By MyEngineers
If you have been following the tech rivalry between China and the West, this week gave us another clue about where China is headed next.
On Wednesday, President Xi Jinping stood before some of the country’s brightest scientific minds in Beijing and made it clear that China is not interested in playing catch up anymore. He wants China to own its science, from the ground up.
The setting was a big one. It was not just a random speech. It was a combined event bringing together the national science and technology award conference, the general assemblies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, plus the 11th national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology. Basically, the biggest names in Chinese science were in one room.
What Xi Actually Said
Xi, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, told the gathering that China needs to speed up its journey toward what he called “high level self reliance and strength in science and technology.”
He pointed to the period between 2026 and 2030, which falls under China’s 15th Five Year Plan, as a critical window. According to him, these five years will decide whether China can crack the tough problems standing between it and full technological independence.
His words, translated, were:
“We must seize the historic opportunity, rise to the challenges of the times, accelerate efforts to achieve high level self reliance and strength in science and technology, and make steady progress toward the 2035 goal of becoming a leading country in science and technology.”
That 2035 target keeps coming up in Chinese policy circles, and this speech tied it directly to science and innovation as the engine that will get the country there.
The Awards That Came With the Speech
Xi used the occasion to hand out China’s top science honour for 2025, the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, to two veteran researchers.
One was Chen Liquan, a physicist credited with pioneering China’s lithium battery industry. The other was Ben De, a radar scientist whose work gave Chinese fighter jets the long range detection ability they needed for modern air combat. We will be doing a full feature on Ben De separately, because honestly, his story deserves its own spotlight.
Xi personally handed both men their medals and certificates, then shook their hands and congratulated them. Other senior officials joined him to present certificates to representatives from the other award categories, which included the State Natural Science Award, the State Technological Invention Award, and the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award.
In total, 258 projects and 11 individual scientists were honoured this year, including nine foreign researchers who picked up the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award for their contributions to Chinese science.
Why This Matters Beyond China
China’s push for tech independence is not happening in isolation. It affects global supply chains, the technology available in the products we use every day, and the balance of power in fields like artificial intelligence, defence, and clean energy.
When a country of China’s size puts this much weight behind original research, rather than simply adapting technology built elsewhere, the ripple effects reach far beyond its borders.