China Charts Plan for Tech Self-Sufficiency

China’s policymaking body, the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission (I did not make up this name) approved a plan yesterday for developing home grown science and technology with an eye toward self-sufficiency.

According to a press release by the state run news agency, Xi said that while China has made substantial progress in trying to develop its science and technology sectors, they are still struggling. Which means that stealing intellectual property from the west is still critical.

And what are they trying to focus on?

Artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

This comes as Biden continues to tighten the screws on the Chinese tech sector, adding another dozen Chinese companies to the entities list, banning US companies from selling to them.

China’s vice premier wrote an article for the People’s Daily yesterday saying, using a lot of words, that innovation is critical and since Xi said that they were still challenged at doing that, it is pretty clear what the alternative is.

China, of course, is not pleased that more companies have been blacklisted, but my guess is that asking us to un-blacklist them will not produce results for them.

Based on this, expect more espionage – both by breaking into US company networks and by planting insiders inside targeted companies. Also expect them to continue to expand the Thousand Talents program.

All in all, this means that US companies with critical tech need to stay on their toes. If you think your tech is important, so does China and they are very motivated to steal it. Likely they will do it very quietly so that you don’t even know that you have been hacked.

Credit: The Record

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