Analysis: How Tech Self-Reliance Shapes China’s New Five-Year Plan
By Liu Peilin
China has placed high-level technological self-reliance and self-strengthening at the heart of its national strategy to spearhead the development of “new quality productive forces,” according to a communique released after a key Communist Party meeting.
The statement, issued Thursday, followed the conclusion of a plenary session of the party’s Central Committee, held in Beijing from Monday to Thursday.
The plenum outlined technological self-reliance and self-strengthening as one of the main objectives for the country’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), alongside achieving notable progress in high-quality development.
The renewed emphasis on homegrown innovation underscores Beijing’s strategy to navigate an increasingly complex global landscape, particularly amid fierce technological competition with the U.S.
“High-quality development is actually supported by technology,” Zhou Chengxiong, an innovation researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Caixin.
Zhou said that the plenum’s focus on enhancing the overall effectiveness of the national innovation system shows that the government’s approach has evolved from supporting single-point innovations to fostering systemic innovation.
“Competition between nations has escalated to a competition between innovation systems,” he said. “Even if a country is technologically advanced now, it will fall behind in the future if its system’s innovation efficiency is low.”
The push comes as China’s digital economy has made significant strides. Former Vice Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao said at a conference in July that China’s digital economy accounted for nearly 45% of its GDP last year, a proportion he expected to exceed 50% this year.
The drive for technological self-reliance is particularly urgent in strategic sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) chips. U.S. government restrictions on advanced AI chip sales to China have spurred the domestic market, boosting fortunes for local firms like Huawei’s Ascend, Cambricon Technologies, and Moore Threads.
According to a July report from international investment research firm Bernstein, China’s demand for AI chips is projected to reach nearly $40 billion this year, with domestic supply forecast to reach $16 billion. In addition, the firm estimates domestic suppliers’ market share will rise from 13% in 2023 to 55% in 2027.
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