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HSE experts analyzed China’s science and technology policy. They tracked how the country is preparing to become a global technology leader
The development of science and technology has been a key priority of China’s policy for more than two decades. The PRC is implementing a plan for comprehensive socio-economic development. Its long-term goals are to be achieved by 2035. In 2021, the country ranked 12th in the Global Innovation Index. Over the decade, it has strengthened its position by more than 20 points.
The HSE Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge has published an analysis of the current goals and trends of China’s science and technology policy. The researchers used the iFORA big data mining system developed by ISSEK HSE using artificial intelligence technologies. It includes more than 500 million documents, including scientific publications, patents, analytics, media publications and other types of sources.
Investments in patents and digitalization
Analysts found that during the current five-year development plan (2021-2025), China aims to stimulate the growth of spending on research and development, the development of intellectual property and the expansion of the digital economy.
By 2025, the country intends to achieve:
- an average annual growth rate of domestic research and development costs of more than 7%;
- a twofold increase in the number of patents per 10 people (from 6,3 to 12);
- increasing the share of the digital economy in GDP (from 7,8% to 10%);
- growth in the share of fundamental science in domestic research and development costs (from 6% to 8%).
Priority industries
The 14th Five-Year Plan sets out a list of priority areas of science and technology that will be developed through large-scale research projects. The experts found that in the new five-year period this list has expanded compared to the previous one, and in a number of areas the authorities are focusing on the applied nature of technologies.
The list of priority areas includes:
- strategically important industry areas (new generation IT, biotechnologies, new energy, new materials, quantum informatics, genetic technologies, sea, air and space exploration, hydrogen energy, energy saving);
- information technology (new generation IT);
- transport (integrated design of integrated transport systems);
- energy (development of renewable energy sources and increase in their share in the total volume of energy up to 20%);
- environment and ecology (environmental technologies that contribute to economic development).
Planning strategies
In addition to the main plan, China has adopted a number of documents that regulate strategic development planning by industry.
The plan for national informatization includes the intensive development and implementation of digital technologies until 2025. The main attention of the authors of the document is paid to the development of 5G technology and research in the field of 6G.
For the digitalization of transport infrastructure, the Concept for the Development of Scientific and Technological Innovations was adopted. She proposes to introduce artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things, cloud computing and next-generation wireless communications, as well as BeiDou navigation systems and satellite communications into the Chinese transport sector. The authorities have planned research in the field of bulletproof transport, underwater suspended tunnels and autonomous transport systems.
Support for business and education
A separate item in China’s development plan is support for science-intensive business and regulation of intellectual property. In 2022, the country expanded the package of tax incentives for companies that invest in science. Now they can get small and medium-sized businesses.
Within three years, China intends to reform the management system, including support for national laboratories and reorganization of key government laboratories. Separate support measures should stimulate both beginners and leading researchers. To attract scientists from all over the world, global centers will be created in Beijing, Shanghai, as well as in the Greater Gulf of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau.
Another important policy direction is the popularization of research and the development of scientific literacy in society. The Science Literacy Action Plan aims to increase science literacy from the current 11% to 15% or more by 2025, and to 25% by 2035.
Policy trends in science and technology
HSE researchers have identified a number of key areas of China’s national science and technology policy:
- support for science;
- technology development;
- stimulation of innovations;
- international competitiveness.
If the policy is successfully implemented, China’s dependence on foreign sources of knowledge and technology will be reduced, and the country will be globally competitive in the long term. As a result, China intends to become an independent technology developer, the authors of the study conclude.
Director of the HSE ISSEK Center for Science, Technology, Innovation and Information Policy Mikhail Gershman notes that over two and a half decades China has become a global leader in terms of gross research spending, the number of publications in international journals, as well as the development of a number of advanced technologies and products. .
Gershman notes that many areas of China’s science and technology policy are similar to Russian initiatives that are already being implemented or discussed. In his opinion, the study of the mechanisms and results of China’s policy may be useful for the formation of an urgent agenda for our country.