President Xi urges sci-tech workers to fight for more innovative breakthroughs

Chinese President Xi Jinping said sci-tech workers in the country should fight the tough battle of key technology breakthroughs and build impetus for the new quality productive forces.

Xi made the remarks on Wednesday when he met with members from the sci-tech sector of China's top political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee.

In addition to achieving key tech breakthroughs, Xi called on the committee members and sci-tech workers across the country to shoulder the responsibility of sci-tech innovation, basic science research and applied science studies.

China aims to become a major innovative power and has made significant progress. The country's new energy vehicles (NEVs), lithium batteries and solar panels, with high quality, healthy supply chains and reasonable prices, are welcomed by the global market.

The U.S.-led West responded to China's ambition with unfair export limits, abusing market rules to limit China's access to high-tech manufacturing tools, especially those used to build advanced semiconductor chips and large AI models.

China sees sci-tech innovation as the main drive for its economy. The newly coined term "new quality productive forces" can be seen in various recent government files, signaling the country's determination to rely on science and technologies to continue developing fast.

"A key characteristic of new quality productive forces is intelligence," said Lyu Benfu, vice chairman at China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy. "Smart manufacturing leads to higher efficiency and also contributes to energy saving and emission reduction."

Hou Lijun, a CPPCC member and director of the Shanghai Institute of Neurosurgery, said that sci-tech workers must strengthen basic research and applied basic research in accordance with Xi's requirements, striving to tackle key core technologies and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces to promote high-level sci-tech self-reliance.

Another CPPCC member Wu Jianping, director of the Zhongguancun Laboratory, who witnessed China's internet development, echoed by saying that "we must endeavor to realize autonomy and control of the core technologies of the next generation internet, and firmly grasp the initiative of innovation and development of cyber power."

(CGTN's Liu Xun contributed to the story.)