Translated by Claude, edited by Sinocism.com

How Future Industries Will Shape the Future of Industrial Development

未来产业何以塑造产业发展未来

Source: Qiushi | Author: Qiushi Editorial Board | 2026-05-31

From brain-computer interface technology that allows mechanical arms to be controlled by thought, to humanoid robots running marathons on city streets; from biopharmaceutical factories that "grow" life-saving human serum albumin from rice, to the "artificial sun" that keeps breaking operational records — scenes that once existed only in laboratories and science fiction films are now stepping into reality one by one. What they share is that they all belong to future industries — industries driven by frontier technologies, currently in their nascent or early industrialization stage, and possessing significant forward-looking, strategic, and disruptive characteristics. Today, as a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation accelerates, future industries have become a critical variable shaping the global economic landscape and competitive dynamics, and constitute a strategic field that we must contest.

从用意念操控机械臂的脑机接口技术，到街头跑马拉松的人形机器人，从用稻米"种"出救命人血白蛋白的生物制药工厂，到不断刷新运行纪录的"人造太阳"……这些一度只存在于实验室、科幻片中的场景，如今正一步步走进现实。它们的一个共同点，就是都属于由前沿技术驱动，当前处于孕育萌发阶段或产业化初期，具有显著前瞻性、战略性、颠覆性的未来产业。在新一轮科技革命和产业变革加速演进的今天，未来产业已成为决定全球经济版图和竞争格局的关键变量，是我们的战略必争领域。

In recent years, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made a series of major decisions and arrangements, driving the development of China's future industries to show strong momentum. China's overall competitiveness in this area has entered the first tier globally, with more and more fields reaching "running alongside" or even "leading" status. On January 30, 2026, the first collective study session of the Politburo in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan focused on the theme of future industries, once again demonstrating the Party Central Committee's high level of attention to the development of future industries. The article "Forward-Looking Layout and Development of Future Industries" is the speech General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered at this collective study session. In this important speech, the General Secretary profoundly expounded the major significance of future industries and made systematic arrangements for the forward-looking layout and development of future industries — guidance that is highly directive and targeted. We must study and deeply grasp this important speech, focus on understanding the laws and requirements governing the development of future industries, and push forward to continually achieve new breakthroughs in China's future industries.

近年来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央作出一系列重大决策部署，推动我国未来产业发展呈现良好势头，整体竞争力跻身全球第一梯队，越来越多领域实现"并跑"乃至"领跑"。2026年1月30日，"十五五"开局之年中央政治局的首次集体学习就聚焦未来产业这一主题，再次彰显了党中央对发展未来产业的高度重视。《前瞻布局和发展未来产业》一文，是习近平总书记在这次集体学习时的讲话。在这篇重要讲话中，总书记深刻阐明未来产业的重大意义，对前瞻布局和发展未来产业作出系统部署，具有很强的指导性和针对性。要深入学习领会这篇重要讲话，着力把握未来产业发展规律和要求，推动我国未来产业发展不断取得新突破。

Why Future Industries Matter

未来产业有多重要

Developing future industries is grounded in the present but oriented toward the future. In this important speech, General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "Cultivating and developing future industries is of major significance for seizing the commanding heights in science, technology and industry and firmly holding the initiative in development; for developing new productive forces and building a modernized industrial system; and for raising the quality of people's lives and promoting comprehensive human development and overall social progress." This important judgment, from the height of strategy and the overall situation, reveals the extreme importance of future industries. We must understand and grasp this from a combination of historical and present perspectives, and both domestic and international perspectives.

发展未来产业，立足的是现在，着眼的是未来。习近平总书记在这篇重要讲话中深刻指出："培育发展未来产业，对于我们抢占科技和产业制高点、牢牢把握发展主动权，对于发展新质生产力、建设现代化产业体系，对于提高人民生活品质、促进人的全面发展和社会全面进步，都具有重要意义。"这一重要论断，从战略和全局高度深刻揭示了未来产业的极端重要性，我们要从历史和现实、国内和国际的结合上深入理解把握。

Looking across modern and contemporary world history, every scientific and technological revolution has incubated a group of new industries that reshaped the competitive landscape and profoundly influenced the rise and fall of great powers. The First Industrial Revolution, marked by the widespread use of the steam engine, gave rise to and grew the textile, steel, and railway industries, allowing Britain to be the first to move from an agricultural society into an industrial one. The Second Industrial Revolution, driven by electricity and the internal combustion engine, incubated industrial clusters in chemicals, automobiles, and oil, through which late-developing countries such as Germany, the United States, and Japan achieved leapfrog development. The Third Industrial Revolution, represented by computers, atomic energy, space technology, and information technology, gave rise to new industries including semiconductors, software, the internet, and biopharmaceuticals, and the United States used its advantages in these fields to further consolidate its leading position. Each successive industrial revolution has proven through facts that the countries that seized the opportunity all relied on early planning and long-term accumulation to make the leap from breakthroughs in basic principles to iteration of key technologies, from laboratory samples to mass production, and from individual enterprises to full-industry-chain clusters. The deep lesson is this: whoever can first cultivate and develop the new industries that represent the direction of the future will be able to hold the initiative in fierce competition.

纵观世界近现代史，每一次科技革命都会孕育出一批重塑竞争格局的新产业，深刻影响大国兴衰进程。以蒸汽机广泛使用为标志的第一次工业革命，催生壮大了纺织、钢铁、铁路等产业，使英国率先从农业社会迈入工业社会；以电力和内燃机为驱动的第二次工业革命，孕育了化工、汽车、石油等产业集群，德国、美国、日本等当时的后发国家藉此实现了跨越式发展；以计算机、原子能、空间技术、信息技术为代表的第三次工业革命，催生了半导体、软件、互联网、生物医药等一批新兴产业，美国凭借在这些领域的优势进一步巩固了领先地位。历次工业革命用事实证明：抓住机遇的国家，都是依靠及早谋划和长期积累，实现了从基础原理突破到关键技术迭代、从实验室样品到规模化生产、从单个企业萌芽到全产业链集群的跨越。其深刻启示就在于，谁能率先培育和发展起代表未来方向的新产业，谁就能在激烈的竞争中掌握主动。

What history shows is also borne out by current reality. Today, major economies are turning their attention to future industries such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, and biomanufacturing, incorporating them into national strategies and rolling out dedicated plans and supporting policies. For example, the United States issued its "American Will Dominate the Industries of the Future" report in 2019 and formulated a detailed plan to explicitly develop industries including artificial intelligence and quantum information. The European Union issued the "Strengthening Strategic Value Chains for a Future-Ready EU Industry" report aimed at enhancing the global competitiveness and leadership of Europe's six major strategic future industries. Japan, with "Society 5.0" as its vision, has focused its layout on areas including artificial intelligence, quantum science and technology, and hydrogen energy. Their shared aim is to seize the lead in industry and gain a development edge. At this critical juncture, when frontier technologies are iterating at accelerating speed and industrialization is visibly speeding up, if a country can achieve a major breakthrough in one or several fields, achieving a qualitative leap from quantitative changes, it will gain a significant "first-mover advantage." Otherwise, it risks falling into the trap of "one step slow, every step slow" and ending up on the defensive in competition. "Not to advance is to retreat; to advance slowly is also to retreat." This is precisely why the Party Central Committee is undertaking the forward-looking layout and development of future industries — there is real urgency to it.

历史规律如此，现实亦然。当前，世界主要经济体纷纷将目光投向人工智能、量子信息、生物制造等未来产业，将其纳入国家战略，出台专项规划和相关支持政策。比如，美国在2019年就发布《美国将主导未来产业》报告并制定详尽计划，明确发展人工智能、量子信息等产业；欧盟发布《加强面向未来欧盟产业战略价值链报告》，旨在提高欧洲六大战略性未来产业的全球竞争力和领导力；日本以"社会5.0"为愿景，聚焦人工智能、量子科技、氢能等领域布局。它们共同的目的，就是力求抢占产业先机、赢得发展优势。在这个前沿技术加速迭代、产业化进程明显加快的关键时期，一个国家如果能在某个或某些领域取得重大突破，实现从量变到质变的飞跃，就会获得显著的"先发优势"，否则就可能会面临"一步慢、步步慢"的困境，在竞争中陷入被动。"不进则退，慢进亦退"。党中央之所以要前瞻布局和发展未来产业，其现实紧迫性就在这里。

Future industries are not only about economic development and international competition — they also directly affect every individual's sense of wellbeing. Imagine: brain-computer interfaces allow the paralyzed to walk again, nanorobots precisely clear blood clots, and gene editing conquers stubborn diseases. These scientific and technological breakthroughs, once unimaginable, are now beginning to benefit ordinary families. From medicine to education, from communication to transportation, future industries will profoundly reshape people's ways of life. Going further, future industries are also an accelerator for promoting comprehensive human development and overall social progress. They can give rise to new occupations and new skills, bringing new choices and possibilities, and they can vastly enhance social productivity, liberating more and more people from repetitive simple labor so they can take up more meaningful and valuable creative work. Science and technology that put people at the center and benefit society — the continuous development of future industries will make this principle ever more tangible and accessible.

未来产业不仅关乎经济发展、国际竞争，更直接影响每个人生活的幸福感。试想，脑机接口让瘫痪者重新行走，纳米机器人精准清除血栓，基因编辑攻克顽疾——这些曾经不敢想象的科技突破，如今正开始惠及千家万户。从医疗到教育，从沟通到出行，未来产业将深刻重塑人们的生活方式。更进一步看，未来产业还是促进人的全面发展和社会全面进步的加速器。它既能催生新职业、新技能，给我们带来新的选择和可能，还能极大提升社会生产力，把越来越多人从重复的简单劳动中解放出来，去从事更有意义、更有价值的创造。科技以人为本、造福社会，未来产业的不断发展将使之更加可感可及。

At present, the global landscape for future industries has not yet taken shape and is still evolving rapidly, providing China with a precious window of opportunity. Through long and arduous struggle, especially since the new era, China now possesses the world's most complete industrial system, super-large-scale market advantages, a vast range of application scenarios, and increasingly rich reserves of scientific and technological talent — these constitute the solid "foundation" we bring to the competition over future industries. Over the past several years, in the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries, China has also accumulated many effective practices and experiences. We have strengthened top-level design and planning guidance, clarifying key directions and coordinating resource support; we have organized industry-university-research collaborative breakthroughs through the new whole-nation system, accelerating breakthroughs in key core technologies and the conversion of results; we have made full use of our super-large-scale market advantages, using demand to pull industry incubation, forming a virtuous cycle of rapid iteration and large-scale deployment; we have continuously optimized the business environment and encouraged fair competition among all types of actors; and we have emphasized differentiated regional development and coordinated linkages. Precisely because of this, even though we started late and our foundation was thin, we have caught up — and even "overtaken on the curve" — in many fields such as 5G and new energy vehicles, turning "yesterday's" future industries into "today's" pillar industries. Today, by seizing this historical opportunity, holding to long-termism, and pursuing the forward-looking layout and development of future industries, we will surely lay a solid foundation for development in the coming five years, ten years, and beyond.