The Chinese modern industrial system is a new industrial system supported by the real economy and led by scientific and technological innovation; however, issues such as the financial industry's transition from real to virtual, the imbalance in the industrial supply and demand structure, and the lack of incentive for enterprises to engage in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements have created bottlenecks in the construction of a modern industrial system with Chinese characteristics. These challenges hinder the effective advancement of China's modernization efforts. The rapid optimization and allocation of resource elements by the digital economy breaks the time-space restriction of the circulation of resource elements under the traditional industrial development mode, and further optimizes the industrial structure and promotes the high-quality development of the industrial system through the development of industrial digitalization and digital industrialization, which is conducive to the construction of a Chinese modern industrial system. In addition, the new quality productive forces can take advantage of the transformation efficiency of the digital economy to further build an industrial upgrading path with scientific and technological innovation as the engine, emerging industries as the leading and industrial optimization as the direction, and provide strong support for the construction of a Chinese modern industrial system. Therefore, this study aims to explore the possible internal relationship among the digital economy, new quality productive forces and a Chinese modern industrial system. It aims to address the following questions: How does the digital economy affect Chinese modern industrial system, and does this impact have a spatial spillover effect? What is the mechanism of the new quality productive forces in the relationship between the two under the conditions of different resource enrichment, digital economy development level and regional location?What is the heterogeneity of the relationship between them?#br#The current studies on the single dimension of digital economy, new quality productive forces and modern industrial system are relatively sufficient, but few scholars have conducted extensive discussion on the driving mechanism and influencing factors of the Chinese-style modern industrial system, and there is a lack of systematic analysis incorporating the three into the same framework. Thus, this study first establishes the theoretical analysis framework of digital economy, new quality productive forces and Chinese modern industrial system. Then, it takes 31 provinces from 2012 to 2022 as the research object, screens and analyzes the relevant data of digital economy, new quality productive forces, and Chinese modern industrial system, and finally obtains 341 sample data. Finally, the study uses the benchmark regression model, the mediating effect model and the spatial Dubin model to analyze the influence of the digital economy on the Chinese modern industrial system and the mediating effect of the new quality productive forces. The results show that the digital economy has a significant promoting effect on the Chinese modern industrial system, and this impact is more significant in resource-based provinces, high-level groups of digital economy and the eastern region. The digital economy can promote the formation and development of new quality productive forces and drive the construction of Chinese modern industrial system, that is, the role path of "digital economy—new quality productive forces—Chinese modern industrial system" is established. Further analysis reveals that the digital economy has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the Chinese modern industrial system.#br#Different from previous studies, this paper explores the impact of digital economy on Chinese modern industrial system from three perspectives: industrial integration, sustainable development and innovation empowerment. Then, guided by Schumpeter's innovation theory, it upgrades the three elements of traditional productive forces with "new quality". Furthermore, the paper systematically analyzes the concrete action path of new quality productive forces in the process of digital economy affecting the construction of Chinese modern industrial system. Finally, research deficiencies are presented, and the possible moderating effect of external environmental factors on the relationship between the digital economy and the Chinese path to modernization of the industrial system is warranted for future study .#br#