated by established players. Experts said, however, that its competitiveness could continue to strengthen as operational experience grows and China accelerates indigenous development of key components and systems.
The UK-based aviation industry publication Airline Economics noted on July 13 that Malaysia Airlines continues to consider Comac's C919 as a future fleet option, but Western regulatory certification remains a key requirement before the carrier would consider operating the Chinese narrowbody.
This has also brought into sharper focus the dual considerations of certification and market demand among potential international customers for the C919, as Wang said this is precisely why the C919's continued expansion into new routes and markets matters. 
As cross-border services expand, the C919 will also need to move closer to international operating standards by building a support network that goes beyond its domestic maintenance system to cover the full cycle of international operations, including regulatory coordination, overseas maintenance facilities and spare-parts logistics, Han Tao, an expert with China's civil aviation think tank, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 
Strengthening these capabilities will be crucial to supporting more international routes and meeting the standards and operational needs of potential overseas customers, Han said.
Meanwhile, industry observers noted that China is also stepping up efforts to advance key components and systems for large commercial aircraft, an area that remains a major challenge for most countries' aviation industries, with mature capabilities still largely concentrated in the US, the UK and France.
Pushing boundaries, sharing opportunities
As the C919 flies farther, it is carrying with it not only China's advances in high-end manufacturing, but a broader story of how Chinese innovation is moving from breakthroughs at home to new possibilities shared with the world.
Underpinning that shift is China's expanding advanced manufacturing capacity and increasingly complete industrial ecosystem, which are helping turn technological breakthroughs into scalable products, a Chinese expert said.
China is upgrading its traditional industrial base while cultivating new sectors that could shape future competitiveness, seeking to move beyond scale and cost advantages toward a more innovation-driven industrial model, injecting new impetus into the country's high-quality development, according to Xinhua's another report on July 21.
The nation's 15th Five-Year Plan underscores the development of a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone, the report said.
China's vast and diverse market provides advanced manufacturing with something equally important as technological capability: abundant real-world scenarios for testing, refinement and commercialization, Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Modernization of Management magazine.
This helps turn breakthroughs into mature, scalable products more quickly. Over the longer term, he said, advanced manufacturing will strengthen China's competitiveness by combining stronger industrial capabilities with complete supply chains and global cooperation, allowing more Chinese technologies, products and solutions to reach international markets, Bian said.
Aviation manufacturing, as a key pillar of high-end manufacturing, is benefiting from this broader push toward industrial upgrading and technological innovation.
At the fourth China International Supply Chain Expo held in Beijing in June, a complete aviation industry innovation chain stands out, spanning aviation materials, core forgings and low-altitude economy applications, drawing widespread attention to the participating companies, Xinhua reported.
Bian said that a complex project such as the C919 can drive coordinated upgrades across advanced materials, precision equipment, core components, system integration, logistics and skilled talent. In this sense, building a large commercial aircraft is a comprehensive test of a country's industrial depth, supply-chain coordination, and ability to turn sophisticated technologies into reliable commercial products.
。作为前铁人三项世界冠军，On昂跑创始人、执行董事会成员Olivier Bernhard强调：“运动员是品牌长期合作伙伴，更是团队一份子。On昂跑致力于发掘不同阶段的运动员和跑者，持续提供全方位、高品质的服务，支持他们不断突破。

二 | ”On昂跑签约运动员李健——2025年加入On昂跑，从大众跑者转为职业选手，同年在上海马拉松跑出2小时14分52秒的个人最佳；2026年从签约跑者成为签约运动员。秉持“Be Pro”信念，他不断突破自我，探索更多上限。盛旺——毕业于上海体育大学，既是运动员，也兼任教练，带领队伍多次夺得全国冠军，践行“运动员—教练—跑步传播者”三重身份。2026年3月，他在首尔马拉松刷新PB至2小时12分36秒。跑步于他，既是追求成绩，也是传递热爱。甄超清、甄越清——这对赛场上备受瞩目的双胞胎曾是江苏省田径队主力，拥有8年专业训练经历。哥哥甄超清PB 2小时15分01秒，弟弟甄越清PB 2小时14分50秒。超越兄弟自2023年加入On昂跑，至今已与品牌携手三年，期待持续突破。

三 | On昂跑签约跑者陈泯宇——北京大学在读大学生，1500米国家一级运动员，半马PB 1小时05分53秒（国家级运动健将）。曾获全国田径分区赛1500米冠军、省运会5000米冠军。2026年签约On昂跑，将继续在场地赛及路跑中拓展潜力。王一——北京大学在读大学生，800米国家级运动健将，半马PB 1小时10分14秒（国家一级运动员）。2026年亚洲U23选拔赛800米第四名。

四 | 2026年签约On昂跑，将继续在场地赛中保持突破，并正式进军路跑赛事。