Chen Mingbin: Place the Development of New Quality Productive Forces Tailored to Local Conditions in a More Prominent Strategic Position
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the symposium on economic and social development during the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" [1] period for certain provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities: "During the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period, we must place the development of new quality productive forces in accordance with local conditions in a more prominent strategic position." Placing the development of new quality productive forces in according with local conditions in a more prominent strategic position signifies the most comprehensive and systematic strategic layout, the deepest level of reformist courage, and higher priority resource investment. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee [2] made new deployments for developing new quality productive forces, further highlighting the foundational status of building a modernized industrial system, the engine role of accelerating high-level science and technology self-reliance and strength, and the endogenous guarantee of innovating systems and mechanisms. This has systematically constructed a strategic framework to seize the initiative in future competition during the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period.
Further Highlighting the Core Strategic Position of Building a Modernized Industrial System
Standing at a new historical starting point, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee placed "building a modernized industrial system" at a more forward and core position within the tasks of economic and social development. This not only reflects a renewed understanding of the foundational status of industry, but more importantly marks a further deepening of the strategic focus of developing new quality productive forces toward the level of industrial practice. As the value carrier and realization basis of new quality productive forces, the industrial system directly determines the efficiency and quality of the transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements, and bears upon the nation’s initiative in competition and its developmental security. Therefore, elevating the construction of a modernized industrial system to a strategic priority is an inevitable choice for shaping new drivers of high-quality development and responding to profound changes in the global landscape.
At the level of strategic goals, the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan achieves an expansion and upgrade from the core strategic layout of the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period—centered on becoming a power in manufacturing, quality, cyber, and digital China—toward a "Five Powers Leadership" goal system encompassing manufacturing, quality, aerospace, transportation, and cyber. This evolution not only broadens the coverage of the industrial system but also enhances its strategic energy level. Building a powerhouse in aerospace represents the pinnacle of national scientific and technological strength and the core of strategic security, driving breakthroughs in a batch of cutting-edge technologies such as high-precision manufacturing, advanced materials, and spatial communications. Building a powerhouse in transportation serves as the skeleton and lifeblood of a modernized economic system, playing a foundational and pioneering role in ensuring supply chain resilience and optimizing regional development patterns. Together, these two construct a more solid and forward-looking support for national industrial competitiveness.
Regarding the implementation path, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee further identified the developmental directions of the modernized industrial system as being intelligent, green, and integrated, while emphasizing the construction of a modern industrial ecosystem "with advanced manufacturing as the backbone." This expression profoundly reveals the core position and supporting role of advanced manufacturing within the entire industrial system. Through the coordinated development of upstream and downstream industrial chains, continuous technological innovation, and knowledge expansion, advanced manufacturing injects endogenous impetus and developmental vitality into the entire industrial system. Maintaining a reasonable proportion of manufacturing is a key measure for consolidating the foundation of the real economy and preventing the "divergence from the real to the virtual" [3]. The Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period also places special emphasis on the "forward-looking layout of future industries," regarding frontier fields such as quantum technology, 6G communications, brain science and brain-like intelligence, and deep-sea/aerospace exploration as key variables for reshaping the global competitive landscape. Systematic planning and early investment in these fields constitute our "first move" [4] in cultivating new growth points for mid-to-long-term development and serve as an important guarantee for the continuous leapfrogging of new quality productive forces.
Further Strengthening the Core Engine Role of High-Level Science and Technology Self-Reliance and Strength
Science and technology self-reliance and strength constitute the strategic support for national development and, moreover, the fundamental power for shaping new quality productive forces. During the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period, China will firmly seize the historical opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation to systematically enhance the overall efficiency of the national innovation system. In this process, high-level science and technology self-reliance and strength is no longer merely about being "autonomous and controllable" at the technical level; it has been endowed with the strategic mission of "leading the development of new quality productive forces." This means it is inevitable to promote scientific and technological innovation to move from "point-based" breakthroughs toward the enhancement of systemic capabilities. Through autonomous research on key core technologies and their systemic application, the industrial structure will be driven toward the high end of the global value chain.
The core engine role of "high-level science and technology self-reliance and strength" in developing new quality productive forces during the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period is mainly reflected in three aspects. First is the fundamental shift in the strategic positioning of technological development from "supporting development" to "leading the development of new quality productive forces." The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee explicitly proposed the strategic positioning of "accelerating high-level science and technology self-reliance and strength to lead the development of new quality productive forces," marking the strategic significance of technological innovation in the overall situation. In the past, China's technological development primarily undertook the functions of industrial upgrading and efficiency improvement. In the new stage of development, technology must not only resolve "bottleneck" (choke-hold) [5] dilemmas but must also become the "source water" for opening new arenas and shaping new advantages. New quality productive forces are essentially a form of productive forces in which technological innovation plays the dominant role; therefore, we must give rise to and lead their development through systemic and forward-looking technological breakthroughs. Second is the change in the focus of key tasks, placing original innovation at the source of the technological innovation system. The Plenary Session emphasized "strengthening original innovation and breakthroughs in key core technologies," reflecting a strategic shift from "solving application problems" to "planning for future possibilities." Original innovation is the core of achieving breakthroughs "from 0 to 1" and forming the capacity to be a source of technology; it is also the seed from which new quality productive forces germinate. Third is the enhancement of system efficiency to aid the construction of a Digital China and optimize the national innovation ecosystem. The Plenary Session deployed the "integrated promotion of the development of education, technology, and talent" and the "in-depth promotion of the construction of Digital China," aiming to fully integrate digital technology into the overall innovation landscape. Digital China is not merely a collection of technical projects, but a foundational platform that empowers thousands of industries and reshapes innovation paradigms. Through computing power sharing, data circulation, and intelligent empowerment, technological innovation and industrial transformation achieve deep integration.
From breaking blockades to leading innovation, and from technological breakthroughs to systemic restructuring, high-level science and technology self-reliance and strength is reshaping the power structure of Chinese-path modernization with the posture of a core engine. This process is both a systemic leap in scientific and technological strength and a vivid manifestation of institutional advantages, which will surely lay a solid technological foundation and strategic initiative for the comprehensive building of a modern socialist country.
Giving Greater Importance to the Endogenous Momentum of Institutional Innovation
Developing new quality productive forces requires not only technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrades but also demands institutional mechanisms that are compatible with them as a guarantee. Currently, the key constraints on the development of new quality productive forces are not only issues of technology and capital, but also deep-seated institutional barriers such as data silos, scientific research evaluation, and market access. Facing this reality, during the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period, we must promote the coordinated development of education, technology, and talent systems in our reform methods, and continue to exert effort in perfecting the technological finance support system to systematically stimulate the endogenous impetus for high-quality development.
Establishing "developing new quality productive forces in accordance with local conditions" as a strategic principle facilitates the transformation of institutional mechanisms from a "unified framework" to "precision adaptation." The resource endowments, industrial foundations, and innovation conditions of various regions in China differ significantly; some regions focus on original innovation, while others excel in the transformation of achievements, making diverse developmental paths inevitable. For example, Guangxi, as a "bridgehead" [6] for opening up and cooperation toward ASEAN, has seized major opportunities such as the state's implementation of the inclusive plan for AI capacity building. By collaborating to create an AI development path of "R&D in Beijing/Shanghai/Guangdong + integration in Guangxi + application in ASEAN," it has effectively activated new potential for economic development. It is evident that the design of institutional mechanisms must discard "one-size-fits-all" thinking and turn toward constructing an institutional system capable of identifying differences, responding to needs, and empowering unique characteristics, truly achieving the precision governance of "one policy for one region."
Promoting the coordinated development of education, technology, and talent systems through "systematic integration." The Plenary Session emphasized establishing and improving institutional mechanisms for the coordinated development of education, technology, and talent, aiming to break down institutional barriers between these three major fields and construct a continuous development ecosystem ranging from talent cultivation and scientific research to industrial application. The key lies in forming a smooth chain of knowledge creation, technology transformation, and value realization, stimulating synergistic efficiency through systemic innovation of institutional mechanisms. This is both an inherent requirement for developing new quality productive forces and a concrete practice of the "systematically integrated, coordinated, and efficient" reform methodology. Only by achieving a virtuous cycle and deep integration of these three can we provide a steady stream of high-quality workers and innovative talents for new quality productive forces.
Constructing a capital support system adapted to the laws of innovation through "technology finance." We must build a technology finance system compatible with scientific and technological innovation. By deepening financial reform and vigorously developing venture capital and equity investment, we can clear the funding bottlenecks from the laboratory to industrialization, allowing the "living water" [7] of finance to precisely irrigate the entire chain. This deployment is not only a key measure for perfecting the modern financial system but also a systemic lever for smoothing the "technology–industry–finance" cycle and catalyzing the explosion of new quality productive forces.