Speech at the National Science and Technology Awards Conference, the Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 11th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology
(July 8, 2026)
Xi Jinping
Dear academicians, comrades, and friends,
Today, the National Science and Technology Awards Conference, the Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 11th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology officially open. This is a grand science and technology event held at the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. First, on behalf of the Party Central Committee, I extend sincere congratulations to the collectives and individuals who received the 2025 National Science and Technology Awards! I express cordial greetings to all academicians of the two academies and the vast number of scientific and technological workers across the country! I extend a warm welcome to the foreign academicians and friends from the international scientific community attending the conference!
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has placed scientific and technological innovation in a prominent position in modernization construction, systematically designed the blueprint for building a strong science and technology country, deeply promoted the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, comprehensively deepened the reform of the science and technology system, and promoted historic achievements and changes in the science and technology cause. Our country is accelerating its transformation from a global participant and contributor in science and technology to a pioneer and leader, becoming one of the fastest-growing countries in innovation.
Since the National Science and Technology Conference in June 2024, our country's science and technology cause has achieved a series of new accomplishments. For example, major original achievements in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, life sciences, and material sciences have continued to emerge; the Chang'e-6 mission achieved the first-ever sampling and return from the far side of the moon; scientific research and industrial development in intelligent robots and drones have been full of highlights; innovative drugs have achieved a leap from imitation and follow-up development to original creation; the area of independently bred crop varieties has exceeded 95%, and so on. These achievements reflect the rapid progress of our country's science and technology, which is encouraging and proud!
At the same time, we must clearly recognize that there are still problems in our country's scientific and technological development, such as insufficient original innovation capabilities in some fields, a less-than-ideal talent structure, and low efficiency of science and technology investment. There are also some bottlenecks and blockages in ideological understanding and institutional mechanisms. We must attach great importance to these issues and adopt more forceful measures to resolve them.
Dear academicians, comrades, and friends,
Scientific and technological innovation is an inexhaustible driving force for the progress of human civilization. The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is profoundly changing human production and lifestyle as well as the world development pattern. Scientific and technological strength and innovation capability are increasingly becoming the core competitiveness of a country. Currently, artificial intelligence is booming, with data, computing power, and algorithms as key elements, based on theoretical breakthroughs and interdisciplinary integration in neuroscience, cognitive science, computational science, mathematics, etc., and marked by the collective breakthroughs and widespread penetration of cutting-edge intelligent technologies, showing significant characteristics such as data-driven, Internet of Everything, human-machine collaboration, and cross-border integration. The situation is urgent and pressing. We must seize the historical opportunity, meet the challenges of the times, accelerate the realization of high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, and firmly advance toward the goal of building a strong science and technology country by 2035, solidly supporting and leading Chinese-style modernization with scientific and technological innovation.
The 15th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for constructing a strong science and technology country. We must fully implement the various deployments of the Party Central Committee on science and technology. Here, I emphasize six points.
First, enhance the systematic capability of scientific and technological research. Scientific and technological innovation involves many fields, entities, and elements, forming a huge system. Over the years, we have leveraged the advantages of the new nationwide system to integrate resources and accumulate considerable experience in systematic research. We must adhere to the strategic orientation of "four fronts", further strengthen coordination in scientific and technological strategy planning, policies and measures, major tasks, research forces, resource platforms, and regional innovation, improve the organization level of scientific and technological research, and enhance the overall efficiency of the national innovation system.
In terms of promoting research tasks, the focus is on improving the deployment and implementation mechanism for major national scientific and technological innovation tasks, concentrating on cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and life sciences, key fields such as integrated circuits and advanced manufacturing, and strategic fields such as deep sea, deep space, and deep earth. Deploy major projects and programs in an integrated manner, and coordinately promote original innovation and key core technology breakthroughs. We must forward-looking layout and build major scientific and technological infrastructure, strengthen the independent guarantee of basic conditions such as high-end scientific research instruments, scientific data, and scientific journals, and promote the empowerment of scientific research by artificial intelligence.
In terms of building scientific and technological forces, the focus is on optimizing the functional positioning and layout of national strategic scientific and technological forces, promoting task coordination, resource sharing, and complementary advantages, so that they can better undertake national strategic missions and produce more major strategic achievements. We must support cooperation between national strategic scientific and technological forces and other scientific and technological forces, coordinate the allocation of research tasks, platform bases, and key talents, forming a systematic research pattern covering basic research, applied development, and achievement transformation.
In terms of linkage of scientific and technological innovation, the focus is on strengthening the overall guidance of scientific and technological work at all levels, forming an institutional arrangement for central-local coordination and regional linkage, coordinating the construction of international science and technology innovation centers and regional science and technology innovation centers, and strengthening regional collaborative innovation. Different regions have different situations, and they must explore innovation development paths according to local conditions, establish comparative advantages, and create characteristic innovation highlands, rather than blindly following trends or engaging in "involution" competition and homogeneous development.
Second, promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation. This is the key to leading the development of new quality productive forces with high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology. We must highlight the supply of scientific and technological innovation and the traction of industrial demand, promote the integrated innovation of industry, academia, and research, and open up the channel for the accelerated transformation of science and technology into real productive forces. Scientific and technological innovation should emphasize application orientation, support universities and research institutes to cooperate with enterprises in scientific research and talent training, and empower industrial innovation with high-quality scientific and technological supply. Industrial innovation should raise scientific questions, strengthen the dominant position of enterprises in innovation, support enterprises to build platforms and overcome challenges together with universities and research institutes, and drive scientific and technological innovation with industrial demand for high-end, green, and intelligent development.
The low conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements has always been a prominent problem we face. We must strengthen the construction of the national technology transfer system, establish a number of concept verification centers and pilot platforms, and break the bottlenecks restricting the transformation of early scientific and technological achievements. Create diversified application scenarios and high-level industrial clusters, comprehensively use fiscal, monetary, scientific and technological, and industrial policies to promote the promotion, application, and iterative upgrade of self-developed technology products. We must improve the intellectual property protection system, break down the barriers to the flow of innovation elements among universities, research institutes, and enterprises. Build a science and technology financial system that adapts to scientific and technological innovation, promote the healthy and stable development of the venture capital market, smooth the investment and financing channels of enterprises, and guide financial capital to invest early, small, long-term, and hard technology.
Third, vigorously cultivate outstanding young scientific and technological talents. The future of science lies in youth. We are pleased to see that more and more young scientific and technological talents are emerging and shouldering heavy responsibilities. We must regard the construction of a young scientific and technological talent team as a strategic project, and comprehensively do a good job in cultivating, introducing, and using talents.
Integrating education, science and technology, and talent development is a successful experience we have summed up through practice. We must optimize the collaborative education mechanism of science and education, adhere to using while cultivating and cultivating while using, and focus on discovering and cultivating more outstanding young scientific and technological talents on the front line of scientific research. Increase support for the early career and long-term stable support of scientific researchers, improve systems such as science and technology awards and income distribution, help solve practical difficulties, and allow them to concentrate on research, feel at ease and secure. Seize the window period of global talent flow, and actively introduce outstanding overseas young talents and teams. Pay attention to discovering and cultivating the interests, scientific literacy, and experimental ability of young people, and attract more young people with scientific research potential to devote themselves to science and technology. The growth of young scientific and technological talents cannot be separated from the support and encouragement of senior scientists. Academicians of the two academies should take the lead in being willing to serve as ladders, reward and support the younger generation, and do a good job of mentoring with heart and soul.
Fourth, improve the efficiency of scientific and technological investment. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's R&D expenditure maintained an average annual growth of 10%, with the investment intensity reaching 2.8% in 2025, exceeding the average level of OECD countries for the first time. This is not easy and fully reflects the firm determination of the Party and the state to develop science and technology. At the same time, problems such as waste of research funds and inefficient duplication of scientific and technological investment also exist to varying degrees. All levels and relevant parties must improve institutional mechanisms and management methods to ensure that real money is both invested and used well, achieving the unity of scale increase and efficiency improvement.
Fiscal funds play a guiding role in scientific and technological investment. We must improve the allocation and management mechanism of central fiscal science and technology funds, focusing on strategic and key fields; improve the mechanism for central and local governments to share investment in major scientific and technological tasks, reasonably allocate central and local fiscal funds, and guide local governments to increase R&D investment focusing on national strategic needs. Improve the management of science and technology plans, strengthen supervision and performance evaluation of science and technology projects, and seriously investigate and punish corrupt behaviors such as interest-seeking in fund management, project application, and equipment procurement. Guide enterprises to increase R&D investment and mobilize more social forces to support scientific and technological innovation.
Fifth, make good use of the baton of scientific and technological evaluation. Over the years, we have been promoting the reform of scientific and technological evaluation, which has played a positive role in promoting scientific research activities and optimizing the innovation environment. However, there are still many problems in this regard. We must accelerate the breaking of "only papers, only titles, only academic degrees, only awards" and effectively use the baton of scientific and technological evaluation.
Scientific and technological evaluation should focus on following the laws of scientific research. Project evaluation, institution evaluation, and talent evaluation should strengthen the orientation of innovation capability, quality, effectiveness, and contribution, reflect the differences of different categories, and not blur the weight of evaluation indicators or even put the cart before the horse, and not engage in "one-size-fits-all" or "boiling all in one pot". Continue to deepen the governance of "hats" in the scientific and educational circles, prevent simply determining salary and treatment or allocating innovation resources based on titles and honors. Vigorously promote the spirit of scientists, strengthen the construction of research integrity, use stricter standards and more practical measures to rectify outstanding problems in style and academic atmosphere, severely punish academic misconduct, and create a clean and upright research ecology.
Sixth, strengthen the governance of science and technology ethics and security. Cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence are accelerating iteration and application, and the "double-edged sword" effect is becoming increasingly apparent. We must coordinate development and security, closely monitor the development trends of new technologies and new applications, strengthen the construction of science and technology governance systems and capabilities, and promote science and technology to be good, safe, controllable, and beneficial to the people.
Strengthening the governance of science and technology ethics and security focuses on improving policies, systems, laws, regulations, and governance norms, and improving the mechanism of multi-party participation and collaborative governance. For key fields such as artificial intelligence and life sciences, clarify ethical standards and guidelines, and effectively respond to rule conflicts and ethical challenges. Strengthen the risk assessment, monitoring, early warning, and emergency response of science and technology security, coordinate high-tech R&D and high-level security, and improve the security protection capability of key parts and facilities. Deeply participate in global science and technology governance, widely promote Chinese propositions and Chinese solutions, and enhance the discourse power and influence of international rule-making.
Dear academicians, comrades, and friends,
Promoting the flourishing development of China's science and technology cause requires the joint efforts of the whole Party and the whole society. We must adhere to and strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee over science and technology work, widely mobilize the participation of all parties, and gather a strong joint force to build a strong science and technology country. Over the years, I have attended and delivered speeches at every academician conference of the two academies and the national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology, with the purpose of mobilizing the entire Party and society to support scientific development and stimulate innovation vitality. Party committees and governments at all levels must put science and technology work on important agendas, establish and practice a correct view of performance, work with real efforts, persevere, and continuously achieve new results.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as the highest academic institutions in China's scientific and technological community and engineering and technological community, must shoulder the responsibilities and missions of national strategic scientific and technological forces and think tanks for science and technology, unite the national scientific and technological community to grasp the direction of the new round of scientific and technological revolution, and bravely climb the world's scientific peaks.
The China Association for Science and Technology, as a bridge and link between the Party and the government and scientific and technological workers, must adhere to exploration and innovation, serve scientific and technological workers, serve innovation-driven development, serve the improvement of the scientific quality of the whole people, and serve the scientific decision-making of the Party and the government with all its heart.
Academicians of the two academies are the pride of the Party and the people. I hope you cherish the honor, make unremitting efforts, and play an exemplary and leading role in exploring the frontiers of science and technology, undertaking major tasks, cultivating young talents, and practicing the spirit of scientists. The vast number of scientific and technological workers are an important force in building a modern socialist country. I hope you carry forward the fine tradition of serving the country and benefiting the people, and make new contributions to building a strong science and technology country.
