China to Mobilize Nation as It Fights US for Tech Supremacy
- The central government will raise R&D spending by about 10%
- China is locked in a strategic conflict over tech with the US
Under Xi’s watch, China has expanded state control of strategically critical areas from semiconductor manufacturing to quantum computing.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergChina pledged to harness the entire nation’s resources to speed homegrown scientific breakthroughs, reaffirming a central priority to become self-reliant in spheres from AI to chipmaking to wrest technological supremacy from the US.
Beijing hammered home a longstanding goal to break an American stranglehold on key spheres, according to government work reports submitted to the nation’s legislature on Tuesday. The central government will increase spending on scientific and technology research by 10% to 370.8 billion yuan ($51.5 billion) in 2024, promote national champions and grant enterprises a central role in spearheading advances, according to the documents, which are closely scrutinized for clues to President Xi Jinping’s thinking.