China plans strategic S&T breakthroughs

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country will endeavor to make a series of strategic science and technology breakthroughs by 2030, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Communist Party of China.

These projects span aviation engines, quantum teleportation, intelligent manufacturing and robots, deep space and deep sea probes, new materials, brain science and health related science. The country must place innovation in key S&T areas higher on the agenda, Xi said.

Xi made the remarks as an elaboration on the CPC's proposal for the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020).

Pursuing these projects will help China break free from external dominance in these strategic areas, and create new directions and areas for development and growth, Xi said.

In August 2014, China decided 16 scientific and technological projects of national importance, including universal chips, broadband and mobile telecommunications, digitally controlled machines, and nuclear power.

Xi attributed China's inferiority to developed countries in science mainly to insufficient innovation, and he proposed national laboratories be devoted to state-of-the-art science and technology. These labs will be large in scale and interdisciplinary, he added.

National laboratories have become important channels for developed countries to contend for the high ground of science and innovation, Xi said, citing the Argonne National Laboratory of the United States and the Helmholtz center in Germany as examples.

In scientific and technological innovation terms, Xi said China has moved from the stage of "busy catching up" with developed countries to occasionally setting the pace.

China urgently needs national labs with top-notch talent from both home and abroad, international peer recognition and innovation capacity that warrants global influence, Xi said.