China to draw up 15-year roadmap for science & technology development
May 26, 2020 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang said that China will draw up a 15-year roadmap for science and technology development, and he called for international cooperation in the technology sphere, despite mounting concerns over a looming tech cold war between China and the U.S. Chinese enterprises need to work even harder in order to move up the technology ladder and prevail in an upcoming fierce technology battle, analysts say. The country needs to ramp up investment in key fields such as transistor technology, and electronic design automation tools needed by Chinese firms for chip design and verification, Bryan Wong, Principle Researcher at the Suning Institute of Finance in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, told the Global Times. When asked if decoupling between the two powers is inevitable, Wong commented that semiconductor supply chains have matured after years of development, and accumulation of technological prowess, talent and capital. Now, China needs to draw up alternative plans including solidifying key components of the supply chain, Wong said. Observers believe that there have been some difficulties in obtaining core semiconductor technologies through commercial mergers and acquisitions, joint investments, and other market-driven measures.
China’s research and development (R&D) spending hit CNY2.17 trillion in 2019, accounting for 2.19% of GDP, Minister Wang said. The nation’s advances in science and technology contributed to 59.5% of economic growth last year. The R&D spending to GDP ratio hit a record high of 2.19% in 2018, up 0.04 percentage points from the year before, the Global Times reports.
The South China Morning Post adds that investment would amount to CNY10 trillion over six years to 2025. The new infrastructure initiative is expected to drive mainly local companies, from Alibaba Group Holding and Huawei to SenseTime Group, at the expense of U.S. companies. It will reduce China’s dependence on foreign technology, echoing objectives set forth previously in the “Made in China 2025” program. Such initiatives have already drawn fierce criticism from the Trump administration.
Chinese infectious disease expert Chen Wei, whose team developed a Covid-19 vaccine that recently showed promising early results, called for the building of a national biosafety science and industry innovation center. She made the proposal at the annual meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). “Decades of experience in research, especially the experience of Wuhan, make me feel that we have to achieve real innovation in the field of biosafety and quickly promote these achievements to benefit the public,” Chen said. Wang Chen, President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Peking Union Medical College and also a CPPCC member, called for the acceleration of an innovative system in medical science. He proposed establishing a high level medical science academy, the Global Times reports.
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