Politburo gets marching orders for building “future industries”
Beijing is playing a long game on tech – and the rules are quietly changing.
On January 30, Xi Jinping chaired a Politburo session dedicated to securing technological breakthroughs for "future industries."
- For those counting, the current Politburo has devoted roughly a quarter of study sessions to discussing tech, up from around 15% between 2018 and 2023.
Some context: "Future industries" refers to the nascent, high-stakes industries Beijing believes will underpin the next phase of global industrial and technological competition.
- Focus areas include strategic, high-risk frontiers, such as nuclear fusion and fault-tolerant quantum computing, alongside technologies already transitioning from the lab to industry, such as embodied AI and biomanufacturing.
More context: By nurturing these sectors now, Beijing aims to gain the strategic high ground to challenge, and potentially upend, Western technological leadership – and dictate the terms of the next global industrial cycle.
Xi highlighted four near-term "future industry" priorities:
- Strengthen foresight and strategic planning for future technological and industrial trends
- Pursue region-specific strategies based on local industrial and technological capabilities
- Ensure future industries develop in coordination with emerging and traditional sectors
- Apply a “problem-driven” model in which industrial demand shapes China’s R&D agenda
He also flagged “sustained policy backing” to de-risk long-cycle, high-risk technologies, with "government focused on facilitation and service provision."
Get smart: That "facilitation" point is key.
- Beijing is sloughing off the Made in China 2025 approach of picking winners, and instead will prioritize the building of shared infrastructure and industrial ecosystems in key areas – meaning policy support will increasingly flow through platforms rather than individual firms.
Get smarter: That’s a subtle shift, and an easy one to miss if you’re still looking for headline subsidies.