Reference News Network, December 9 report: The Japanese Economic News published an article by Professor Yoshihisa Nishimura of the University of International Business and Economics titled "The Current Situation of China's Economy and the '14th Five-Year Plan' — Accelerating the Localization of Advanced Technologies," as translated below:

In 2025, innovation originating from China became a global topic of discussion. As a new enterprise, DeepSeek successfully developed a low-cost, high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) model. Semiconductor technologies that support this achievement have also made significant advances.

The background factor is the strong support provided by the Chinese government. China has proposed a strategic goal of becoming a powerful science and technology nation by 2035.

The proposal for the "14th Five-Year Plan" put forward the goal of significantly improving the level of self-reliance and strength in science and technology, aiming to accelerate the localization of advanced technologies.

A major characteristic of China's innovation is the "national system" — focusing on key areas determined by the state, gathering enterprises, talents, and funds to promote innovation. In China, the process of a new service emerging and taking root in society usually goes through three stages.

The first stage involves promoting entrepreneurship and R&D based on national policy support. The Chinese government is committed to optimizing the entrepreneurial environment, attracting talent, and strongly supporting start-up companies. Under policy guidance, daring entrepreneurs join in, striving to turn technological innovations into products.

The second stage involves gradual social application and intensified competition among enterprises. Even if the new service is not yet mature, it will be pushed to the market and improved through continuous trial and error.

The third stage involves the government gradually strengthening regulatory measures, with some services moving toward scale. As the new service gradually becomes popular, various issues begin to emerge, enterprises drive technological upgrades, and the government begins to strengthen market rule construction.

Thus, Chinese innovation has a "social application" feature, where enterprises are skilled at applying existing technologies to new fields and promoting their widespread adoption. A typical example is that after Japan's Denso Company invented the QR code, China developed mobile payment based on this.

On the other hand, China still shows weakness in original inventions, mainly due to insufficient basic research. To address this issue, the Chinese government adjusted its development strategy. The "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes a goal of maintaining an annual growth rate of more than 7% in total social R&D investment and increasing the proportion of basic research funding in R&D investment to over 8%. Investment in funds and talents in the field of basic research has rapidly increased.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the total expenditure on basic research nationwide in 2024 was 249.7 billion yuan, an increase of 70% compared to 2020. Currently, China produces more than 5 million graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines annually.

To basically achieve new industrialization by 2035, the "14th Five-Year Plan" also proposes deep implementation of the strategy of building a manufacturing power. China's move aims to promote technological innovation in manufacturing, drive industrial upgrading, and improve production efficiency.

Under the guidance of the national strategy, the flow of enterprises, talents, and capital changes, which reflects the "national system-type innovation."

The proposal for the "14th Five-Year Plan" states that further efforts should be made to significantly enhance "basic research and original innovation capabilities," strengthen the orientation of scientific research and original technology development, and continuously foster new quality productive forces.

Notably, the proposal for the "14th Five-Year Plan" explicitly mentions the establishment of a high-tech talent immigration system, demonstrating China's proactive attitude in attracting top global talents. With rich human resources, if China further accepts overseas top talents, its basic research capabilities are expected to further strengthen.

The cutting-edge technologies that will emerge in the future will be widely applied in all aspects of society. In the key areas guided by national strategy, from R&D to social application and large-scale promotion, the development speed is astonishing. For example, the integration of humanoid robots and AI is ongoing, and the future of AI robots active on city streets is increasingly realistic.

Looking back at China's previous path of innovation and development, we should not only be amazed by China's "strength" in frontier fields but also closely monitor the national strategies, corporate R&D, and social applications behind China's innovation and take appropriate measures. (Translated by Ma Xiaoyun)

Original: toutiao.com/article/7581680096436699694/

Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author.