How Does China Achieve Certainty amid Uncertainty?

In the first 11 months of 2020, China’s foreign trade of goods exceeded 29 trillion yuan (US$4.17 trillion), up 1.8% year-on-year. The Wall Street Journal reported that China’s “exports rose last year to their highest level on record.” Foreign analysts believe that the growth momentum of the Chinese economy will continue through at least the first half of 2021.

As the world’s largest recipient of foreign direct investment and the only major economy to achieve positive growth in 2020, China has shifted to a phase of high-quality development. The conditions supporting its development have seen fundamental changes. Innovation in science and technology has become a key factor influencing the world that is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. Through constantly improving institutional mechanisms for technological innovation, China has given better play to its development potential.

According to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), in the next five years, China will continue pushing forward the sci-tech institutional reform, improving its sci-tech governance system, optimizing its sci-tech planning system and operational mechanism, and promoting unified allocation of key research sectors, projects, bases, personnel and funds. It will also improve the organization and management of sci-tech projects, enhance sci-tech evaluation mechanisms, and optimize sci-tech incentive projects; accelerate the reform of research institutions to increase their autonomy in scientific research; strengthen intellectual property protection and significantly facilitate the commercialization of scientific research results; increase investments in scientific research and build a mechanism with government investments as the mainstay and various private investments as the supplement to strengthen support for basic and frontier research; and improve the system of financial support for innovation. It will also uphold the spirit of science and the spirit of craftsmanship, step up science popularization, and create a social atmosphere of advocating innovation; improve the sci-tech ethical system; promote openness and cooperation in science and technology and set up a research fund for global scientists.

In the past five years, China’s budget for basic research nearly doubled. In the next five years, the figure is expected to rise by 7%. Driven by innovation, more technologies, industries and business models will emerge to guide China to overcome challenges through continuous reforms.