On January 24, at the “2026 Enterprise Management Annual Conference & National School of Development Business Co-creation Day” held by the National School of Development at Peking University, the highly anticipated results of the “Entrepreneur of the Year 2025” selection by Entrepreneur magazine were officially announced. Li Shijiang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Do-Fluoride Group, stood out from numerous outstanding entrepreneurs for his remarkable contributions in breaking through “bottleneck” technologies of key materials, forward-looking layout of future industries, building national-level innovation platforms, and practicing the entrepreneurial spirit in the new era, becoming one of only 20 entrepreneurs nationwide to receive this honor. This award is not only an authoritative recognition of Li Shijiang’s personal leadership and strategic vision, but also a high affirmation of Do-Fluoride Group’s development path of serving the country through industry and strengthening the nation through science and technology.
Hosted by Entrepreneur magazine, the “Entrepreneur of the Year” selection is one of the most influential and credible annual figure awards. This year’s selection coincides with the inaugural year of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, themed “Stepping into the 15th Five-Year Plan — Inspire New Thinking, Unfold New Trends, Break New Ground”, aiming to identify and honor benchmark entrepreneurs who can foresee opportunities of the times, lead industrial transformation, and bravely shoulder social responsibilities.
At the award ceremony, leaders from the China Enterprise Confederation, China Entrepreneur Association, China Enterprise Reform and Development Society and other relevant institutions attended and delivered speeches, witnessing this glorious moment together. The award committee’s citation for Li Shijiang reads: “He is a ‘wall-breaker’ serving national strategies, an ‘enabler’ foreseeing cycles and planning the future, and a firm ‘practitioner’ of entrepreneurial spirit.” This precisely encapsulates the core traits of Li Shijiang’s decades-long dedication to serving the country through industry.
Zhang Xiaobo, Secretary-General of the Chinese Management Science Society, commented in the recommendation letter that Li Shijiang always keeps “the country’s major interests” in mind. Facing long-standing core technological barriers in national strategic fields such as fluorochemical industry, new materials, new energy and semiconductors, he led his team to blaze a magnificent path of independent innovation.
From overcoming arduous challenges to conquer the technology of high-purity crystalline lithium hexafluorophosphate, strongly supporting China’s new energy vehicle industry to achieve leapfrog development; to successfully developing UP-SSS grade electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid with global top-level purity, smoothly entering the international high-end semiconductor supply chain and injecting strong impetus into the chip localization process; to breaking through the “bottleneck” problem of boron isotope separation, effectively safeguarding national key raw material security — every technological breakthrough led by Li Shijiang precisely targets the most critical aspects of national industrial chain security and core competitiveness.
He deeply understands the importance of protecting and transforming innovative achievements for enterprise development. Do-Fluoride actively constructs and operates the National Intellectual Property Operation Center for Fluorine-based Functional Materials Industry. By establishing a sound intellectual property management system, it systematically transforms technological advantages into solid intellectual property barriers and market competitive advantages, building a strong “innovation moat” for the country in key new material fields, effectively protecting enterprise innovation achievements and enhancing China’s voice in the global new material industry.
The leading construction of the National Innovation Center for Fluorine-based New Materials is a strategic carrier for him to fulfill the mission of “wall-breaker”. With a general framework of technology R&D platforms, pilot manufacturing platforms and standard quality system innovation platforms, the center adheres to the positioning of “focusing on high-end, green development and integrated growth”. It targets three key directions: green and efficient recycling of fluorine resources, research and application of high-end special fluorine-based materials. Concentrating superior resources and organizing scientific research forces, it is committed to breaking through a number of “bottleneck” technologies, providing key support for national major projects, and promoting the high-end, green and intelligent development of China’s fluorine-based new material industry.
As a representative of award-winning entrepreneurs, Li Shijiang delivered a keynote speech titled “The Historical Mission of the National Innovation Center” at the forum. Combining Do-Fluoride’s innovative practices with national strategic needs, he systematically elaborated on the core value and contemporary responsibility of the National Innovation Center for Fluorine-based New Materials, striking a strong chord with the audience.
Li Shijiang emphasized that the National Innovation Center is a “national key instrument” that carries national strategies, implements national requirements, relies on national platforms and promotes national projects. It is a strategic support for solving “bottleneck” problems of key materials and seizing the commanding heights of global industrial competition, as well as a core hub for transforming innovation potential into industrial momentum, shouldering the historical mission of independent control of China’s fluorine-based new material industry. To this end, the center has built a full-chain collaborative mechanism of “laboratory-pilot base-commercialization”, establishing 8 technology R&D platforms, 7 pilot production lines and 3 standard quality innovation platforms. It provides researchers with a complete innovation chain from basic research to industrial application, enabling them to “write papers on production lines”, accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces, improving innovation efficiency and reducing innovation risks.
In terms of building a collaborative innovation ecosystem, Li Shijiang proposed the development vision of “Master one element, build a chain, shape an ecosystem, fulfill a dream”. Adhering to the model of “enterprise-led, university-college collaboration, diversified investment, and achievement sharing”, the innovation center gathers the wisdom and strength of top domestic and foreign research institutions, universities and enterprises, focusing on tackling advanced manufacturing technologies and developing next-generation high-performance materials. Through the 5G + industrial internet intelligent cloud platform connecting upstream and downstream supply chains and demand chains, it promotes resource integration and complementary advantages, forming an innovation ecosystem with deep integration of “government-industry-university-research-application”. Innovation is no longer a “solo performance” of a single enterprise, but a “concerto” of the entire industry, jointly promoting the innovative development of China’s fluorine-based new material industry.
The National Innovation Center has defined three major development directions. First, adhere to national strategic orientation, continuously break through key core technologies, provide reliable material and equipment support for national major projects, build a solid national strategic security barrier, and ensure independent control of China in key fields. Second, lead industrial standard upgrading, actively participate in international standard formulation, grasp global industrial discourse power, and enhance the competitiveness of China’s fluorine-based new material industry in the international market. Third, cultivate high-end innovative talents, establish a talent empowerment system of “settle talents, value knowledge, empower innovation”, stimulate talent vitality through the systems of “project bidding and leading” and “horse racing”, and build an internationally competitive innovative talent team.
The mission of the innovation center lies not only in breaking through technical bottlenecks, but also in reshaping the industrial development model. Green development is the core feature of the innovation center. Through innovations in raw materials, processes and end-of-life recycling technologies, it will realize high-quality and efficient recycling of fluorine resources, enabling the chemical industry to bid farewell to the “high pollution” label and practice the green development requirements of new productive forces. Meanwhile, through the “four transformations” — turning tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, explicit knowledge into software, software knowledge into tradable assets, and trading processes into capitalization of knowledge — innovative achievements become replicable, tradable and value-added, promoting the formation of a 100-billion-level fluorine material industrial cluster and driving regional economic development and industrial upgrading.
Looking ahead, Do-Fluoride will rely on the innovation center to deepen independent innovation and expand cutting-edge layout. It will not only adhere to the mission of “wall-breaker” for key materials, but also strive to become a “definer” and “enabler” of future industries, contributing more to the development of China’s fluorine-based new material industry and promoting China from a major material country to a strong material country.
Li Shijiang’s winning of “Entrepreneur of the Year 2025” is a banner, demonstrating the entrepreneurial spirit of the new era with patriotism as the foundation, scientific and technological innovation as the engine, and forward-looking vision as the compass. His story is a vivid epitome of Chinese entrepreneurs integrating personal ideals and enterprise destiny into the torrent of national development. On the journey of building a strong country and national rejuvenation, more entrepreneurs like Li Shijiang will surely emerge, jointly composing a magnificent new chapter of China’s real economy and scientific and technological self-reliance, and contributing to the realization of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
