Published by ChinaMNC · Yangshuo
China's New Policy Blueprint for Deepening Tech-Industry Integration: What Foreign Founders Need to Know
China has issued a comprehensive policy to deepen the integration of technological and industrial innovation. For foreign founders, this signals expanded opportunities in key sectors, new mechanisms for enterprise-led R&D, and a more supportive environment for innovation-driven businesses. This article summarizes the key points from the official document.
China's Push to Integrate Tech and Industry: A Guide for Foreign Founders
China has released a major policy document outlining its strategy to deeply integrate technological innovation with industrial innovation. For foreign founders considering or already operating a company in China, this blueprint reveals where the government is focusing resources and how businesses can align with national priorities. Below is a summary of the key measures and what they could mean for your China operations.
Overall Vision and Principles
The policy is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and aims to implement the innovation-driven development strategy. The goal is to develop new quality productive forces and build a modern industrial system. The focus is on creating a collaborative innovation system led by enterprises, with universities and research institutes working together. The policy emphasizes full-chain integration, covering all areas and factors, and providing comprehensive support. It seeks to form a new pattern where technological and industrial innovation reinforce each other, opening a path from technological strength to industrial and economic strength.
Key principles include:
- Accurately grasping new trends in technological and industrial revolutions, and strengthening systematic planning.
- Balancing technology supply and demand, deploying innovation chains around industrial chains and vice versa.
- Strengthening the principal role of enterprises in innovation and improving market mechanisms to incentivize innovation, directing innovation resources toward enterprises.
- Using reform to stimulate innovation vitality and removing ideological and institutional barriers to deep integration.
Key Measures for Enterprises
The document lists 17 specific measures. Here are the most relevant for foreign founders:
1. Improving Innovation Coordination
China will leverage its new whole-nation system to coordinate strategic planning, major tasks, and policies for technological and industrial innovation. Major policies, projects, and programs in key frontier fields will be coordinated. Policies across technology, industry, finance, education, and talent will be better aligned. Monitoring and evaluation of integration will be conducted, with emphasis on how technological innovation leads industrial development.
2. Reforming Task Organization
National science and technology projects will be more oriented toward industrial application. Enterprise demands will be regularly collected. Experts from enterprises and venture capital will have a greater role in guideline drafting, project review, and acceptance. Enterprise-led projects will have improved management rules, including mechanisms like "open competition" and "owner responsibility system," as well as milestone management and phased funding. Project acceptance will assess both technology and market application.
3. Smoothing Technology Transfer
Mechanisms will be improved to integrate research and application. National science and technology projects with clear industrial goals will generally be led by enterprises, which will also lead technology transfer. Universities and research institutes are encouraged to set up technology transfer offices, strengthen services in intellectual property, incubation, and tech finance, and accelerate application through transfer, licensing, or equity investment. Reforms will grant researchers more rights over their achievements and allow universities to license results to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on a "use first, pay later" basis. A unified national technology market will be developed, and professional technology transfer institutions and technology managers will be supported.
4. Strengthening Scenario-Driven Innovation
A demonstration action for new technologies, products, and scenarios will be implemented. Local governments are encouraged to open application scenarios in government services, smart cities, and rural construction. Supply and demand information on technology and scenarios will be collected and published. Collaboration and sharing of scenarios will be enhanced.
5. Achieving Breakthroughs in Key Core Technologies
Decisive breakthroughs are targeted in key fields such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, high-end instruments, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing. Projects like industrial base reengineering and major technical equipment research will be deepened. Efforts will focus on weak links, basic components, key basic software, key basic materials, and advanced basic processes and industrial technology foundations.
6. Fostering Emerging and Future Industries
Basic theoretical research and underlying technology R&D will be strengthened. Disruptive technologies will be identified and nurtured. An industrial innovation project will advance innovation facilities, technology R&D, and product iteration. Strategic emerging industries like new energy, new materials, and aerospace will be accelerated, with clusters built according to local conditions. The low-altitude economy will be developed in a healthy and orderly manner. In frontier fields such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and 6G, multiple technology routes, typical application scenarios, and viable business models will be explored to commercialize frontier technologies and cultivate future industries.
7. Upgrading Traditional Industries
Major technological transformation and large-scale equipment renewal projects in manufacturing will be implemented. Industrial internet innovation will be accelerated, and the deep integration of the digital and real economies will be promoted, advancing intelligent, green, and integrated manufacturing. Research on seed industry and agricultural machinery will be strengthened, and agricultural technology application will be accelerated. A full-industry-chain technology service system will be built. The "AI+" action will be fully implemented to empower all industries with artificial intelligence.
8. Enhancing Enterprise Innovation Capacity
Enterprises will have regular channels to participate in national science and technology and industrial development strategies, plans, and policies. The National Natural Science Foundation will pilot opening to private enterprises, and enterprise innovation development joint funds will be expanded. State-owned enterprises are encouraged to establish R&D reserve funds with independent accounting, exempt from value-preservation assessments, and with error tolerance. Tech SMEs are encouraged to increase R&D investment, and the R&D expense super-deduction ratio will be raised. Enterprises are supported to lead the construction of science and technology innovation platforms. National major science and technology infrastructure, large research instruments, and national science data centers will be opened to enterprises. Science and technology talent programs will give more support to enterprises, and enterprise postdoctoral workstations will be strengthened.
9. Cultivating Technology Enterprises
The cultivation mechanism for leading technology enterprises will be optimized. High-tech enterprises will be supported. Cultivation mechanisms for tech SMEs, specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises, and manufacturing single-champion enterprises will be improved. Tech startups will be fostered, with improved incubation and investment services. Collaborative innovation among large, medium, and small enterprises and along supply chains will be deepened. Large enterprises will be guided to open R&D platforms, application scenarios, and supply chains to SMEs, and to pilot innovative products from SMEs.
10. Strengthening Collaboration Among Innovation Actors
Leading technology enterprises are supported to play a chain-leader role in innovation and industrial chains, and to lead the formation of innovation consortia. National laboratories, national research institutes, and high-level research universities will strengthen cooperation with leading technology enterprises, distilling scientific questions from industrial needs and strengthening strategic and forward-looking technology research. Enterprises are encouraged to participate in university and research institute activities and talent training. Enterprises are supported to jointly build R&D institutions and fund research projects with other innovation actors.
11. Promoting Virtuous Cycle of Technology, Industry, and Finance
A tech finance system will be built to meet the financing needs of tech enterprises throughout their life cycle. The role of the national venture capital guidance fund will be leveraged. Government-funded and state-owned venture capital funds will focus on early-stage, small, long-term, and hard-tech investments, with improved long-cycle assessment, differentiated regulation, and exit mechanisms. The "innovation points system" will be promoted to quantitatively assess the innovation capacity of tech SMEs. A "tech board" in the bond market will be developed. A tech insurance policy system will be established.
12. Strengthening Talent Cultivation and Use
Education will be coordinated around technological innovation, industrial development, and national strategic needs. The mechanism for adjusting academic disciplines will involve multiple parties. University-enterprise joint programs, work-study alternation, and "dual mentor" systems will be promoted. Policies for researchers to take temporary posts, part-time jobs, and leave to start businesses will be improved, and models like science and technology special commissioners will be promoted. Universities and research institutes are supported to hire enterprise innovators as industry mentors and professors. Young科技 talents are supported in innovation and entrepreneurship, and technology entrepreneurs will be cultivated.
13. Building Integrated Innovation Platforms
National emerging industry innovation centers, national industrial technology engineering centers, national technology innovation centers, and national manufacturing innovation centers will be coordinated. Concept verification centers and pilot testing platforms will be built to serve industrialization. Transformed research institutes are supported to build industrial technology research institutes and other common technology platforms. Local governments are supported to develop new R&D institutions in a regulated manner, focusing on industrial common technology R&D and application.
14. Improving the Market Environment for Innovation
Institutional barriers to innovative products entering the market will be removed. Pilot programs for relaxed market access will be launched in new business forms and fields, exploring a commitment-based entry system. Supervision of new technology applications will be strengthened, and "sandbox regulation" will be explored. Laws and regulations in frontier fields like AI and biotechnology will be improved, and science ethics rules will be perfected.
15. Strengthening IP Protection, Utilization, and Standards
Protection of trade secrets and IP in new business forms will be enhanced. Benefit-sharing and risk-sharing mechanisms will be improved in industry-university-research cooperation and technology transfer. The patent open licensing system will be fully implemented. Patent layout for major national science and technology projects will be strengthened. Standard layout for such projects will be strengthened, with standard research tasks and assessment targets. National and international standards in frontier fields will be developed, and pre-standard research will be conducted. Enterprise and group standards will be improved.
16. Improving Innovation Incentives and Evaluation Policies
A full-chain policy system for innovation activities will be improved, and tax incentives for technological innovation will be implemented. Due diligence exemption mechanisms for technology transfer and venture capital will be improved, and a negative list will be explored. The classified assessment system for state-owned enterprises will be improved, and the proportion of joint R&D expenses with universities and research institutes treated as profits will be increased. The effectiveness of industry-university-research cooperation and technology transfer will be important in evaluating research universities, institutes, and researchers.
17. Supporting Local Pilot Programs
Macro guidance for local technology and industrial layouts will be strengthened, guiding localities to build on their advantages. Central-local coordination will be enhanced, with mechanisms for shared investment and joint implementation of major tasks. The regional innovation system will be improved, and cross-regional collaborative innovation will be strengthened. Various science and technology innovation and industrial innovation functional zones will be developed. National high-tech zones and national independent innovation demonstration zones will pilot policies. International and regional science and technology innovation centers and qualified localities will carry out pilot reforms for deep integration. An action to stimulate industrial innovation vitality will be implemented, and innovative cities will be built.
What This Means for Foreign Founders
For foreign founders, this policy signals several opportunities:
- Increased access to national R&D programs: The policy opens National Natural Science Foundation projects to private enterprises and encourages enterprise participation in national projects. Foreign-invested enterprises may also benefit if they qualify.
- Stronger IP and technology transfer environment: Reforms in IP protection, patent open licensing, and technology transfer mechanisms can facilitate bringing technology into China or commercializing it.
- Support for tech startups and SMEs: Measures to cultivate tech enterprises, improve financing, and open supply chains can benefit foreign-founded startups.
- Focus on future industries: Sectors like AI, biotech, new energy, and quantum technology are prioritized, offering opportunities for foreign expertise.
- Improved business environment: Market access pilots and sandbox regulation may reduce barriers for innovative products.
Foreign founders should monitor local implementation, as many measures are piloted locally. Engaging with local authorities and industry associations can help identify specific opportunities.
Call to Action: Foreign founders can contact ChinaMNC on WhatsApp / WeChat at +86 153 1898 8535 for help registering and operating a company in China.
This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.