China Outlines Five-Year Plan for Tech Self-Reliance and AI
Ministry targets artificial intelligence, chips, and BeiDou navigation amid tech race with US
Quick Look
China has released a new five-year plan prioritizing breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, and advanced solar tech to drive technological self-reliance amid a tech race with the US.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
China seeks technological self-reliance amid an intensifying tech race with the United States.
An intensifying tech race with the United States, along with Beijing’s drive for technological self-reliance, has led China’s leaders to place greater significance and urgency on breakthroughs in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence to integrated circuits and chips in its latest five-year plan for electronics and information technology.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, on Tuesday outlined priorities for the electronics and IT industry over the next half-decade.
The plan also calls for a greater role for the indigenous BeiDou satellite navigation system as it competes with the US-led Global Positioning System. And China is prioritising next-generation battery and solar technologies, including perovskite tandem solar cells, which pair a perovskite layer with a conventional silicon cell to capture more sunlight and improve power-conversion efficiency.
Open Questions
- What specific funding allocations support the new plan?
- How will foreign tech firms be impacted by indigenous mandates?
