China’s Communist Party to take science and tech reins to break through US containment
- New commission will centralise leadership, determining national strategy and goals
- Country’s resources will be concentrated to bring down institutional barriers to make gains in core technologies, observer says
Under the plan, released by the party’s Central Committee and the State Council on Thursday, the commission will improve the party’s “centralised and unified leadership” of “science and technology work”.
The commission will coordinate and promote the creation of a “national innovation system”, examine major strategies for the sector, and address important issues in the field, according to the plan.
It will also determine national strategic science and technology tasks and major research projects, and advance development of military-civilian technology.
In addition, the commission will take over leadership of a national ethics committee for science and technology that was set up in 2019.
It comes just days after President Xi Jinping told delegates of China’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, that Western countries, led by the United States, were imposing “an all-round containment, encirclement and suppression” of China.
