Xi said on Tuesday during a study session of the 24-person
Politburo, one of the top decision-making bodies of the ruling
Chinese Communist Party, that China needed to strengthen basic
research in science and technology if it is to achieve
self-reliance and become a global tech power, state news agency
Xinhua reported.
"To cope with international science and technology competition,
achieve a high level of self-reliance and self-improvement ...
we urgently need to strengthen basic research and solve key
technology problems from the source," Xinhua quoted Xi as
saying.
The call comes as China faces growing headwind in its years-long
effort to close the gap with the United States and its allies in
advanced semiconductor technology.
In January, Japan and the Netherlands agreed to comply with
export restrictions against China's chip sector that the U.S.
government had announced in October 2022, media reported.
Initial U.S. sanctions took aim at Chinese purchases of advanced
artificial intelligence (AI) computing chips, as well as
equipment that chip factories could use to produce leading-edge
computing chips.
Xi also on Tuesday said it was necessary to grow China's pool of
top-notch tech talent, Xinhua reported, echoing a speech in 2021
where he said that by 2035 China "should rank among the leading
countries in the world with respect to our strategic and
technological strength and our army of high-quality talent".
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel and
Christopher Cushing)
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