The following is a readout of a May 2025 press conference featuring several Chinese government finance officials, who discussed a recently issued policy—also translated by CSET—encouraging greater capital market funding for tech companies. The officials describe various aspects of these policy measures, all designed to overcome the reluctance of Chinese institutional and private investors to invest in promising but risky smaller tech companies.

An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at:    https://perma.cc/3Z7N-BEG8

Expand Financing Support to Science and Technology Enterprises (Authorized Release)

The Decision of the Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee put forward the establishment of a science and technology (S&T) finance system adapted to S&T innovation, and the strengthening of financial support for major national S&T tasks and small and medium-sized S&T enterprises. On May 22, [2025,] the State Council Information Office held a press conference at which the heads of relevant ministries introduced details regarding S&T finance policies.

15 Policy Measures to Accelerate the Establishment of an S&T Finance System

Recently, seven ministries, including the Ministry of Science and Technology and the People’s Bank of China, jointly issued Certain Policy Measures to Accelerate the Construction of the Science and Technology Finance System and Strongly Support a High Level of Self-Reliance in Science and Technology¹ Vice Minister of Science and Technology Qiu Yong (邱勇) explained that the policy measures focus on seven areas, including venture capital, monetary and credit policies, the capital market, S&T insurance, and bond markets. Some 15 policy measures are proposed, covering both upgrades of existing policies and innovative new policies—

Establish a “National Venture Capital Guidance Fund” to guide venture capital to “invest early, invest in small companies, invest long-term, and invest in hard S&T.”² A series of new measures is put forward, centered around streamlining the entire venture capital life cycle of “fundraising, investment, management, and exit,” proposing to: Expand the scope of the pilot program for equity investments by financial asset investment companies³ and support bond financing by venture capital institutions, so as to broaden funding sources; encourage the development of secondary market funds to smooth exit channels for venture capital; and optimize assessment and evaluation mechanisms for state-owned venture capital to make it more patient and steadfast.

Use structural monetary policy tools fully and effectively to guide financial institutions in increasing credit support for S&T enterprises. Further optimize the structure, expand the scale, and reduce the interest rates on relending facilities for S&T innovation and technological transformation, creating dedicated financing channels for S&T enterprises, especially private (民营) small and medium-sized enterprises; and encourage commercial banks to establish specialized S&T finance institutions with distinctive features and optimize assessment mechanisms, thereby making loan financing faster and easier.

To view the rest of this translation, download the pdf below.

1. Translator’s note: CSET’s English translation of Certain Policy Measures to Accelerate the Construction of the Science and Technology Finance System and Strongly Support a High Level of Self-Reliance in Science and Technology is available online at: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/china-tech-finance-measures/.
2. Translator’s note: “Hard S&T” (硬科技) refers to technologies that require long-term research to come to fruition, have high technical barriers and clear applications, are at the technological cutting edge, and have a transformative effect on the economy and society. Photonic chips, AI, aerospace, biotech, and IT are all examples of hard S&T. “Hard S&T” is more or less synonymous with “key and core technologies” (关键核心技术).
3. Translator’s note: In China, a financial asset investment company (AIC; 金融资产投资公司) is defined as a non-bank financial institution that conducts debt/equity swaps and supporting services for companies, just as a bank does. The main shareholder of an AIC is typically a bank.