Decoding China’s Technology and Industrial Policy: Seven Terms You Need to Know
In this brief, co-authors Barry Naughton, Siwen Xiao, and Yaosheng Xu identify and explain seven key terms that can help make sense of the substantial expansion of the Chinese government’s direct role in organizing economic activity—and hint at some of its limits.
DownloadChina’s technology and industrial policy programs have grown in scope and intensity since 2020, but the vocabulary used to describe them is vague and often misleading. This policy brief decodes seven essential terms and shows that they have concrete and complementary meanings. When understood in concert, they reveal the establishment of a large-scale, government-directed program of mission-oriented research, development, and application. Together these terms outline a substantial expansion of the Chinese government’s direct role in organizing economic activity, and hint at some of the limits of that expansion.
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