China is elevating the "one-person company" from a fringe business model to a national strategy, betting that artificial intelligence can turn individuals into scalable economic units, which industry experts said is a shift unfolding in parallel with the United States, but along a markedly different path.

The one-person company, or OPC, emerged as one of China's hottest entrepreneurial trends recently. A research report by the State Administration for Market Regulation describes the sector as "entering a phase of rapid expansion", concentrated in major economic clusters such as the Yangtze River Delta region, the Pearl River Delta region and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well as rising inland innovation hubs.

The numbers underscore the momentum. By June 2025, China had more than 16 million registered one-person limited liability companies, accounting for 27.4 percent of all enterprises. In the first half of 2025 alone, 2.86 million new OPCs were registered, up 47 percent year-on-year and representing nearly a quarter of all new businesses.

Unlike in the US, where solo entrepreneurship is often tied to gig work or digital services, China's OPC boom is being hardwired into industrial policy and anchored in the country's vast manufacturing ecosystem.

A single entrepreneur operating behind a laptop can tap into dense supply chains spanning cities like Yiwu, Zhejiang province; Dongguan, Guangdong province and Suzhou, Jiangsu province, effectively leveraging an industrial network at national scale.

That "individual plus supply chain" model is emerging as a defining feature of China's approach and one with few direct parallels in Western economies, industry experts said.

Shenzhen, Guangdong, rolled out an action plan in January to position itself as a global hub for AI-driven OPCs. The province in March rolled out China's first provincial-level policy framework dedicated to AI-enabled solo entrepreneurship. In April, Sichuan province unveiled its own plan, outlining 16 priority tasks across five key areas to build a regional OPC innovation ecosystem.

The policy shift signals a broader recalibration. Rather than simply encouraging entrepreneurship, local governments are moving to construct full-stack support systems combining funding, data access, computing power and application scenarios. The aim is to create what officials describe as a five-dimensional ecosystem spanning policy, capital, talent, infrastructure and real-world use cases.

Early signs of that transition are visible on the ground. Dedicated OPC startup communities are taking shape, including a cluster in Shanghai's Lingang Special Area that had attracted more than 500 entrepreneurs by early 2026. Guangdong has introduced specialized recruitment tracks for "super individuals", while Sichuan plans to establish AI-focused OPC hubs by 2027.

Behind the policy push lies a structural shift in China's economy. As industrial upgrading accelerates, a growing pool of highly skilled young workers — many born in the 1990s and 2000s — are opting for flexible, independent career paths. OPCs, particularly in AI-driven and asset-light sectors, offer a vehicle to deploy those skills with minimal overheads.

Wang Jian, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, frames the trend as a "miniaturization" of small and medium-sized enterprises. "AI is creating significant opportunities for startups," Wang said. "But this is not something handed to entrepreneurs — it has to be built through practice."

In his view, the real task is to create an environment where a single-person venture can evolve into a technology leader — a transformation he compares to the early days of the internet economy.

Others are pushing for further institutional innovation. Zhong Bo, chairman of Chinese technology firm XGIMI, has called for the creation of a legal framework for "digital one-person enterprises", alongside tax incentives for data-driven production and more flexible social security systems tailored to independent entrepreneurs.

Zhong also urged the development of credit and financing systems designed specifically for micro-scale digital businesses.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn