[China Economic Times] Think Tank · Theory Weekly丨Chen Xiaohong: Seizing the Commanding Heights of the Development of Future Industries through Scient
2025-03-13
Chen Xiaohong
Driving new breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation is pivotal to forging new competitive edges for China's development. The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization, which was reviewed and adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, put forward that: "A stronger push will be made to pursue innovation in key generic technologies, cutting-edge technologies, modern engineering technologies, and disruptive technologies, and institutional supply will be boosted in new areas and arenas. We will establish a mechanism for ensuring funding increases for industries of the future, and improve the policy and governance systems for promoting the development of strategic industries such as next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, aviation and aerospace, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, biomedicine, and quantum technology." On February 8, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during a work report meeting with the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the People’s Government of Jilin Province that high-quality development cannot be achieved without innovation drive and industrial support.
Future industries, driven by cutting-edge technologies and based on disruptive innovations, represent new industrial paradigms that emerge beyond existing industrial domains. They embody the direction of a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, serving both as critical engines for developing new-quality productive forces and pivotal levers for securing strategic dominance in global competition. Currently, China still trails developed countries considerably in legacy sectors, but maintains a comparable starting position with global peers in future industries. In this context, we must align with the trends of the new technological revolution and industrial transformation, vigorously leverage scientific and technological innovation as the driving force, accelerate the development of future industries, and cultivate new-quality productive forces. These efforts will provide robust support for comprehensively building China into a modern socialist country.
Scientific and technological innovation serves as the core driving force in cultivating and advancing future industries
Historical experience has shown that scientific and technological innovation serves as both the precursor and foundation for industrial transformation. Each Technological Revolution has brought about industrial transformations and given rise to new industries. During the First Technological Revolution, the invention and application of steam engine technology propelled the rise of textile, coal mining, and iron-steel industries, ushering in the mechanized age. During the Second Technological Revolution, breakthroughs in electrical technology and internal combustion engines catalyzed the development of power generation, petroleum, and automotive industries, propelling humanity into the electrification era. During the third Technological Revolution, innovations in electronic information, atomic energy, and aerospace technologies fueled the growth of electronic information, biopharmaceutical, and aerospace industries, advancing humanity into the information age. Currently, a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, represented by artificial intelligence, quantum information, biotechnology, new energy, advanced materials, and aerospace, is flourishing, which continuously gives birth to new technologies, industries, business forms, and models, laying a solid foundation for the development of future industries.
China, currently transitioning from a major player to a leading player in scientific and technological development, has emerged as a significant scientific and technological power with substantial international influence. The country's comprehensive innovation capability ranking has leaped from 34th in 2012 to 11th in 2024, making it one of the economies with the fastest-growing innovation capacities over the past decade. In 2024, China's number of global top 100 science and technology innovation clusters has risen to the world's foremost position, while its research and experimental development expenditure has exceeded RMB3.6 trillion, consistently retaining its position as the world's second largest. Scientific and technological innovation, as the primary productive force driving the development of future industries, is surging with immense momentum.
Given the innovative, cutting-edge, and uncertain nature of future industries, pursuing scientific and technological innovation remains the imperative path. Only through continuous scientific and technological innovation can we break through the bottlenecks in core key technologies and seize the initiative in the development of future industries. For instance, the development of artificial intelligence industry hinges on breakthrough innovations in key technologies such as the "four-in-one integration" of data, algorithms, computing power, and networks. In recent years, China has significantly increased its R&D investment in the artificial intelligence field, witnessing the emergence of large AI models such as DeepSeek, Doubao, and ERNIE Bot, which have propelled the rapid development of the country's AI industry. Simultaneously, only through sustained scientific and technological innovation can we better promote the integrated development of industries and expand the developmental space for future industries. For example, it is precisely the integrated application of new technologies across multiple domains such as new energy, advanced materials, electronic information, and artificial intelligence that has effectively propelled the transformation and upgrading of the new energy vehicle industry, and comprehensively driven the development of related industries such as batteries, motors, and electronic control systems. Therefore, we must grasp the "bullseye" of scientific and technological innovation and make the "first move" in innovation-driven development to secure the initiative in advancing future industries.
Current status and challenges in China's development of future industries
In recent years, China has placed a high priority on the development of future industries. Seven government departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have formulated the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovative Development of Future Industries and introduced a series of policy measures to drive the formation of robust development momentum in future industries. In the field of new-generation information technology, China has taken a global lead in 5G network construction, and continuous breakthroughs have been made in technological innovation and applications such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing. In 2024, revenue from cloud computing and big data services increased by 9.9% year-on-year, and the scale of the digital economy continued to expand. In the new energy sector,
China has ranked first globally in the production and sales of new energy vehicles for consecutive years. The photovoltaic industry boasts prominent advantages across the entire industrial chain, and wind power installed capacity has grown rapidly. In the biotechnology domain, China has achieved a series of significant accomplishments in biopharmaceuticals, bio-agriculture, and bio-manufacturing. The scale of the bio-industry has continued to expand. In the high-end equipment sector, remarkable progress has been made in aerospace, marine engineering equipment, and high-end CNC machine tools, with certain equipment reaching international advanced level.
However, the development of China's future industries still faces a number of challenges.
1. Core critical technologies remain dependent on external sources. Future industries are heavily reliant on fundamental research and disruptive technological breakthroughs, yet gaps persist in China’s key technological domains such as high-end chips, operating systems, and industrial software compared to developed countries, constraining the development of future industries.
2. Investment in scientific and technological innovation remains insufficient. Future industries require long technological R&D cycles and entail high risks, demanding substantial capital investment for industrial advancement. However, China's current investment in technological innovation remains relatively insufficient, particularly in terms of basic research funding allocation. Concurrently, the long-term investment mechanisms are yet to be fully established, with "patient capital" demonstrating inadequate commitment, which has, to a certain extent, hindered technological breakthroughs and the industrialization process.
3. Supply of high-end talents stays inadequate. The development of future industries demands substantial innovative talents, yet acute supply-demand imbalances persist for top-tier experts in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, and the metaverse. Data reveals that China's talent supply-demand ratio for AI technology positions stands below 0.4. The scarcity of interdisciplinary specialists with composite skills and technology leaders with global vision has created critical gaps in meeting the needs of industrial development.
4. The industrial ecosystem is yet to reach maturity. China's future industries are still in their nascent stage, and the industrial ecosystem is yet to reach maturity. Persisting weaknesses exist in industrial and supply chains, coupled with insufficient collaborative innovation capacity. Technology industrialization pathways remain impeded, and scenario-based application development lags behind requirements. For instance, although China ranks second globally in the number of large AI models, real-world implementation scenarios remain limited, demonstrating suboptimal pace of integration between technological advancements and real economic sectors.
Empowering high-quality development of future industries through scientific and technological innovation
To promote the development of future industries, systematic planning and institutional innovation in scientific and technological innovation must be implemented, so as to continuously elevate the modernization level of the industrial system.
1. It is essential to intensify efforts to tackle core technological challenges and break through development bottlenecks.
Core technologies are vital national assets and crucial for developing future industries. We should focus on core technologies such as lithography machines, chips, industrial machinery tools, industrial software, and scientific research instruments, increase R&D investment, organize major science and technology projects, and concentrate efforts on tackling key technical hurdles. We should strengthen basic research and applied basic research, enhance strategic positioning in frontier domains such as artificial intelligence and quantum technologies, improve original innovation capabilities, and provide theoretical foundations for solving core technical challenges. We should explore the establishment of a "matrix-style key problem tackling alliance", forming strategic committees in each key area led by academicians and composed of corporate CTOs and investment institutions, while implementing a "dual project manager" system comprising both technical managers and industrial managers. With all these efforts, we aim to achieve systematic breakthroughs in technology R&D and industrial matching, and ultimately build a self-controllable industrial system.
2. We should increase investment in scientific and technological innovation and strengthen financial safeguards.
Investment in scientific and technological innovation serves as a critical guarantee for the development of future industries. It is necessary to increase government investment in science and technology, optimize the structure of government expenditure on science and technology, and raise the proportion of funding allocated to basic research. We should guide enterprises to increase R&D investment, encourage them to establish R&D institutions and carry out technological innovation activities. We should refine the science and technology financial system and increase financial support for future industries. We should develop venture capital, private equity investments, and establish industrial investment funds to attract social capital inflows through a government-guided, market-driven operational model. We should also support the IPO financing of future industry enterprises and broaden their financing channels to provide robust capital safeguards for industrial development. Securitization of technology transactions is recommended. We should optimize and refine the "Technology Benefit Rights Certificate", effectively integrate patents, R&D teams, and market data, develop AI-powered technology valuation models, and establish a "green channel" on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board for expedited listings.
3. We should strengthen the introduction and cultivation of innovative talents and enhance talent support.
Talent is the primary resource driving scientific and technological innovation and the foundation for the development of future industries. We should strengthen the cultivation of innovative talents, optimize educational structures, strengthen STEM education, and develop a cohort of high-quality professionals with innovative spirit and practical capabilities. We should deepen collaboration between universities, research institutions, and enterprises, establish internship and training bases, and develop interdisciplinary and application-oriented talents. We should intensify efforts to introduce innovative talents, continuously implement the overseas high-level talent introduction program, explore the implementation of a special "tech immigration" initiative, build international talent communities, and introduce subsidies for "migratory scientists", so as to attract overseas high-level talents to return to China for innovation and entrepreneurship. We should refine the talent evaluation mechanism and incentive mechanism, create a favorable environment for talent development, and inspire the innovative and creative dynamism of talents, towards the ultimate goal of providing robust talent support for China's scientific and technological innovation and the development of future industries.
4. We should refine the industrial development ecosystem and foster collaborative growth.
A well-developed industrial ecosystem is a crucial prerequisite for advancing future industries. We should enhance industrial planning and policy guidance to promote the development of industrial clusters. We should strengthen the construction of industrial innovation platforms by establishing national-level industrial innovation centers, technological innovation centers, and manufacturing innovation centers, facilitating resource sharing and collaborative innovation. We should continuously improve industry-university-research-application collaborative innovation mechanisms, and vigorously implement the "three plus two" tax concession policy for pilot production bases, i.e., exempting rent, taxes, and environmental assessment fees for the first three years, and halving income tax and value-added tax for the next two years. A pilot base insurance pool will also be established with the government subsidizing 50% of the premiums. We should accelerate scenario-driven innovation, vigorously build future scenario laboratories, release "future city" scenario packages on an annual basis, establish "stress-testing" systems for scenario validation, and develop scenario insurance products, so as to form a closed-loop system of "demand traction - scenario validation - capital facilitation - industrial transformation".
5. We should strengthen international scientific and technological cooperation and enhance international competitiveness.
In the context of deepening economic globalization, enhancing international scientific and technological cooperation is an imperative choice for improving the international competitiveness of China’s future industries. Historical experience shows that, through strengthened international scientific and technological cooperation in 5G technology, China has carried out 5G technology trials and application cooperation with multiple countries and regions worldwide, advancing the global promotion and application of 5G technology and enhancing the international competitiveness of China's 5G industry. To this end, we should actively engage in global governance of scientific and technological innovation and promote the construction of an open innovation ecosystem. We should strengthen scientific and technological cooperation with developed countries in the field of future industries to introduce advanced technologies and innovation resources from abroad. We should also encourage Chinese enterprises, universities, and research institutions to "go global" to carry out international scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges, and enhance China’s international influence in the field of future industries.
(Written by Chen Xiaohong, Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Secretary of the CPC HUTB Committee, and Director of Xiangjiang Laboratory)
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