Translated by Claude, edited by Sinocism.com

Win the Tough Battle to Build a Science and Technology Power

打好科技强国建设攻坚战

Qiushi Magazine Commentator

《求是》杂志评论员

Source: Qiushi 2026/14 | Published: July 15, 2026

On July 8, the National Science and Technology Awards Conference, the 22nd Conference of Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the 18th Conference of Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 11th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology were held in Beijing. This was a grand gathering of the science and technology community in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan. General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech that fully affirmed the major achievements of our country's science and technology enterprise, deeply analyzed the new circumstances and new tasks facing science and technology development, and put forward a series of clear requirements, pointing the direction for doing science and technology work well at present and in the period ahead.

7月8日，国家科学技术奖励大会、中国科学院第二十二次院士大会和中国工程院第十八次院士大会、中国科学技术协会第十一次全国代表大会在京召开。这是在“十五五”开局之年召开的一次科技盛会。习近平总书记发表重要讲话，充分肯定我国科技事业取得的重大成就，深刻分析科技发展面临的新形势新任务，提出一系列明确要求，为做好当前和今后一个时期科技工作指明了方向。

Scientific and technological innovation is an inexhaustible driving force for the progress of human civilization. Faced with the accelerating breakthroughs of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and with the intense and complex contest among major powers, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has consistently placed science and technology innovation in a prominent position in modernization, has drawn up the blueprint for building a science and technology power, and has pushed forward implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. Since the 20th Party Congress, from setting the strategic goal of building a science and technology power by 2035, to establishing the Central Science and Technology Commission to coordinate the resolution of strategic, directional, and overarching major issues in the science and technology field, from accelerating the development of new quality productive forces with scientific and technological innovation as the core element, to further deepening reform of the science and technology system, a series of forward-looking, strategic plans and arrangements has pushed our country's scientific and technological strength to keep climbing to new heights. Major original achievements keep emerging in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum science and technology, and life sciences; Chang'e-6 accomplished humanity's first sample return from the far side of the Moon; emerging industries such as integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, and intelligent robots are flourishing... Our country is accelerating its shift from participant and contributor in global science and technology to pioneer and leader, and has become one of the countries whose innovative capacity is rising fastest.

科技创新是人类文明进步的不竭动力。面对新一轮科技革命和产业变革加速突破、大国博弈激烈复杂形势，以习近平同志为核心的党中央始终把科技创新摆在现代化建设突出位置，擘画科技强国建设蓝图，推动实施创新驱动发展战略。党的二十大以来，从明确2035年建成科技强国战略目标，到组建中央科技委员会，统筹解决科技领域战略性、方向性、全局性重大问题，从以科技创新为核心要素加快发展新质生产力，到进一步深化科技体制改革，一系列前瞻性、战略性谋划部署，推动我国科技实力不断跃上新台阶。人工智能、量子科技、生命科学等领域重大原创成果不断涌现，“嫦娥六号”实现人类首次月球背面采样返回，集成电路、生物医药、智能机器人等新兴产业蓬勃发展……我国正从全球科技参与者、贡献者向开拓者、引领者加速转变，成为创新力上升最快的国家之一。

At present, the clustered breakthroughs of frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, and their broad penetration and empowering effect, are profoundly changing how humanity produces and lives and the pattern of world development. Countries are racing to position themselves in high-technology fields and increasing investment in science and technology innovation, seeking to seize a position of competitive advantage in the future; a few countries are building “small yard, high fence” barriers and forcing through “decoupling and the severing of supply chains.” Without tackling the hard problems we will fall passively behind; without breakthroughs we will remain subject to others' control over the long term. Our country needs, more than at any time in the past, to bring out the supporting and leading role of scientific and technological innovation, to keep advancing the switch from old to new growth drivers, to accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, to promote high-quality economic and social development, and to raise the quality of people's lives. In advancing from a large science and technology country to a science and technology power, we already have a solid foundation, but, as General Secretary Xi Jinping incisively analyzed, our country's science and technology development still has problems such as insufficient original innovation capacity in some fields, an insufficiently rational structure of the talent ranks, and low effectiveness of science and technology investment, while science and technology work also has some blockages and bottlenecks in thinking and understanding and in systems and mechanisms. These factors impede the overall effectiveness of the innovation system and constrain the release of the enormous potential of science and technology as the primary productive force.

当前，人工智能等前沿技术群体性突破和广泛渗透赋能，深刻改变人类生产生活方式和世界发展格局。各国争相布局高科技领域，加大科技创新投入，力图抢占未来竞争优势地位，个别国家筑起“小院高墙”、强推“脱钩断链”。不攻坚就会被动落后，不突破就会长期受制于人。我国比过去任何时候都更需要发挥科技创新的支撑引领作用，持续推动新旧动能转换，加快发展新质生产力，推动经济社会高质量发展，提高人民生活品质。由科技大国向科技强国迈进，我们已具备坚实基础，但是，正如习近平总书记深刻剖析的，我国科技发展中还存在一些领域原始创新能力不足、人才队伍结构不够合理、科技投入效能不高等问题，科技工作在思想认识、体制机制等方面也有一些卡点堵点。这些因素阻滞了创新体系整体效能发挥，限制着科技作为第一生产力巨大潜能的释放。

“The situation spurs us on, and it also presses in on us.” There are only nine years left before building a science and technology power and basically achieving socialist modernization. The 15th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period in which we tamp down the foundations and exert effort across the board for basically achieving socialist modernization, and it is also an important stage in building a science and technology power in which we must tackle hard problems and force our way through the passes. Facing the circumstances and tasks of this critical period of hard fighting, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward further clear requirements on going all out to implement the various arrangements for the science and technology cause during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, across six areas: strengthening systematized capability to tackle key problems in science and technology innovation; promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation; vigorously cultivating outstanding young science and technology talent; raising the effectiveness of investment in science and technology innovation; making good use of the baton of science and technology evaluation; and strengthening science and technology ethics and security governance. This provides the fundamental guide for winning the tough battle to build a science and technology power. We must strengthen our sense of responsibility, urgency, and mission, focus closely on the General Secretary's important requirements and the goals and tasks set by the 15th Five-Year Plan, identify the main direction of attack and the points on which to exert effort, and keep making new progress and achieving new results in building a science and technology power.

“形势催人，也逼人。”距离建成科技强国和基本实现社会主义现代化只有9年时间了。“十五五”时期是我们基本实现社会主义现代化夯实基础、全面发力的关键时期，也是科技强国建设攻坚克难、闯关夺隘的重要阶段。面对关键攻坚期的形势任务，习近平总书记从增强科技创新体系化攻关能力、推动科技创新和产业创新深度融合、大力培养优秀青年科技人才、提高科技创新投入效能、用好科技评价指挥棒、加强科技伦理和安全治理等6个方面，进一步就全力抓好“十五五”时期科技事业各项部署落实提出明确要求，为打好科技强国建设攻坚战提供了根本遵循。我们要增强责任感紧迫感使命感，紧紧围绕总书记的重要要求和“十五五”规划确立的目标任务，找准主攻方向和发力点，推动科技强国建设不断取得新进展新成效。

Bringing out the advantages of the system and promoting systematized efforts to tackle key problems is an important guarantee for winning this tough battle. Scientific and technological innovation is a systems project. In recent years, a series of major science and technology projects with high organizational complexity, wide span across fields, and involving multiple key core technologies have won victory after victory, precisely because we brought out the advantages of the new whole-of-nation system, gathering and integrating the national strategic science and technology forces and social resources to tackle problems jointly, and achieved maximum benefit and optimal efficiency in the allocation of resources. But measured against the requirements of a science and technology power, the overall effectiveness of our country's innovation system is still not high enough, quite a few key core technologies in frontier fields have yet to be broken through, regional coordinated innovation capacity still needs strengthening, and in some localities "involutionary" competition and homogeneous development still exist. To move our country's science and technology cause onward in successive leaps, we must bring out the greatest political advantage, the leadership of the Party, uphold the strategic orientation of the "Four Orientations," use the new whole-of-nation system to secure high-level science and technology self-reliance and self-strengthening, further strengthen overall coordination of science and technology strategic planning, policy measures, major tasks, research forces, resource platforms, and regional innovation, and work to keep the lifeline of science and technology and the initiative in development firmly in our own hands.

发挥体制优势，推动体系化攻关，是打好攻坚战的重要保障。科技创新是系统工程。这些年，一系列组织复杂度高、领域跨度大、涉及多项关键核心技术的重大科技项目连战连捷，正是因为我们发挥新型举国体制优势，凝聚和集成国家战略科技力量、社会资源共同攻关，实现了资源配置效益最大化和效率最优化。但是，与科技强国的要求相比，我国创新体系整体效能还不够高，前沿领域还有不少关键核心技术有待突破，区域协同创新能力仍需加强，一些地方“内卷式”竞争、同质化发展现象依然存在。推动我国科技事业接续跨越，必须发挥党的领导这一最大政治优势，坚持“四个面向”战略导向，以新型举国体制保障高水平科技自立自强，进一步加强科技战略规划、政策措施、重大任务、科研力量、资源平台、区域创新等方面统筹，努力把科技命脉和发展主动权牢牢掌握在自己手中。

Possessing strong basic research and original innovation capacity is the bedrock of a science and technology power. Today's China has already risen to become an important pole of global innovation, and basic research has moved from breakthroughs at individual points toward the raising of systemic capability, but the layout in some fields is insufficiently forward-looking, major original achievements are few, the mechanism for diversified, long-term, stable investment is still not sound, and the underlying basic technologies and basic process capabilities of some industries are still not strong. Only when the foundation is laid firmly can the edifice of the science and technology cause be built high. We must raise the degree of organization in basic research, strengthen strategic, forward-looking, and systematized layout, and promote the continuous emergence of major original and disruptive scientific and technological achievements. On the one hand, grasp the world's science and technology frontiers and strengthen "zero to one" original innovation; on the other hand, in line with urgent national development needs, work backward to sort out the scientific questions and drive breakthroughs in research on underlying scientific principles in key fields such as integrated circuits, machine tools, and high-end instruments, and in livelihood fields such as medicine, safety, and ecology.

拥有强大的基础研究和原始创新能力，是科技强国的根基底座。今日中国已跃升为全球创新重要一极，基础研究从点的突破迈向系统能力提升，但一些领域布局前瞻性不足，重大原创成果不多，多元长期稳定投入机制还不完善，一些产业底层基础技术、基础工艺能力还不强。地基打得牢，科技事业大厦才能建得高。要提高基础研究组织化程度，强化战略性、前瞻性、体系化布局，推动重大原创性、颠覆性科技成果持续涌现。一方面，把握世界科技前沿，加强“从0到1”的原始创新；另一方面，根据国家发展急需，逆向梳理科学问题，推动集成电路、工业母机、高端仪器等重点领域，医药、安全、生态等民生领域底层科学原理研究突破。

Promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation is the key to using high-level science and technology self-reliance and self-strengthening to lead the development of new quality productive forces. At present, the low rate at which scientific and technological results are converted remains a prominent problem; barriers still exist to the flow of innovation factors among universities, research institutes, and enterprises; some industry-academia-research linkups stop at the "window dressing" of "signing an agreement and hanging up a plaque," while others are confined to one specific project and the parties "go their separate ways" once it is done. To promote innovation and creation through integrated development, we must, in line with requirements such as that scientific and technological innovation must emphasize an application orientation and that industrial innovation must raise scientific questions, let patents and papers cross the "fence" that separates knowledge from industry, let enterprises' innovation needs fit closely with research institutions' technology development, and promote the shared flourishing and mutual support of education, science and technology, and talent.