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China technology
TechPolicy

China’s tech R&D to go into overdrive as five-year plan seeks self-reliance, more innovation

  • The country’s 14th five-year plan aims to build an internal economic ecosystem less prone to external sanctions and turbulence
  • It marks a shift in priorities towards industrial and national security as well as reduced tech imports

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Workers check products at an electronics manufacturing enterprise in Qinhuangdao, a city in northern China's Hebei province, on August 1. China’s 14th five-year plan is expected to spur increased research and development initiatives in the country’s technology sector. Photo: Xinhua
Celia Chen

China’s technology sector is expected to double down on research and development over the next five years, as the country’s new economic road map pushes for increased self-reliance and innovation amid trade disputes with the United States, according to analysts.

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The 14th five-year plan – from 2021 to 2025 – has put self-sufficiency in technology as a major pillar of China’s economic development, marking a shift in priorities towards industrial and national security as well as reduced tech imports.

“China still stands at the middle and lower-end of global supply chains, and relies heavily on others for core technology and parts such as aircraft engines and chips,” said Liu Qiao, dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. “US-China trade tensions make [supply chains] more complicated … Increased investment in research and development is an important step [for the tech sector to achieve the plan’s goal].”

The Communist Party’s top policymaking body, the Central Committee, on Thursday endorsed the country’s 14th five-year plan in a communique at the end of their four-day closed-door meeting, called the fifth plenum, held in Beijing.

China’s new economic strategy, called “dual circulation”, would see the country remain open to foreign investments and trade, while pivoting to build an internal economic ecosystem less prone to external sanctions and turbulence.
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It is a move that shows China has learned its lesson from the ongoing trade war with the US. Washington has also waged a complex tech war with Beijing, which has seen Huawei Technologies and other hi-tech companies added to the US trade blacklist.
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