The following Chinese government document identifies “future industries” in six areas—manufacturing, IT, materials, energy, space, and health—as priorities for China’s industrial policy. The document names quantum computing and brain-inspired technologies, in particular, as areas of focus, and assigns a prominent role to Chinese central government-owned enterprises in developing these future technologies.

An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at:    https://perma.cc/5JWL-SNDN

Implementation Opinions of Seven Ministries Including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Promoting the Innovative Development of Future Industries

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (2024) No. 12

To the industry and information technology, education, science and technology (S&T), transportation, culture and tourism, and state-owned assets supervision and management main oversight departments (主管部门) of all provinces, autonomous regions, province-level municipalities, cities with independent planning status under the national economic and social development plan (计划单列市), and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, to units affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), to the communications administrations of all provinces, autonomous regions, and province-level municipalities, to the relevant central enterprises, and to all relevant units:

Future industries, driven by cutting-edge technologies, are currently in the incubation stage or at the beginning of industrialization. They are forward-looking emerging industries with significant strategic, leading, disruptive, and uncertain characteristics. Vigorously developing future industries is a strategic choice to lead technological progress, drive industrial upgrading, and cultivate new productive forces (新质生产力). To implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress and the People’s Republic of China 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Range Objectives for 2035,¹ seize the opportunities of a new round of S&T revolution and industrial transformation, focus on the main battlefield—namely the manufacturing industry—to accelerate the development of future industries, and support the advancement of new-style industrialization (新型工业化), the following opinions are proposed.

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1. Translator’s note: CSET’s English translation of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan Outline is available online at: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/china-14th-five-year-plan/.