Shi Jianxun: The Connotation and Path of Industrial Innovation During the "15th Five-Year Plan" Period
Industrial innovation is the key link in the transformation of scientific and technological innovation into actual productive forces. The "Suggestions for the 15th Five-Year Plan" deliberated and adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party have made strategic deployments for "building a modern industrial system and consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy" and "accelerating high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening to lead the development of new quality productive forces." It emphasizes "implementing industrial innovation projects" and "promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation." At a time when the global political and economic landscape is undergoing profound adjustments, major power competition is becoming more complex and intense, and a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, industrial innovation has become a key focal point for effectively avoiding "involution-style" [1] competition and responding to external suppression and containment. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period (2026–2030), it is necessary to profoundly understand the connotation and logic of industrial innovation, coordinate the relationship between it and scientific and technological innovation and regional development, and work in synergy to promote the high-quality development of China's industries.
Rich Connotation and Developmental Logic
Industrial innovation is a complex systematic project involving the construction of a modern industrial system and the development of new quality productive forces. An accurate understanding of the scientific connotation and internal logic of industrial innovation will help better promote its development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and ensure that China takes the initiative in the reconstruction of global industrial chains.
From the perspective of practice, industrial innovation includes multiple forms and involves several aspects. First, creating new industries "out of nothing" [2] amid the technological revolution, such as biomedicine, big data, and artificial intelligence. Second, using high and new technologies to upgrade and transform traditional industries, such as traditional manufacturing achieving significant increases in production efficiency through digital and intelligent transformation. Third, achieving transformation and upgrading through industrial transfer, relying on industrial resources transferred from other regions to optimize local industrial structures and enhance industrial value. Fourth, innovation in industrial cooperation models, including industrial integration, industrial clusters, industrial ecosystems, and industrial chain alliances. Fifth, optimization of industrial policies and capacity governance methods, promoting healthy and orderly industrial development by enhancing the precision and effectiveness of industrial policies and the capacity and level of capacity governance. Sixth, innovation arising from international industrial division of labor and cooperation; in the context of globalization, competition in industrial and supply chains is becoming increasingly fierce, leading to the deep adjustment of international industrial regulations and industrial chains, as well as innovation in international industrial division models.
Industrial innovation is driven by multiple factors. First is market demand. The birth of any new industry or the elimination of an old one is a product of changes in demand. Leading new supply with new demand is an important logic for the innovation and development of industry. Second is scientific and technological innovation. Science and technology are the primary productive forces. New technologies and inventions not only significantly improve production efficiency and product quality but also create new products and services, thereby creating new demand with new supply. Third is industrial competition. Competition within industries, between different industries, and between industries of different regions and countries will accelerate the research and development of new technologies and products, constantly breaking through original industrial boundaries, achieving cross-border integration, and promoting the growth and strengthening of industries. Fourth is policy promotion. Looking across the globe, all major and powerful industrial nations attach importance to promoting industrial innovation and development, creating a favorable development environment through the issuance of industrial policies and development plans.
Led by Scientific and Technological Innovation
Scientific and technological innovation is the endogenous power of industrial innovation, while industrial innovation is the realization of the value of scientific and technological innovation. Promoting the deep integration of the two is of great significance for building a modern industrial system. In recent years, China has achieved a series of major breakthroughs in frontier fields represented by big data, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology, providing solid technical support and opening up vast market spaces for the development of strategic emerging industries. At the same time, we must soberly recognize that there is still a gap between China's level in some key core technologies and the international advanced level. The leading role of scientific and technological innovation in industrial innovation needs to be strengthened, and the development of strategic emerging industries still faces competitive pressure from developed countries in terms of technology, branding, and markets.
Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating toward breakthroughs. The "Suggestions for the 15th Five-Year Plan" propose to "seize the historical opportunity of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, coordinate the construction of a leading power in education, science and technology, and talent, improve the overall efficiency of the national innovation system, comprehensively enhance independent innovation capabilities, seize the commanding heights of technological development, and constantly give rise to new quality productive forces." Centering on industrial innovation and development, we should coordinate the construction of national strategic scientific and technological forces, strengthen original innovation and breakthroughs in key core technologies, and promote decisive breakthroughs in key core technologies in key fields such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines [3], and high-end instruments. We must coordinate the construction of scientific and technological innovation platforms and bases, strengthen the source functions of international scientific and technological innovation centers, and reinforce the principal position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation. We should promote the aggregation of innovation resources toward enterprises, support high-tech enterprises, leading enterprises, "chain leader" [4] enterprises, and small and medium-sized sci-tech enterprises in forming innovation consortia to undertake national scientific and technological research tasks, and promote the deep integration of the innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain. Furthermore, we must accelerate the efficient transformation and application of major scientific and technological achievements, increase the construction and openness of application scenarios, strengthen the protection and application of intellectual property rights, cultivate and strengthen leading scientific and technological enterprises, advance the development of education, technology, and talent as an integrated whole, strive to create an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness, and further enhance China's capacity and strength in leading industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation.
Combining with Regional Development
Industry is an important factor affecting regional development, while regional development provides the basic conditions for industrial innovation. China is a vast territory, and there are significant differences between regions in terms of population, resources, economic development, infrastructure construction, and industrial ecology. How to achieve innovative development by relying on regional advantages and avoiding homogenization is a question that must be considered in regional industrial development. Especially for regions with relatively weak industrial foundations, blindly undertaking similar industrial projects during the process of industrial transfer will not only lead to redundant construction and overcapacity, resulting in a massive waste of resources, but will also squeeze industrial profits and the space for fiscal and tax growth, restricting regional industrial technological upgrading and hindering the innovative development of industry.
Basing development on resource endowments and comparative advantages, and pursuing staggered development where each region plays to its strengths, is an effective approach to promoting regional industrial innovation and development. We should deeply implement the deployment of "optimizing the regional economic layout and promoting coordinated regional development" as mentioned in the "Suggestions for the 15th Five-Year Plan," further improve the regional innovation system, lay out and build regional scientific and technological innovation centers and industrial technology innovation highlands, and leverage the role of key regions as growth poles. We should give full play to the overlapping effects of the regional coordinated development strategy, major regional strategies, the functional zone strategy, and the new-type urbanization strategy. We must optimize the layout of major productive forces, leverage the leading role of industrial innovation in key regions, and construct a regional economic layout and territorial space system characterized by complementary advantages and high-quality development. We should optimize the local political performance evaluation system, guide and encourage various localities to explore development paths suited to their local conditions, develop new industries according to local conditions, and transform and upgrade traditional industries to form an industrial collaboration pattern of staggered competition and division of labor, enhancing the coordination of regional industrial innovation and development.
Better Integration into International Production and Supply Chains
One of the important tasks of industrial innovation and development is to build more secure and controllable industrial and supply chains. To achieve such a goal, we cannot carry out industrial innovation behind closed doors; instead, we must organically embed China's innovation, industrial, and supply chains into the global system. Deeply integrated development with international industrial and supply chains is conducive to attracting and gathering global advanced factors and resources, optimizing the allocation of production factors, and providing more solid factor support for China's industrial innovation and development.
At present, global industrial and supply chains are facing impact and restructuring. Multiple factors, such as geopolitical conflicts, the new technological revolution, and the green and low-carbon transition, are intertwined and influencing one another, driving profound changes in the global industrial and supply chain landscape. While the scale of China's manufacturing sector has remained the largest in the world for many years, some fields are still at the low-to-medium end of the value chain. The "Suggestions for the 15th Five-Year Plan" propose to "actively expand autonomous opening-up" and "guide the rational and orderly cross-border layout of industrial and supply chains." In the process of China's industrial innovation and development, we must participate more actively in the international division of labor and cooperation, emphasizing "bringing in" alongside "going global," "going in," and "going upward," and deeply integrate into international industrial and supply chains. At the same time, we should further optimize the management of outward investment, improve the overseas integrated service system, promote the negotiation and signing of more regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements, enhance the level of investment and trade facilitation, and strengthen the linkage effect between domestic and international markets and resources. Especially in the process of high-quality Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, we should strengthen strategic alignment and industrial chain cooperation with partner countries, making the Belt and Road Initiative a bridge and bond for industrial cooperation between nations. We must better coordinate domestic economic work with international economic and trade struggles, actively participate in the cooperative governance of global industrial and supply chains, accelerate the modernization level of China's industrial and supply chains, and continuously enhance the international competitiveness of industrial innovation and development.
Continuously Optimizing the Development Environment
Industrial innovation is characterized by large investments, long cycles, and high risks; relying solely on the strength of enterprises makes it difficult to undertake the heavy tasks of major basic research and breakthroughs in common technologies. We should break through "bottleneck" (stranglehold) [5] problems in key core technologies by formulating technological strategies and laying out major scientific research projects, concentrating all forces to lay the technical foundation for industrial innovation. This will guide industrial innovation to serve the overall national development, achieving the unification of economic and social benefits. Furthermore, a sound industrial system and an efficient innovation ecosystem cannot form spontaneously. We must promote the smooth flow and efficient coordination of factors and build an environment conducive to industrial innovation by optimizing the regional economic layout and improving policies, regulations, and infrastructure construction.
The "Suggestions for the 15th Five-Year Plan" propose to "create an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness" and "strengthen the construction of science and technology rule of law, ethics, integrity, and security." In the future, we must accelerate the construction of a unified national primary market, eliminate barriers to factor acquisition, and break down local protectionism and market fragmentation to provide a unified, open, and fair market environment for industrial innovation and development. We should strengthen the original innovation orientation of scientific research and technological development, improve the intellectual property protection system in emerging fields, and create an environment conducive to original and disruptive innovation. We must optimize plans for industrial innovation and development, clarify the cultivation direction and development priorities of traditional advantageous industries, strategic emerging industries, and future industries, improve the industrial supporting service system, implement industrial innovation projects, and build industrial ecosystems to develop and strengthen industrial clusters. We should promote the transition of industrial policies from differentiated and selective ones to universal and functional ones, and strengthen the coordination of industrial policies with fiscal, financial, and environmental protection policies. Regarding the problem of "involution-style" competition in practice, it is necessary to strengthen capacity governance and actively explore the close integration of industrial policies, industrial planning, and regional development planning with capacity governance to avoid the disorderly expansion of industry. At the same time, we must implement regulatory responsibilities, strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition law enforcement, improve the monitoring and early warning mechanism for the production capacity of key industrial products, and dynamically implement full-chain capacity governance to create a favorable competitive environment for industrial innovation and development.