Strengthening Technological Innovation for a Future of Modernity

The 2021 sessions of China’s top legislature and top political advisory body will be held in early March as scheduled. The review of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 have become a hot topic of much discussion.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October 2017 introduced a two-stage development plan for the period from 2020 to the middle of this century, based on a comprehensive analysis of the international and domestic environments and the conditions for China’s development. In the first stage from 2020 to 2035, China will build on the foundation created by the moderately prosperous society with a further 15 years of hard work to see socialist modernization basically realized. In the second stage from 2035 to the middle of the 21st century, China will build itself into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.

The 14th Five-Year Plan period from 2021 to 2025 marks the start of the great journey towards fully realizing a modern socialist China. Scientific and technological innovation will be a core driving force in building a modern society. China will strengthen its scientific and technological foundation and practical research, and strive for a ranking among the world’s front runners in more important scientific and technological fields. The country will focus on supporting research and development in fields like quantum physics, brain science, AI, blockchain, nano energy, applied mathematics, stem cells and regenerative medicine, especially those technological blank areas, and establishing international scientific and technological centers. For instance, Guangdong Province will accelerate its efforts to fix weak links in integrated circuits, new materials, industrial software, and high-level equipment, and focus on building its strength in the fields of 5G and Ultra HD. With the improvement of its technological strength and independent innovation capacity, China will become a pacesetter in more key scientific and technological fields.

As for domestic economy, although China is improving its development quality by decelerating its speed and implementing other measures, technological research and development still needs to be increased and strengthened to break the bottleneck of industrial development. Over the next five years, China will promote the application of more scientific and technological achievements in the transformation of economic development. Through organic combination of innovation-driven development and industrial upgrading and transformation, the country will effectively advance economic development of high quality. For example, Shanghai will cultivate a group of globally competitive and innovative leading firms and a bunch of small and medium-sized companies with great potential to grow rapidly. By uplifting the spirit of science and craftsmanship, Shanghai will form a more inclusive, attractive, and competitive innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

At present, in some key technical fields, Chinese companies are still at the mercy of some foreign ones. During the next five years, China will focus on developing major technological projects catering to national strength enhancement and the improvement of people’s livelihood, to make sure the stranglehold problems in core technologies will be solved. China will focus on increasing research in the areas of AI, quantum information, integrated circuits, life and health, and astronautics technology while implementing a batch of prospective and strategic national major programs.

The ultimate goal of technological innovation is to satisfy the vast needs of our people. New technologies that have been utilized by China in its battle against COVID-19 were listed in an article published by CNN, including self-driving robots to bring food to medical workers, drones to monitor large crowds, and super-computing facilities to develop vaccines. In the future, Tianjin will also go all out in building a top-notch cluster of major science and technology platforms including a synthetic biotechnology innovation center, exploiting the city’s advantages and leading role in AI, quantum information, brain science, and biopharmaceuticals.

Despite its impressive achievements in poverty alleviation, to meet people’s ever-growing needs for a better life, China needs to make its development more balanced and adequate. Over the next five years, China will continuously improve the social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests, so as to enhance people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security. Meanwhile, the country will strengthen education and talent training. All these efforts will help the country make substantive progress in building a better life for people, promoting a well-rounded human development, and achieving common prosperity for everyone.