Zhi Zhenfeng: High-Quality Construction of Beijing's High-Level Talent Hub
Talent is the strategic resource for achieving national rejuvenation and winning the initiative in international competition. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the Central Conference on Talent-Related Work that accelerating the construction of world-important talent centers and innovation highlands requires a strategic layout. Taking all factors into consideration, high-level talent highlands can be built in Beijing, Shanghai, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
As the national center for scientific and technological innovation, how Beijing can take the lead in building a high-level talent highland with "First-Good Standards" [1], providing strategic support for our country's construction of world talent centers and innovation highlands, has become a major issue in the New Era that Beijing’s talent work must urgently resolve.
The "First-Good" Land Where High-Level Talents Converge
Beijing’s greatest advantages lie in science, technology, and talent. By the end of 2020, Beijing’s total talent pool reached 7.813 million, with a talent density of 62%, and approximately 1.2 million members of the workforce holding postgraduate degrees. High-level talents are clustered here: by the end of 2021, Beijing had more than 800 academicians from the two academies [2], accounting for nearly half of the national total. More than 3,000 individuals were selected for various national-level talent projects, representing nearly one-fourth of the national total. The city's total number of professional and technical talents reached 3.95 million, and skilled talents reached 3.701 million, among whom high-skilled talents totaled 1.144 million.
Benefiting from the strategic layout of national scientific, educational, and innovation resources, Beijing fully enjoys the national talent dividend. Beijing brings together more than 90 universities, over 1,000 scientific research institutes, and 128 State Key Laboratories. Top-tier universities account for more than one-fifth of the national total, and the number of "Highly Cited Researchers" in Beijing has exceeded that of Silicon Valley in the United States. In 2021, 139,000 postgraduate students were admitted, with 413,000 postgraduates in school and 104,000 graduates; regular institutions of higher learning admitted 160,000 undergraduate and vocational students, with 596,000 students in school and 147,000 graduates. As the national political and cultural center, Beijing has established 55 provincial-level international sister-city relationships, 61 district-level friendly (exchange) cities, and is the host to embassies of more than 180 countries with established diplomatic ties. Higher education provides Beijing with its most abundant talent foundation, while its status as an international exchange hub provides Beijing with an extremely open international platform.
The state supports Beijing in building an international scientific and technological innovation center city and the Huairou Comprehensive National Science Center, deploying a large number of State Key Laboratories in Beijing, which provides the most robust impetus for Beijing's technological innovation. Benefiting from its position as the capital and national technological development, Beijing hosts about 60 Fortune Global 500 companies, nearly 30,000 high-tech enterprises, more than 280 national-level "Little Giant" enterprises [3] that are specialized, refined, unique, and innovative, and more than 90 global unicorns. For four consecutive years, it has ranked first globally in the "Nature Index - Science Cities" and ranked fourth in the "Global Science and Technology Innovation Center Index 2021" list.
The Technological Mission of High-Level Self-Reliance and Self-Strengthening
Work in the capital concerns the "top priorities of the nation" [4]. Relying on the strategic positioning established by the state and centering on major national strategic needs, Beijing has constructed a technological innovation development pattern based on the "Three Cities and One District"—Zhongguancun Science City, Huairou Science City, Future Science City, and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. By "placing pieces" [5] at critical junctures, Beijing has concentrated its forces to promote the construction of an international scientific and technological innovation center, taking the lead in exploring and forming a new development pattern linked by the "Five Pieces" [6]. With talent as the primary resource, the "Three Cities and One District" have built a technological innovation chain of "infrastructure–basic research–applied research–transformation of achievements–high-end, precision, and sophisticated industries," seizing strategic opportunities for technological development, striving to build national strategic technological forces, and achieving fruitful results in realizing high-level technological self-reliance and self-strengthening.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that in the reform of talent development systems and mechanisms, "breaking down" has not been sufficient, and "establishing" [7] has also been inadequate; a talent development system and mechanism that both possesses Chinese characteristics and maintains international competitive comparative advantages has not yet been truly established. To build Beijing’s high-level talent highland, we must seek momentum from reform and increase vitality through reform. In recent years, Beijing has successively issued important talent policies surrounding capital development, the introduction and service of high-level overseas talents, and the construction of the international scientific and technological innovation center. Measures to support technological innovation—such as the additional tax deduction for R&D expenses of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, additional deductions for corporate basic research expenditures, installment payment of equity incentives for listed high-tech companies, capital market support for technological innovation enterprises, and the development of technological insurance businesses by insurance companies—have been continuously introduced. New exploratory reform measures, such as regulations on promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, the "Open Competition Mechanism" [8], the "Lump Sum System" [9] for scientific research funds, and policies facilitating the entry and exit of international talents, have demonstrated significant efficacy. In 2021, the 14 talent policies proposed by Beijing, including simplifying budget preparation and increasing the proportion of indirect costs, were absorbed into the Several Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Reforming and Improving the Management of Central Financial Scientific Research Funds.
Mindful of the "Two Overalls" [10], Beijing should take the construction of strategic talent forces as the top priority and build a growth echelon of strategic scientists. Based on independent talent cultivation, it should utilize major innovation platforms such as national strategic technological forces and institutions of higher learning to strengthen talent cultivation. Taking high-level opening up of talent as an important channel, it should actively attract international organizations, internationally renowned scientific research institutions, and R&D centers of multinational enterprises to settle in, and vigorously introduce high-level overseas talents. Taking the deepening of the reform of talent development systems and mechanisms as the key grasp, it should respect talents, trust talents, treat talents well, respect intellectual property rights, and "untie and empower" [11] talents. Driven by the construction of the international scientific and technological innovation center, and surrounding the "Four Preemptive" fields of artificial intelligence, quantum information, blockchain, and biotechnology, as well as the "Four Breakthrough" fields of integrated circuits, key new materials, general-purpose key components, and high-end instruments and equipment, Beijing will continuously gather strategic technological talents and become an important pole supporting national high-level technological self-reliance and self-strengthening.
The Chinese Solution for a Global Talent Center
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the new round of global technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing rapidly; we face both rare historical opportunities and severe challenges. Human history has shown that every round of industrial revolution leads to the rise and fall of nations and the reshaping of the international pattern. Analyzing the international situation of scientific and technological innovation competition comprehensively, the Party Central Committee insists on placing technological innovation at the core of the overall national development and proposes building global talent highlands. Building high-level talent highlands in Beijing, Shanghai, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and striving to build platforms for attracting and gathering talent in certain central cities where high-level talents are concentrated, carrying out comprehensive reform pilots of talent development systems and mechanisms, and accelerating the formation of "strategic fulcrums and the Wild Geese Formation" [12]—these are all part of the strategic layout for accelerating the construction of world-important talent centers and innovation highlands.
To achieve the grand goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, high-level technological self-reliance and self-strengthening are key. This requires creating a favorable ecological environment for talent innovation, gathering the world's talents and putting them to use, and fully stimulating the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the vast number of scientific and technological personnel. The "Eight Insists" [13] proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Central Conference on Talent-Related Work are a deepening of our understanding of the laws governing the development of our country's talent cause, and a theoretical sublimation of the immense achievements and practical experience of talent work since the 18th Party Congress. Beijing, Shanghai, and central cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, guided by national strategic needs and driven by industrial demand, have laid out innovation chains around industrial chains and strengthened talent chains, carving out a high-quality development path with their own characteristics where talent leads industry and industry clusters talent.
In human history, technology and talent always gather in places with good development momentum, a high degree of civilization, and the most active innovation. The "height" of a high-level talent highland lies in the high concentration of talent, highly developed technology, higher quality economy, highly civilized society, a sense of value calling based on human well-being, and a diverse inclusiveness that "embraces all rivers." High-quality construction of high-level talent highlands means not only that Beijing will become a leader in global technological innovation, a growth pole for the high-end economy, a preferred destination for innovative talent, a pioneer zone for cultural innovation, and a demonstration city for ecological construction, but even more so that Beijing must provide advanced scientific concepts, systems and mechanisms with international competitive advantages, and strong global talent resource allocation capabilities for the development of the global talent cause. Thus, amidst the "Great Changes Unseen in a Century" [14], it will provide a Chinese solution for talent development that manifests the consciousness of a community with a shared future for humanity and a new, higher level of civilization.