Explainer | China’s hi-tech direction for the next five years

Beijing has changed strategic gears in its new blueprint for the country as it confronts roadblocks on technology, especially from the United States

Now the focus will be less on integrating advances from other countries and more on developing its own

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Green technologies that can help cut pollution and repair the environment are also priorities in China’s new five-year plan. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:30pm, 11 Nov 2020Updated: 10:38pm, 11 Nov 2020

China fleshed out some of its plans for new technology with the release of a summary of its next five-year plan, which covers the period until 2025.

Technology is one of the most contentious areas in Beijing’s relationship with Washington and a field that China sees as critical to its drive for modernisation and self-reliance over the next decade and a half.

In the new document, Beijing has signalled a shift in focus from “integrating and assimilating” foreign innovations to investing in home-grown innovations.

What is the five-year plan?

This is the 14th five-year plan that China has produced to lay out the general direction for the country.

A summary of the plan was released in late October after the 300 or so members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee met in Beijing to discuss the blueprint.

According to the summary, artificial intelligence, quantum communications, integrated circuits, health, and biological engineering have been added to a list of “forward looking and strategic” key technologies warranting state-sponsored research.

This list already includes aerospace, deep sea and deep underground and neuroscience research.

Explainer | China’s hi-tech direction for the next five years

Beijing has changed strategic gears in its new blueprint for the country as it confronts roadblocks on technology, especially from the United States Now the focus will be less on integrating advances from other countries and more on developing its own

What is the five-year plan?

Beijing has changed strategic gears in its new blueprint for the country as it confronts roadblocks on technology, especially from the United States

Now the focus will be less on integrating advances from other countries and more on developing its own