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China’s New Push to Integrate Tech and Industry: What Foreign Founders Need to Know
A practical guide for foreign entrepreneurs on China’s latest policy to deepen the integration of technological and industrial innovation, highlighting opportunities in priority sectors, enterprise-led R&D, and market access reforms.
China’s New Push to Integrate Tech and Industry: What Foreign Founders Need to Know
The General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have issued a new set of opinions aimed at deeply integrating technological innovation with industrial innovation. For foreign founders registering or operating a company in China, this policy signals clearer priorities and new opportunities across key sectors. Below is a practical summary of the measures most relevant to business planning and operations.
Overarching Goals and Principles
The policy sets the goal of developing “new quality productive forces” and building a modern industrial system. It emphasizes an innovation system led by enterprises and coordinated among various actors—industry, academia, research, and finance—to create a new pattern where technological and industrial innovation reinforce each other. The guiding principles include:
- Accurately grasping new trends in the technological and industrial revolution, and strengthening systematic planning and integrated advancement.
- Balancing scientific and technological supply with demand pull, deploying innovation chains around industrial chains and laying out industrial chains around innovation chains.
- Strengthening the principal role of enterprises in innovation, improving market mechanisms that incentivize innovation, and channeling innovation resources toward enterprises.
- Using reform to stimulate innovation vitality and resolutely removing ideological and institutional obstacles that hinder deep integration.
Key Measures Relevant to Foreign-Founded Enterprises
1. Enterprise-Led Innovation and Project Organization
The policy calls for reforming how tasks are organized. National science and technology projects will be more oriented toward industrial application, with regular collection of enterprise demands. Expert panels for project guidance, evaluation, and acceptance will include more experts from enterprises and venture capital institutions. Enterprises will be encouraged to lead projects, with mechanisms such as “open calls for bids” (揭榜挂帅), “owner responsibility system,” milestone management, and phased funding. Project acceptance will assess both technology application and market performance.
2. Strengthened Role of Enterprises in Innovation
Enterprises will have more opportunities 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, exemption from value-preservation assessments, and error tolerance. Technology-based SMEs are encouraged to increase R&D investment, with a higher super-deduction ratio for R&D expenses. Enterprises are supported in building science and technology innovation platforms, and national major science infrastructure, large research instruments, and national science data centers will be more open to enterprises. Science and technology talent programs will increase support for enterprises, and enterprise post-doctoral stations will be strengthened.
3. Cultivating Technology Enterprises
The policy aims to optimize the cultivation of leading technology enterprises, support high-tech enterprises, and improve mechanisms for technology-based SMEs, “little giant” enterprises specializing in niche sectors, and manufacturing single-champion enterprises. It also accelerates the cultivation of technology startups with improved incubation and financing services. Large enterprises are guided to open R&D platforms, application scenarios, and supply chains to SMEs, and to pilot first use of innovative products from SMEs.
4. Collaborative Innovation Among 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, research institutes, and high-level research universities will strengthen cooperation with leading enterprises, distilling scientific questions from industrial needs and reinforcing strategic, forward-looking technology research. Enterprises are encouraged to participate in university and research institute activities and talent training, and to jointly build R&D institutions and projects with other innovation actors.
5. Financial Support and Talent Development
A science and technology finance system will be built to match the full lifecycle financing needs of technology enterprises. The national venture capital guidance fund will play a role, and government-funded and state-owned venture capital funds will focus on early-stage, small, long-term, and hard-tech investments, with improved long-term assessment, differentiated regulation, and exit mechanisms. The “innovation points system” will be promoted to quantitatively assess SME innovation capacity. A high-quality “science and technology board” in the bond market will be built, and a science and technology insurance policy system established.
On talent, the policy calls for collaborative education aligned with innovation, industrial development, and national strategic needs. Mechanisms for adjusting academic disciplines with participation from science, technology, and industry departments will be improved. University-enterprise joint programs, work-study alternation, and “dual tutor” systems will be promoted. Policies for researchers to take temporary posts, part-time work, and leave to start businesses will be improved, and models such as science and technology commissioners will be promoted. Enterprises are encouraged to hire innovative talents as industry mentors and professors. Young scientists and engineers are supported in innovation and entrepreneurship, and technology entrepreneurs will be vigorously cultivated.
6. Platform Building and Market Environment
The policy plans to coordinate the layout of national emerging industry innovation centers, national industrial technology engineering centers, national technology innovation centers, and national manufacturing innovation centers to strengthen key common technology supply. Concept validation centers and pilot testing platforms will be built to serve industrialization of new technologies and products. Local governments are supported in developing new R&D institutions in a standardized way.
To improve the market environment, unreasonable institutional barriers to innovative products entering the market will be removed. Pilot programs for relaxed market access in new business forms and fields will be carried out, exploring a “commitment-based entry” system. Regulation of new technology applications will be strengthened, and “sandbox regulation” will be explored. Laws and regulations in frontier fields such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology will be improved, along with science and technology ethics rules.
7. Intellectual Property and Standards
Protection of trade secrets and intellectual property in new business forms will be strengthened, and mechanisms for sharing benefits and risks in industry-academia-research cooperation and technology transfer will be improved. The patent open licensing system will be fully implemented. Patent layouts for major national science and technology projects will be strengthened, and standardization research tasks and assessment targets will be coordinated. National and international standards development in frontier fields will be comprehensively strengthened, and pre-standard research will be promoted. Enterprise standards and association standards will be improved.
8. Incentive and Evaluation Policies
The policy calls for improving the full-chain policy system for innovation activities and implementing tax incentives for science and technology innovation. Due diligence exemption mechanisms for technology transfer and venture capital will be improved, and a negative list will be explored. The classified assessment and evaluation system for state-owned enterprises will be improved, increasing the proportion of joint R&D expenses with universities and research institutes that can be treated as profit. The effectiveness of industry-academia-research cooperation and technology transfer will be important in evaluations of high-level research universities, research institutes, and researchers.
9. Local Pilot Programs
Local governments are supported in carrying out pioneering pilot programs for deep integration. Macro guidance for local science and technology and industrial layouts will be strengthened, guiding localities to build on their comparative advantages. Central-local coordination will be enhanced, with mechanisms for sharing science and technology investment and jointly implementing major tasks. The regional innovation system will be improved, and cross-regional collaborative innovation strengthened. Various science and technology innovation and industrial innovation functional zones will be developed in a coordinated manner, and national high-tech industrial development zones and national independent innovation demonstration zones will be encouraged to pilot policies. International science and technology innovation centers, regional science and technology innovation centers, and qualified localities will carry out reform pilots for deep integration, implement special actions to stimulate industrial innovation vitality, build vibrant innovative cities, and create sources of original innovation.
Practical Implications for Foreign Founders
For foreign founders, this policy reinforces several practical points:
- Priority sectors: The policy explicitly mentions integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, high-end instruments, advanced materials, biomanufacturing, new energy, new materials, aerospace, low-altitude economy, quantum technology, hydrogen and nuclear fusion, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and 6G. These areas are likely to see concentrated support and resources.
- Enterprise participation: Foreign-invested enterprises may find more opportunities to participate in national science and technology projects, especially if they are technology-based and can demonstrate industrial application potential. The policy encourages enterprises to lead projects and participate in standard-setting and policy-making.
- Access to funding and talent: Measures to expand venture capital, bond market financing, and science and technology insurance could benefit foreign-founded startups. Talent policies, including support for young scientists and technology entrepreneurs, may ease hiring and collaboration with universities.
- Market access and regulation: Pilot programs for relaxed market access and sandbox regulation could offer testing grounds for new technologies and business models, though foreign founders should monitor local implementation.
- IP and standards: Strengthened IP protection and standard-setting in frontier fields may create a more predictable environment, but also require attention to compliance and participation in standard development.
Foreign founders should note that this is a high-level policy document; specific implementation rules and local pilots will determine how measures apply in practice. Keeping abreast of local government announcements and industry-specific guidelines will be important.
This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.
For assistance with company registration and operations in China, foreign founders can contact ChinaMNC on WhatsApp / WeChat at +86 153 1898 8535.