Published by ChinaMNC · Yinchuan

China's New Push to Integrate Tech and Industry: What Foreign Founders Need to Know

A government opinion outlines measures to merge scientific innovation with industrial application, affecting corporate innovation, technology transfer, financing, and market access. Here are the key takeaways for foreign founders operating in China.

Overview

The General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued an opinion on advancing the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation. The document sets out guiding principles and specific measures to build an innovation system led by enterprises and coordinated across stakeholders, with the goal of strengthening the chain from scientific research to industrial application. For foreign founders registering or operating a company in China, the opinion signals policy priorities that can shape access to funding, talent, technology transfer, and market opportunities.

Key Principles

The opinion emphasizes several working principles:

• Systematic planning: Better coordination of science and technology (S&T) supply and demand, aligning innovation chains with industrial chains.
• Enterprise leadership: Strengthening the role of enterprises as innovation actors and improving market mechanisms that incentivize innovation.
• Reform-driven: Removing institutional barriers that hinder deep integration of technological and industrial innovation.

Practical Measures for Businesses

1. Innovation Coordination and Task Organization

China will improve coordination of major policies, projects, and programs in key frontier fields. National S&T projects will increasingly be oriented toward industrial application, with more experts from enterprises and venture capital participating in guideline drafting, project review, and acceptance. Enterprise-led projects will be supported through mechanisms such as "open competition" and "owner responsibility" systems, milestone management, and phased funding. Acceptance will assess both technological and industrialization goals.

2. Technology Transfer and Commercialization

For national S&T 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 licensing, assignment, or equity investment to accelerate application. Reforms will grant researchers more rights over job-related scientific 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 and professional technology transfer institutions will be developed.

3. Scenario-Driven Innovation

A demonstration action for new technologies, products, and scenarios will be implemented, with local governments encouraged to open application scenarios in government services, smart cities, and rural construction. This creates opportunities for companies with innovative solutions to pilot and showcase their products.

4. Key Technology Breakthroughs and Industrial Chains

Breakthroughs are targeted in integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, high-end instruments, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing. Industrial base reconstruction and major equipment programs will focus on weak links, including basic components, software, materials, and processes. Foreign founders in these sectors may find aligned funding and support.

5. Emerging and Future Industries

The opinion calls for developing strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, and aerospace, and building distinctive industrial clusters. It also highlights future industries including quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and 6G. Support will include exploring diverse technical routes, application scenarios, and business models to commercialize frontier technologies.

6. Traditional Industry Upgrading

Major technological transformation and large-scale equipment renewal programs will accelerate industrial internet innovation and the integration of digital and real economies. Agriculture, seed industry, and agricultural machinery research will be strengthened. The "AI+" initiative will promote AI application across industries.

7. Enhancing Enterprise Innovation Capacity

Enterprises will have more opportunities to participate in national S&T and industrial development strategy and policy making. The National Natural Science Foundation will pilot opening to private enterprises, and joint funds for enterprise innovation will expand. State-owned enterprises are encouraged to establish R&D reserve funds with separate accounting, exemption from value-preservation assessments, and error tolerance. Increased R&D expense deduction ratios for tech SMEs are mentioned. Enterprises are supported to build innovation platforms, and national major science infrastructure and large research instruments will be more open to enterprises. Talent programs will increase support for enterprises, including postdoctoral workstations.

8. Cultivating Technology Enterprises

Mechanisms will be optimized to nurture leading technology enterprises, high-tech enterprises, specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises, and manufacturing single-champion enterprises. Startup incubation and investment services will be improved. Large enterprises are encouraged to open R&D platforms, application scenarios, and supply chains to SMEs, and to pilot innovative SME products.

9. Collaboration Among Innovation Actors

Leading technology enterprises are supported to act as chain leaders and form innovation consortia. National laboratories, research institutes, and universities will strengthen cooperation with leading enterprises, focusing on scientific questions derived from industrial needs. Enterprises can participate in university research and talent training and jointly build R&D institutions.

10. Finance for Innovation

A science and technology finance system will be built to meet financing needs across enterprise life cycles. The national venture capital guidance fund will play a role. Government-guided and state-owned venture capital funds will emphasize early-stage, small, long-term, and hard-tech investments, with long-cycle assessment and differentiated regulation. The "innovation points system" will be promoted to quantitatively assess SME innovation capacity. A "sci-tech board" in the bond market will be developed, and a science and technology insurance policy system established.

11. Talent Development

Education will be aligned with S&T and industrial needs, with enterprises participating in discipline adjustment. Joint university-enterprise programs, alternating work-study, and dual-mentor systems will be promoted. Policies will support researchers taking temporary posts, part-time roles, and leaving posts to start businesses. Enterprises can hire innovation talent as industry mentors and professors. Young scientists and technopreneurs will be supported.

12. Innovation Platforms

National emerging industry innovation centers, industrial technology engineering centers, technology innovation centers, and manufacturing innovation centers will be coordinated. Concept validation centers and pilot testing platforms will be built. Local new R&D institutions will be supported to develop common technology.

13. Market Environment and Regulation

Unreasonable barriers to innovative products will be removed, with market access pilot programs in new business forms and fields, including commitment-based entry. New technology application regulation will explore "sandbox" approaches. Laws and regulations for frontier fields such as AI and biotechnology will be improved, along with science ethics rules.

14. Intellectual Property and Standards

IP protection for trade secrets and new fields will be strengthened, with benefit-sharing and risk-sharing mechanisms in industry-university-research cooperation. The patent open licensing system will be fully implemented. Patent and standard layouts for major national S&T projects will be strengthened. National and international standards in frontier fields will be developed.

15. Incentives and Evaluation

Tax incentives for S&T innovation will be implemented. Due diligence exemption mechanisms for technology transfer and venture capital will be improved, with negative lists explored. State-owned enterprise assessment will be refined, increasing the proportion of joint R&D expenses with universities and institutes treated as profit. Industry-university-research cooperation and commercialization results will be key in evaluating universities, institutes, and researchers.

16. Local Pilots

Local governments will receive macro guidance to leverage their advantages. Central-local coordination will be strengthened, with shared S&T investment and joint implementation of major tasks. Various innovation function zones, including national high-tech zones and independent innovation demonstration zones, will pilot policies. International and regional S&T innovation centers and qualified localities will carry out reform pilots for deep integration, implement actions to stimulate industrial innovation, and build innovative cities.

Implications for Foreign Founders

Foreign founders should note that the policy environment is increasingly oriented toward enterprise-led innovation, with more opportunities for companies to participate in national projects, access funding, and collaborate with universities and research institutes. Sectors such as integrated circuits, biomanufacturing, AI, and future industries are highlighted. However, specific implementation details will depend on subsequent regulations and local measures. Staying informed and engaging with local authorities and industry associations can help navigate these evolving policies.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.