Top Chinese officials have pledged to intensify efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in advanced technology, as tensions with the United States continue to strain access to key innovations, according to The Financial Times.

The pledge came during the party’s elite Central Committee gathering at Beijing’s Jingxi Hotel this week, the four-day “fourth plenum”, convened to set priorities for the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan, expected to be unveiled early next year.

A communiqué released following the meeting said the country aims to “substantially improve the level of scientific and technological self-reliance and strength.” It added that “by 2035, China’s economic strength, scientific and technological capability, national defense capacity, overall national power and international influence will have risen markedly,” according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Wider context

The party’s five-year plans, a hallmark of Mao Zedong’s command economy, remain central tools for signaling the leadership’s political, economic, and social agenda.

These documents are closely monitored by foreign governments and investors for indications of Beijing’s policy direction. Beijing’s renewed emphasis on industrial and high-tech manufacturing policies underscores its determination to counter growing restrictions on Chinese access to Western technologies, imposed by successive US administrations.

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“The country faces a stage where strategic opportunities coexist with risks and challenges, and uncertainties and unpredictable factors are increasing,” the communiqué noted, underscoring the leadership’s cautious outlook amid mounting global volatility.

The meeting also brought personnel changes within the party’s upper military ranks. Zhang Shengmin was named the new vice-chair of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party’s top military leadership body chaired by President Xi Jinping, making him the second-highest-ranking general. Zhang succeeds He Weidong, who was among nine senior officers expelled from the party last week as part of Xi’s sweeping anti-corruption purge.

'No big surprises'

Party officials also announced the appointment of 11 additional members to the more than 300-strong Central Committee. Reaffirming Xi’s longstanding priorities, the communiqué reiterated plans to strengthen China’s military through science and technology and to advance the development of “advanced combat capabilities.” It also vowed that the leadership would “unwaveringly” pursue the president’s anti-corruption campaign.

The discussions followed Xi’s recent warnings against “involution”, a term referring to destructive competition in the manufacturing sector, after criticizing reckless provincial investment projects.

Officials are increasingly concerned that industrial overcapacity is fueling deflationary pressures and aggravating trade frictions.

To address these concerns, the party signaled that China would “maintain an appropriate proportion of manufacturing in the economy,” while continuing its broader shift toward domestic consumption and higher per capita GDP growth.

“I think it’s a lot of continuity [and] not that much change,” Bert Hofman, professor at the National University of Singapore, told The Financial Times.

He also described the outcome as one of “small nuanced changes” and “no big surprises.”

According to Hofman, this continuity has a “tactical” purpose: “[There’s] lots of things going on in the world, upheaval, but China is continuing to implement their plan towards socialist modernisation.”