Bolstering High-Tech Development:
China’s “Supply” and “Demand” Solutions†
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The sudden emergence of DeepSeek has awakened the world to China’s high-tech capabilities. In the coming years, the country is expected to continue strengthening its efforts to increase such capabilities and nurture the development of its high-tech industries. To this end, China needs to ensure, among other things, a continuous supply of high-tech talent and a strong demand for high-tech products from its population, which includes segments with limited digital and scientific literacy that may have the opposite effect, i.e., weakening such demand. To address these needs, China recently introduced certain measures.
The Supply of High-Tech Talent
In mid-January, the Chinese leadership issued the Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Nation through Education (2024-2035), which sets forth goals to achieve the establishment of a high-quality education system by 2035. Specifically, the country’s “foundational education” should then be ranked among the best in the world, in terms of its quality and accessibility in society. In addition, by 2035, China seeks to transform into a “learning-oriented society”, where the country’s “national strategic capabilities” are better supported by education.
The outline also sets forth interim goals, which are to be accomplished by 2027. These goals include: an overall increase in the quality of China’s own training of talented people, the continuous identification of “outstanding innovative talented people”, and bringing education planning “more in line with the needs of high-quality economic, social, and population development”.
Among nearly 40 tasks identified in the outline, the Chinese leadership emphasizes the need to “promote the growth and development of young scientific and technological talents” and to “enhance the overall efficiency of the national innovation system” by, for example, strengthening related coordination so that talented people can quickly contribute to the construction of international science and technology innovation centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In addition, the establishment of international STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education research institutes and the development of related academic alliances are strongly encouraged.
“These plans illuminate the importance of the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (“ICCM”) to China and the high-level support that it has recently received from the government in Shanghai.”
These plans illuminate the importance of the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (“ICCM”) to China and the high-level support that it has recently received from the government in Shanghai. Founded in the late 1990s by Professor Shing-Tung Yau—formerly, the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, and currently, the Director of the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University, the ICCM has trained many Chinese mathematicians, who have made significant contributions in academia and enterprises.
The ICCM recently held in Shanghai its annual conference titled “New Frontiers: Mathematics for Transforming Science and Humanity”, at which more than 400 top mathematicians, including Fields Medal winners Andrei Okounkov and Caucher Birkar, as well as young scholars shared their latest research. Seeing the ICCM’s ability to bring outstanding talents to Shanghai and help increase the municipality’s capabilities in scientific and technological innovation, the leaders in Shanghai have announced that the municipality will host all ICCM conferences in the future.
The success of the ICCM will likely inspire China to form more alliances of this type to ensure that the country has a continuous supply of talented people in other high-tech disciplines.
The Demand for High-Tech Products
“The development of high-tech industries will be hindered if their potential customers show resistance to their products. Such resistance typically arises from inadequate digital and scientific literacy.”
The development of high-tech industries will be hindered if their potential customers show resistance to their products. Such resistance typically arises from inadequate digital and scientific literacy.
According to an official study, more than 60 percent of China’s population have primary or higher levels of digital literacy and skills, suggesting that nearly 40 percent of Chinese citizens lack the ability to use digital products in their daily lives or work. Another study in 2023 shows that less than 15 percent of China’s population can be said to have scientific literacy. Such low level of scientific literacy prompted the Chinese leadership to issue an action plan covering the period ending in 2035 to promote “scientific spirit” in Chinese society.
Recently, China’s national legislature took another step to extensively amend the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Popularization of Science and Technology to step up the country’s efforts to “improve the scientific and cultural quality of citizens”, among other goals. The law emphasizes that “the popularization of science and technology is an important part of the national innovation system” because this fundamental work supports the country’s goal to achieve innovative development.
The amendment introduced two important initiatives. First, September of every year is now designated as the “National Science and Technology Popularization Month”, during which state organs, social groups, enterprises, and other entities are expected to conduct a wide range of activities to popularize science and technology. Second, in light of the country’s low scientific literacy, especially among its older citizens—whose numbers will continue to increase as China’s population is aging quite rapidly (see China’s Health Care and Foreign Investment)—universities for the elderly in China are now required to popularize such scientific and technological knowledge and skills that are most relevant to older citizens.
If all of the above-mentioned measures are implemented well, China will be able to have a steady supply of high-tech talent and a strong demand for high-tech products, both of which are essential elements to ensure the success of the country’s high-tech industries. The impact could be significant, and China’s experience will be observed closely as the country’s success could provide useful lessons for other countries facing similar challenges.
- The citation of this article is: The Editorial Board of SINOTALKS®, Bolstering High-Tech Development: China’s “Supply” and “Demand” Solutions, SINOTALKS.COM®, SinoExpress™, Feb. 12, 2025, https://sinotalks.com/sinoexpress/202502-english-high-tech-industries. ↩︎
