Honored by Guangzhou Science and Technology Bureau and Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Enterprise Association, Wolbaki was awarded the "future unicorn" innovative enterprise and the "high-tech and cutting-edge" enterprise.

Wolbaki was awarded a contract from Guangzhou government, with projects covering urbane areas in eight communities across Baiyun and Huangpu Districts. The paper on developing Wolbachia for agricultural pest control was published in CURRENT BIOLOGY. Wolbaki was included on the 2020 Guangzhou Unicorn Innovative Company List.

The results of four-year field trial in Guangzhou, led by Zhiyong Xi, were published in NATURE. Recognized as national high-tech enterprise, Wolbaki received "New Pesticide Registration Test Approval License".

Wolbachia technology has been successfully implemented in residential communities, neighborhood, school, and other environments in South China. In the same year, Wolbaki scientist and engineer were sent to Merida, Mexico for aid in building mosquito factory to combat Zika.

The field trial results in Guangzhou were recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), resulting in the conclusion of its potential for long-term mosquito control and a recommendation for countries around the world to conduct field trials.

Zhiyong Xi founded Guangzhou Wolbaki Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and served as the chairman of the board. In 2016, the world's largest mosquito factory was established in Guangzhou.

For the first time in the world, Zhiyong Xi 's team introduced Wolbachia into malaria mosquito vector, with the results published in SCIENCE. In the same year, Zhiyong Xi won Scientific and Technological Leading Talents Award from Guangzhou Development District.

Zhiyong Xi 's team won the fund of Guangdong Innovative Research Team Program for R&D of Bio-pesticides and Genetics Technologies to Control Vector-borne Diseases.

Sponsored by the Foundation for the NIH through the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, Zhiyong Xi established Sun Yat-sen University— Michigan State University Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases to transfer the Wolbachia technology from lab to field.

Zhiyong Xi, together with his colleagues, for the first time shows Wolbachia-mediated pathogen interference in mosquito, reported by SCIENCE, CELL and PLOS PATHOGENS.

Zhiyong Xi is the first in the world to establish novel Wolbachia symbiosis in mosquitoes and demonstrate its ability to trigger population replacement, with the results published in SCIENCE.