Published by ChinaMNC · Anding
China’s New Push to Integrate Tech and Industry: What Foreign Founders Need to Know
A practical guide for foreign founders on China’s latest policy to deepen the integration of technological and industrial innovation, covering enterprise-led R&D, financing, talent, and market access.
China’s New Push to Integrate Tech and Industry: What Foreign Founders Need to Know
The Chinese government has issued a new set of policy opinions aimed at deepening the integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation. For foreign founders registering or operating a company in China, these measures signal priorities and mechanisms that can shape R&D partnerships, financing, and market access. Below is a summary of the key points from the official document, framed for practical use.
Overall Direction
The policy is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 20th Party Congress and recent plenary sessions. Its goal is to develop new quality productive forces and build a modern industrial system. The focus is on creating a collaborative innovation system where enterprises play a leading role and various actors—industry, academia, and research—work together. The policy seeks to connect the entire chain, cover all fields, integrate all elements, and provide comprehensive support, ultimately forming a new pattern where technological and industrial innovation reinforce each other.
Guiding Principles
In implementation, the policy emphasizes: accurately grasping new trends in technological and industrial transformation; coordinating technology supply with demand; strengthening the principal role of enterprises in innovation; and using reform to unleash innovation vitality by removing ideological and institutional barriers.
Key Measures
1. Improving Innovation Coordination
The policy calls for leveraging the new nationwide system to coordinate strategic planning, major tasks, and policies across technology and industry. It requires aligning policies on technology, industry, finance, education, and talent. Monitoring and evaluation of integration will be conducted for localities and industries, with emphasis on how technological innovation leads industrial development.
2. Reforming Task Organization
National science and technology programs will be more oriented toward industrial application. Enterprise demands will be regularly collected, and experts from enterprises and venture capital institutions will be added to guideline drafting, project review, and acceptance. Enterprise-led projects will be supported through mechanisms like "open competition" and "milestone" management with phased funding. Project acceptance will assess both technology and market performance.
3. Smoothing Technology Transfer
For national science and technology projects with clear industrial application goals, enterprises will generally lead implementation and commercialization. Universities and research institutes are encouraged to set up technology transfer offices and use mechanisms such as licensing and equity investment. Reforms will grant researchers more rights over their scientific achievements and allow deferred payment for licensing to SMEs. A unified national technology market will be developed, along with professional technology transfer institutions and technology managers.
4. Strengthening Scenario-Driven Innovation
A demonstration action for new technologies, products, and scenarios will be implemented. Localities are supported to open application scenarios in government services, smart cities, and rural construction, and to share demand and supply information.
5. Achieving Breakthroughs in Core Technologies
Decisive breakthroughs are sought in key core technologies in integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, high-end instruments, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing. Industrial base reconstruction and major equipment projects will be deepened, focusing on weak links, basic components, software, materials, and processes.
6. Cultivating Emerging and Future Industries
The policy promotes original and disruptive innovation to foster strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, and aerospace, and to develop future industries in quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and 6G. It supports exploring diverse technical routes and viable business models.
7. Upgrading Traditional Industries
Traditional industries will be transformed with advanced technologies, including major manufacturing upgrades, large-scale equipment renewal, industrial internet development, and the "AI+" action to empower all sectors. Agricultural science and technology will also be strengthened.
8. Enhancing Enterprise Innovation Capacity
Enterprises will have regular channels to participate in national science and technology strategies and policies. The National Natural Science Foundation will pilot opening to private enterprises, and enterprise innovation joint funds will expand. State-owned enterprises are encouraged to establish R&D reserve funds with independent accounting and fault tolerance. Tax incentives like additional deduction for R&D expenses will be increased for tech SMEs. Enterprises are supported to build innovation platforms, and national facilities will be opened to them. Talent programs will give more support to enterprises, and postdoctoral stations will be strengthened.
9. Cultivating Tech Enterprises
The policy aims to optimize support for leading tech enterprises, high-tech enterprises, tech SMEs, "little giant" enterprises, and manufacturing champions. It encourages large enterprises to open R&D platforms, application scenarios, and supply chains to SMEs and to pilot their innovative products.
10. Promoting Collaboration Among Innovators
Leading tech enterprises are encouraged to act as chain leaders and form innovation consortia. National laboratories, research institutes, and universities should collaborate with enterprises, drawing scientific questions from industrial needs. Enterprises can participate in academic research and talent training and jointly build R&D institutions.
11. Fostering a Virtuous Cycle of Technology, Industry, and Finance
A science finance system will be built to meet the financing needs of tech enterprises throughout their lifecycle. The national venture capital guidance fund will play a role. Government-guided and state-owned venture capital funds will focus on early-stage, small, long-term, and hard-tech investments, with long-cycle assessment and differentiated regulation. The "innovation points system" will be promoted, a bond market "tech board" will be developed, and a tech insurance policy system will be established.
12. Talent Training and Use
Education will be aligned with technological and industrial needs, with enterprises participating in curriculum adjustments. Joint university-enterprise programs, alternating work-study, and dual mentorship will be promoted. Policies will support researchers to take temporary posts, part-time roles, or leave to start businesses. Enterprises can hire innovation talent as industry mentors and professors. Young scientists and tech entrepreneurs will be supported.
13. Building Integrated Innovation Platforms
National centers for emerging industry innovation, industrial technology engineering, technology innovation, and manufacturing innovation will be coordinated. Proof-of-concept centers and pilot testing platforms will be built. Localities can develop new R&D institutions.
14. Improving the Market Environment for Innovation
Unreasonable barriers to innovative products will be removed, and market access pilots will be conducted in new business forms, including commitment-based entry. New technology application regulation will be strengthened, with "sandbox" regulation explored. Laws and regulations in frontier fields like AI and biotechnology will be improved, along with ethical norms.
15. Intellectual Property and Standards
IP protection will be strengthened, including trade secrets and new business forms. Benefit-sharing and risk-sharing mechanisms will be improved in industry-academia-research cooperation. The patent open licensing system will be fully implemented. Patent and standard layouts for major national projects will be strengthened, and research on national and international standards in frontier fields will be enhanced.
16. Incentives and Evaluation
A full-chain policy system will be improved, with tax incentives for innovation implemented. Fault tolerance and exemption mechanisms for technology transfer and venture capital will be established, with negative lists explored. State-owned enterprise evaluation will be improved, and joint R&D expenses with universities and institutes will be treated more favorably. Industry-academia-research cooperation and commercialization results will be key in evaluating universities and researchers.
17. Local Pilot Programs
Localities are encouraged to pilot deep integration based on their strengths. Central-local coordination will be strengthened, with shared investment and joint implementation of major tasks. Various innovation functional zones will be developed, and national high-tech zones and independent innovation demonstration zones will pilot policies. International and regional science and technology innovation centers and qualified localities will carry out reform pilots for deep integration.
What This Means for Foreign Founders
For foreign founders, these measures indicate that China is prioritizing enterprise-led innovation and technology commercialization. If you are registering a company in China, you may find more opportunities to participate in national R&D programs, access tax incentives, and collaborate with universities and research institutes. The policy also emphasizes improving financing for tech enterprises and opening national facilities to enterprises. However, specific implementation will depend on local regulations and your business sector.
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.