Xiong Hongru: Grasp the Key to Achieving High-Level Science and Technology Self-Reliance and Self-Strengthening
A number of articles in the first volume of the Selected Economic Works of Xi Jinping provide profound expositions on scientific and technological (S&T) innovation. "Deepening Understanding of Major Issues in Mid-to-Long-Term Economic and Social Development" points out that "to achieve high-quality development, we must realize intensive growth [1] reliant on innovation-driven development." "Chinese-path Modernization Must Be Supported by the Modernization of Science and Technology" emphasizes that we "must fully recognize the strategic pioneering status and fundamental supporting role of science and technology, anchor the strategic goal of building a global power in science and technology by 2035, strengthen top-level design and overall planning, and accelerate the realization of high-level S&T self-reliance and self-strengthening." These important expositions provide scientific guidance for promoting the development of our country's S&T undertakings and accelerating the realization of high-level S&T self-reliance and self-strengthening.
Surveying the history of the rise and fall of the world's major powers, science and technology has been one of the most important and fundamental driving forces and variables. Consolidating a nation's foundational science and technology and improving its capacity for independent innovation is an inevitable law of development for great powers. Realizing high-level S&T self-reliance and self-strengthening is an urgent requirement for our country to respond to major risks and challenges and to safeguard national strategic interests; moreover, it is a strategic choice to further seize the period of strategic opportunity [2], make a preemptive move [3], and win new advantages. We must grasp the key links, accelerate the promotion of high-level S&T self-reliance and self-strengthening, and place the development of the country and the nation on the basis of our own strength.
We must improve the system of the Party Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership over S&T work to coalesce a powerful force for promoting S&T innovation. Leadership by the Communist Party of China is the fundamental political guarantee for the continuous advancement of the cause of S&T innovation with Chinese characteristics. In strengthening the Party’s leadership over S&T undertakings, the key lies in fully exerting the political advantages of the Party's leadership. It should be observed that there are still deficiencies in forming a scientific and effective S&T management system that conforms to national conditions, meets national strategic needs, combines top-down and bottom-up approaches, and fully utilizes the roles of all parties. There is still room for continuous improvement in mechanisms regarding "who sets the questions," "how to set good questions," "who answers the questions," and "who evaluates them" for national S&T plans and projects. It is imperative to attach greater importance to strengthening effective coordination in strategic planning, policy measures, major tasks, scientific research forces, resource platforms, and regional innovation, so as to construct a collaborative and efficient decision-making command system and organizational implementation system.
We must strengthen the development of national strategic S&T forces and leverage the advantages of the new-type whole-of-nation system [4]. National strategic S&T forces are the backbone of science and technology that embody the national will, serve national needs, and represent national levels. In certain key core technology fields, our country has still not mastered some underlying, foundational, and general-purpose technologies, and the situation of being controlled by others [5] urgently requires increased efforts to reverse. We need to fully leverage the advantages of the new-type whole-of-nation system, accelerate the improvement of the organizational methods for strategic S&T forces, and focus on playing an effective role in key links where market forces "cannot" or "are unwilling" to act. We must enhance the strategic effectiveness of National Laboratories, improve organizational management and funding support mechanisms, and coordinately promote the reform and reorganization of National Key Laboratories and national scientific research institutions. We should organize superior forces to deploy concentrated assaults in advance in strategic areas of essential competition, and adopt asymmetric leapfrog strategies in key fields to seize the commanding heights of future economic and S&T development.
We must fully leverage the decisive role of the market in the allocation of S&T resources and stimulate the powerful vitality of market forces in original and disruptive S&T innovation. Currently, approximately 80% of our country's total societal R&D investment and personnel come from enterprises. Since the reform of the registration-based IPO system, 90% of companies listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market) and the Beijing Stock Exchange, and over half of those listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (Chinext), have received support from private equity and venture capital funds. These market forces are the backbone for promoting original and disruptive S&T innovation, opening new fields and new tracks, and participating in international S&T competition. We must more prominently feature the principal position of enterprises in S&T innovation, and support more enterprises in leading or participating in major national S&T projects, jointly refining scientific questions, and collaboratively cultivating S&T talent, thereby promoting enterprise-led integration of industry, academia, research, and finance.
We must persist in combining goal-orientation with free exploration to consolidate the foundation and base for building a global power in science and technology. Basic research is the source of the entire scientific system. In recent years, our country's capacity for basic research and original innovation has continuously improved; the number of highly-cited papers and international patent applications both rank among the top in the world. In specific fields such as quantum technology, biological sciences, and artificial intelligence, we are achieving a historical leap from "following" to "running alongside" and toward "leading." At the same time, it must be recognized that there is still a gap in our country's basic research investment intensity compared to major developed countries, major original achievements are relatively few, and the scientific research ecosystem is not yet perfect. To improve the level of basic research, on the one hand, we must pay more attention to improving the degree of organization in basic research, strengthen collaborative assaults facing major scientific problems, and increase support for the transformation of research paradigms driven by artificial intelligence, while strengthening the construction of scientific databases and resource platforms. On the other hand, we must actively encourage free exploration, improve the investment mechanism for basic research that combines competitive support with stable support, emphasize the construction of scientific communities, establish a screening mechanism for "non-consensus" projects recommended by experts under their real names, and support enterprises in carrying out basic research with greater intensity.