BEIJING - China will
intensify its development of high technologies
with strategic significance over the next 15
years, Lu Yongxiang, President of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences said January 10.
"[During] the next 15 years, China will
break the international monopoly on strategic high
technology to ensure national security, and China
will also probe and innovate in key international
cutting-edge technology," he stated. Lu made the
remarks at China's Fourth
National Conference on Science and Technology, the
first national conference on science and
technology in the new century held by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China and the
State Council.
Since 2003, China has
organized experts to develop the state's medium-
and long-term development plan for science and
technology. Lu acted as the head of the panel in
charge of strategic high technology development
and industrialization.
Lu explained that
strategic high technology is defined as technology
with key strategic significance, stressing that
such technology reflects the state's innovative
capabilities and is also the commanding point for
the competition in international science success
and ultimately, economic standing.
According to the medium- and long-term
plan, China will use information technology to
spur its industrialization; foster a new growth
point in the areas of sustainable development
including strategic energy and high-technology
areas such as biotechnology; and speed up the
development of innovative capabilities in areas
involving national security, like aerospace and
lasers.
"We'll choose some strategic high
technology areas [in] which [we] have [a]
comparative advantage and make breakthroughs in
these areas," he said, listing areas like
information technology, biology, key materials,
aerospace, nuclear, nanoscience and strategic
energy.
In 1986, China launched a key
national high technology research and development
program known as Program 863. Since China's reform
and opening-up policies were implemented, a series
of policies encouraging the industrialization of
high technology have encouraged the development of
high-technology enterprises.
However, Lu
pointed out China still relies on imported
technology in this area due to a lack of
innovative capabilities in strategic high
technology. "Effective state investment in this
area is far from enough and [a] state innovative
system adapting to [a] market economy has not been
established," he stressed. In the next 15 years,
China will establish a monitoring system for
international technology development, step up
research and the industrialization of strategic
high technology, and raise more funds for it from
either the state or private enterprises, he said.
