China’s Summer Retreat Highlights Tech Priorities Amid US Competition
China’s central government has invited dozens of scientific, technological and academic experts to its annual summer retreat, highlighting how the country is focusing on innovation and breaking through “chokepoints” amid fierce competition with the US, according to the South China Morning Post.
State news agency Xinhua reported that the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, China’s cabinet, invited 60 experts to the seaside resort of Beidaihe from August 1 to 7. The list of invitees – who represented fields including basic research, strategic frontier technologies, critical core technologies, philosophy and the social sciences – offers a glimpse into Beijing’s priorities in the opening year of the current five-year plan.
While Xinhua did not publish the full guest list, it named 15 participants. They covered defence engineering, semiconductors, deep-sea equipment, artificial intelligence, particle astrophysics, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, the digital economy and more. The selection suggests that Beijing is seeking to combine long-term basic research with efforts to address immediate technological and developmental needs. “Self-reliance and strength in science and technology” has been designated as a major objective in China’s 15th five-year plan, which runs through 2030.
A separate report from the South China Morning Post noted that Beijing signalled the start of the summer break for China’s political elite with the announcement of retreats at the seaside resort. Xinhua reported on Monday that Cai Qi, the man often referred to as President Xi Jinping’s “chief of staff”, “extended sincere greetings” to various academics and scientists invited to the resort about 300km (186 miles) east of Beijing.
The report did not name those invited but did say they included specialists working at the frontiers of basic research, strategic and cutting-edge technologies and core technologies in key fields, as well as academics in philosophy and the social sciences. According to footage from state broadcaster CCTV, one of the guests was Chen Deliang, a global climate scientist who returned to China to take up a full-time position at Tsinghua University at the end of 2024.
Cai, who ranks fifth in the ruling Communist Party’s hierarchy, is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and director of the party’s General Office. The Xinhua report said that at the meeting he stressed the strategic importance of “talent” in party governance. This year is the start of China’s 15th five-year plan and Cai called on the researchers to advance the scientific spirit, strive for breakthroughs in their fields, and make greater contributions to “securing decisive progress in basically realising socialist modernisation”.