China: A Strong Innovator

In 1023, the world’s first paper currency, jiaozi, was born in China. About a millennium after that, China launched the world’s first sovereign digital currency. Compared with mobile payment, digital currency is more like an electronic wallet that can make transactions even without the internet.

In addition to the virtual currency, China has produced many tangible results attracting global attention: China’s Tianwen-1 probe successfully entered the orbit around Mars; The Chang’e-5 probe brought back nearly two kilograms of lunar samples; China’s manned submersible Fendouzhe, or Striver, set a national diving record of 10,909 meters; The quantum computing prototype “Nine Chapters” realized “quantum superiority.” The list goes on and on.

China is a country that dares to think big and do great things. How far will China’s innovation go?

Adhering to the idea that “science and technology are a primary productive force,” China has attached great importance to innovation, taking innovation as the primary driving force of development. The country will intensify its national strategic strength in science and technology according to the proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). In the following five years, China will improve a new nationwide system of key core technologies under the socialist market economy, focus on basic research and original innovation, boost the development of new technologies in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, life and health, brain science, aerospace technology, and deep-sea exploration. It will promote the optimal allocation and sharing of sci-tech resources among institutes, universities, and enterprises engaged in scientific research, construct national laboratories, plan and build comprehensive national science centers and regional innovation hubs, and create a high-end national platform for sharing scientific research papers and sci-tech information.

China has never stopped innovating and will explore broader and deeper areas in the future. It will work with other countries to advance scientific and technological innovation, share achievements in innovation, and continue to make new contributions to global development and human progress.