During this year's two sessions, the annual gathering of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the term "new quality productive forces" has gained significant traction. In the current global economic slowdown, as some countries push for the "small courtyard with high fences" and pursue decoupling and chain-breaking, China's proposal to develop new quality productive forces holds great contemporary and global significance.
This development is crucial for the Chinese path to modernization and high-quality economic growth, showcasing China's contribution to global development and common prosperity. It aims to promote fair global flows of innovation, establish a global collaborative innovation ecosystem, and drive worldwide prosperity and development.
The new productive forces are the "hard truths" of development in the new era. The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held its 11th group study session on making solid progress in promoting high-quality development on the afternoon of Jan 31. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, while presiding over the study session, emphasized that new quality productive forces are primarily driven by innovation, and break free from traditional economic growth modes and productivity development paths; they feature high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, and are advanced productivity required by the new development philosophy. In other words, new quality productive forces represent the advanced productive forces of the new era, characterized by innovation. Developing new quality productive forces is an inherent requirement and a crucial focal point for promoting high-quality development.
The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China highlighted high-quality development as the primary goal for building a modernized socialist country. The 2023 Central Economic Work Conference emphasized the need to uphold high-quality development as a "hard truths" in the new era. As the new technological revolution and industrial transformation rapidly unfold, scientific and technological progress is increasingly integrated into economic and social development.
To enhance new development momentum and achieve high-quality development, seizing opportunities, excelling in innovation, and accelerating the development of new quality productive forces are crucial. This development is the key driving force for China's modernization. The report stresses that without a strong material and technological foundation, comprehensive modernization is unattainable. Therefore, China must vigorously develop new quality productive forces to support its modernization with highly developed social productive forces and a solid material and technological foundation.
The ecological cycle of "industry-innovation" is an inherent requirement for the development of new quality productive forces. Technological innovation is the core element for developing new quality productive forces. Currently, there is a profound transformation in the paradigm of scientific research, with an unprecedentedly close relationship between industry and technological innovation, where the two mutually drive and promote each other. On the one hand, there is the traditional understanding of technological innovation driving industrial development, empowering traditional industries, and creating new industrial formats. On the other hand, the strong innovation capability of the industry itself drives technological innovation.
Global technological innovation is increasingly shifting from being led by research institutions to being led by industrial innovation. For example, the 2023 AI Index Report from Stanford University stated that the current field of artificial intelligence has shown a trend where the industry, instead of academia, is leading technological development.
Therefore, only through an "industry-innovation" cycle can technological innovation outcomes be fully industrialized and continuously iterated and upgraded in industrial applications, thus providing a continuous source of development momentum. Xi stressed the need to promptly apply scientific and technological innovation achievements to specific industries and industrial chains, transform and upgrade traditional industries, cultivate and strengthen emerging industries, make plans for the development of future industries, and improve the modern industrial system. This year's Government Work Report proposed to promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial and supply chains, actively cultivate emerging industries and future industries, indicating that the "industry-innovation" ecological cycle is the linchpin of new quality productive forces.
A vibrant global innovation ecosystem is the accelerator for the development of new quality productive forces. The innovation ecosystem refers to the organic unity of the integration and coexistence of innovative elements such as scientific research, education, industry, and the market, which iteratively evolve and are inseparable. A good innovation ecosystem can promote the coordinated interaction of various innovation entities, the smooth flow of innovation factors, and the efficient allocation of innovation resources is conducive to the development of new quality productive forces.
Openness is an important foundation for innovation. Innovation is not the "solo performance" of any single country but rather a "grand chorus" of all countries in the world. This ecosystem is not confined within a single country but is a global innovation ecosystem based on open cooperation. In this regard, Xi pointed out that high-level opening up must be expanded to create a sound international environment for the development of new quality productive forces. The Global Development Initiative also proposed to adhere to innovation-driven development, create an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for scientific and technological development, tap into new driving forces for economic growth, and work together to achieve leapfrog developments. From the perspective of global development, the global innovation ecosystem and the development of new quality productive forces are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.
The "small courtyard with high fences" harms both oneself and others; only by jointly building a global innovation ecosystem can we find the right path. However, the current global innovation ecosystem faces the increasing risk of being fragmented. In particular, influenced by Cold War thinking and hegemonic logic, the United States seeks to monopolize the global innovation ecosystem by restricting the flow of innovative elements such as knowledge, technology, and talent through "small courtyard with high fences" and attempting to determine the presence or absence of other countries within this ecosystem based on its narrow national interests. This is bound to exacerbate the technology gap, hinder world development, and magnify the potential security risks of technological leaps, leading to a failure in global governance and harming common security.
Faced with the danger of a few countries deliberately manipulating and dividing the global innovation ecosystem, the world should join hands to establish an open and inclusive, collaborative, and innovative technological innovation ecosystem, promote the emergence of innovation, fully transform it into new quality productive forces, and benefit all of humanity.
China's proposal to develop new quality productive forces is by no means solely for its own development, but rather aims to promote global economic progress through the high-quality development of the Chinese economy, injecting strong impetus into global prosperity. It also hopes to jointly create an open and cooperative technological innovation ecosystem with the world, using openness to gather momentum for innovation and using innovation to promote cooperation.
In November 2023, China issued the International Science and Technology Cooperation Initiative, proposing to build an open and free international science and technology cooperation ecosystem, explore a new model of global science and technology innovation cooperation based on mutual benefit and win-win results, promote the mutual and shared benefits of scientific and technological innovation achievements, and let technological progress benefit all of humanity. This year's Government Work Report proposed to comprehensively lift restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, demonstrating China's broad-mindedness, determination, and actions in jointly building a technological innovation ecosystem with the world. The move will inevitably promote deep integration domestically and internationally, drive technological innovation in the manufacturing industry, and ensure that the rapid advancement of new quality productive forces benefits both China and the world, promoting the common development of humanity and global prosperity.
Liu Chong is director of the Institute of International Security at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations and Lin Mengting is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of International Security at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
