China wants private firms to lead key technology breakthroughs.
China's Communist Party leadership and the State Council have issued new guidelines laying out 19 measures to speed up breakthroughs in core technologies, expand the use of artificial intelligence across industry and make the country more self-reliant in science and technology, the state news agency Xinhua reported on October 9.
The guidelines are built around what Beijing calls "new quality productive forces," a phrase Chinese leaders use for growth driven by advanced technology and innovation rather than by heavy investment and cheap labor. The 19 measures fall into five areas: scientific and technological innovation, linking research more closely with industry, new development approaches, institutional reform and talent development. Xinhua did not publish the full text, and it did not say how much funding is attached to the measures.
The document calls for faster breakthroughs in what Beijing describes as key core technologies and for strengthening key manufacturing supply chains. It gives national laboratories a leading role in organizing major state science and technology projects and calls for capable private companies to take the lead on some major national technology tasks, a role usually held by state-backed institutes and state-owned enterprises.
"The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation has opened up broad prospects for developing new quality productive forces. Seizing this historic opportunity requires moving faster to achieve greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology and raising innovation capacity across the board to maintain strategic initiative," said Wang Shengxiao, a researcher at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
On artificial intelligence, the guidelines call for full implementation of the "AI Plus" initiative, which aims to apply AI across traditional industries, and for faster innovation in AI and other digital technologies. They also call for systems to monitor technology, give early warning of risks and respond to emergencies so that AI remains, in Xinhua's words, safe, reliable and controllable. Other measures cover national data infrastructure, digital manufacturing clusters, green manufacturing and the country's energy transition.
The guidelines tell officials to balance self-reliance with opening up and to coordinate development with security. They also urge measures to avoid "involution-style" competition, the term Chinese officials use for destructive price wars among companies in crowded sectors, and they encourage foreign venture capital firms and international standards bodies to operate in China.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan, covering 2026 to 2030, names the development of new quality productive forces as a key strategic task. The plan's outline lists 28 major projects tied to that goal, about a quarter of the 109 major projects in the plan, focused on industrial competitiveness, emerging industries, cutting-edge technologies and innovation capacity.
"New quality productive forces are primarily driven by transformational technological breakthroughs, which bring profound changes to how innovation is organized, industries evolve and resources are allocated," said Liu Zhenzhong, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial and Technological Economics of the National Development and Reform Commission. "These changes require deeper reforms to reshape institutional frameworks and remove obstacles to development."