China's innovation landscape shifts from 'answering questions' to 'setting questions'

Strengthening the role of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation is central to China's efforts to better integrate technological innovation with industrial innovation.

The key shift is that enterprises are moving from being passive "answerers" of research questions to proactive "question setters" that identify real-world challenges and help steer the direction of innovation.

China's policy signals in 2026 point to a clear direction. In its interpretation of the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the country's National Development and Reform Commission noted that China will strengthen the principal role of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, support enterprises in serving as "question setters" for innovation, increase their participation in major national science and technology innovation decisions, and make enterprises' key generic technology needs an important focus of support under national science and technology programs. 

The Ministry of Science and Technology has stated that it will break away from the habitual thinking of "first producing results, then considering commercialization" and strengthen institutional arrangements based on the principle that "wherever the demand lies, that is where we should tackle the problem, and whatever can be tackled should be usable." 

The Government Work Report also supports leading science and technology enterprises in taking the lead in forming innovation consortia.

In practice, Chinese enterprises are using application scenarios to drive the distillation of technological needs, turning critical bottlenecks in production and operations into research topics. They are taking the lead in forming innovation consortia, moving from participants to organizers, and promoting the establishment of an institutionalized channel in which enterprises define the problems and the market judges the solutions – assessing technology through application and evaluating products through the market.

Innovation resources such as projects, platforms, data, talent and funding are increasingly concentrated in enterprises, and large enterprises are opening their research platforms and application scenarios to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan sets out systematic arrangements regarding the principal role of enterprises in technological innovation decision-making, research and development (R&D) investment, research organization and the commercialization and application of results. 

Mechanisms are being improved so that whoever can solve a problem takes the lead and receives support, and so that multiple teams can work on the same task in parallel, with the best result winning. This allows Chinese enterprises to become the proposers of technological needs, the funders of R&D investment and the beneficiaries of innovation outcomes.

(Cover via VCG)