China urged to boost hi-tech innovation to drive development at home and abroad

China should focus on technological innovation to drive domestic and global development, a forum this week has heard.\nChina would push for high-quality development and opening up to the outside world, Li Shulei, head of the Communist Party’s publicity department, told the 2025 Understanding China Conference in Guangzhou on Monday.\nThe event, which ran between Sunday and Tuesday, was attended by around 800 people and technological innovation was a central theme.\nChina also strove to help developing countries and worked with all parties to address challenges in global development, Chen Xiaodong, director of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, told the forum.\n“By supporting the Global South in strengthening collective self-reliance through China’s own development, and by providing more international public goods through development cooperation, we aim to ensure that the benefits of development are shared more widely and equitably among people of all countries,” he said.\nChina was willing to increase funding, provide training, build partnership networks and platforms, he said, and to support projects such as building disease control centres or growing food.\n“We will expand cooperation areas, advance development cooperation in emerging fields such as green development, digital empowerment and artificial intelligence, and share the successful experience of Chinese modernisation,” he said.\nLi Cheng, professor of political science and founding director of the Centre on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong, told the event: “Today, both the central and local governments place great emphasis on promoting technological advancement.\n“The national system possesses inherent advantages in terms of budget investment and coordinated development.”\nReform and innovation have always been the source of China’s achievements, according to Huang Qifan, executive deputy director of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, which organised the event.\n“Historic breakthroughs have been achieved in research and development investment and innovation capabilities, as well as in tackling key core technologies,” he told the event.\n“In fields such as quantum information, artificial intelligence, crewed space missions, lunar exploration projects and deep-sea exploration, China has achieved multiple global firsts and pioneering accomplishments.\n\n\n“Among the 10 key areas outlined in the ‘Made in China 2025’ plan, five have basically achieved a leading position, while the other five are now on a par with developed countries.”\nChina had entered the world’s front rank and become an industry leader in cars, shipbuilding, power equipment, high-speed rail and new energy equipment, Huang said.\nHe also pointed to technological breakthroughs in sectors such as new materials, biomedicine, high-end equipment, aerospace and artificial intelligence.\nThe ambitious Made in China 2025 plan was announced in 2015 with the aim of boosting self-reliance, innovation and strength in the manufacturing industry, with a focus on 10 sectors.\nHuang said the next five-year plan, which starts next year, should boost innovation and tackle key core technologies, such as integrated circuits, industrial software and high-end instruments.\nThe forum was first launched in 2015 by the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, a research arm of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Past sessions discussed topics including global cooperation and a Chinese style of modernisation.\n