China’s top leadership has signalled a methodical, state-directed acceleration of its push into next‑generation sectors, with President Xi Jinping urging steady, advantage‑led development to win “strategic high ground” in technology and industry.
At a Politburo collective study session on January 30, Xi framed the rise of “future industries” as central to national strength, modernising the industrial base and improving living standards. He described the current era as one of an accelerating technological revolution—where frontier breakthroughs will determine the speed, breadth and depth of industrial change—and urged planning from the strategic perspective of national rejuvenation.
Xi emphasised a pragmatic approach: play to China’s comparative advantages, adopt gradient and place‑sensitive cultivation of industries, and prioritise the Fifteenth Five‑Year period for selecting core directions and scientifically validating technology pathways. He called for coordination across regions and sectors so that future industries complement both emerging and traditional industries rather than duplicate them.
A prominent theme was the mobilisation of China’s “new‑type whole‑of‑nation system” to target key technical bottlenecks. Xi reiterated the slogan of “industry poses the problems, science supplies the answers,” asking the state to back large-scale, mission‑oriented work on core technologies while also strengthening basic research and the mechanisms that turn discoveries into applications.
Xi stressed the central role of enterprises: firms should lead incremental breakthroughs, and policy should channel innovation resources to technology champions and high‑growth firms. He called for improved fiscal and tax measures, expanded tech finance, and fuller talent pipelines to mitigate the long development cycles and market risks that characterise nascent sectors.
On governance, the leadership seeks a balance between enabling and regulating innovation. Xi urged a robust governance framework that manages risks and security while allowing firms and researchers room to experiment, and he pushed for deeper international cooperation on standards and rules to shape global industrial ecosystems.
The Politburo session, as presented in state media, also instructed officials to raise their own technical literacy—encouraging cadres to learn frontier science so they can better guide industrial decision‑making. The overarching message is clear: China will combine targeted market incentives with concentrated state direction to accelerate its climb into high‑end, strategically sensitive technologies.