"Blueprints and Breakthroughs: China’s Strategic Pulse in Motion"

1. The core goals of the "14th Five-Year Plan" proposals can be summarized as follows: notable progress in high-quality development, major breakthroughs in building new productive forces and a new development pattern; a significant rise in self-reliance and strength in science and technology, with accelerated breakthroughs in key core technologies; new progress in deepening reform comprehensively and opening up at a high level, with sustained release of institutional vitality; a marked improvement in social civilization and people's quality of life, and new steps in building a Beautiful China and a national security barrier, laying a solid foundation for basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035.  

When science and technology thrive, the nation thrives; when science and technology are strong, the country is strong. Chinese modernization relies on the modernization of science and technology for support. One of the main goals of economic and social development during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period is to greatly enhance self-reliance and strength in science and technology, achieve rapid breakthroughs in key core technologies in key fields, and deepen the integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation. Fostering development advantages through scientific and technological innovation is China's strategic choice focusing on the overall situation and facing the future.  

2. From October 25 to 26, 2025, China and the United States achieved positive results in economic and trade consultations held in Kuala Lumpur, and the two sides reached preliminary consensus on a number of issues. This includes the US side canceling the "fentanyl tariffs" on Chinese goods, extending the exemption period for some tariffs, suspending the implementation of export control penetration rules and investigation measures against China's maritime and other industries. In response, China adjusted its countermeasures accordingly and suspended the implementation of relevant export control measures. The two sides also reached consensus on fentanyl anti-drug cooperation, expanding agricultural trade, and handling enterprise cases, and decided to properly resolve issues related to TikTok.  

3. On October 30, 2025, President Xi Jinping held a meeting with US President Trump in Busan. The outcomes of the talks are as follows:  

- Economic and trade field: The heads of state of the two countries pointed out that the economic and trade teams of the two countries had in-depth exchanges of views on important economic and trade issues and reached consensus on solving problems. The teams of both sides should refine and finalize follow-up work as soon as possible to maintain and implement the consensus well.  

- Cooperation field: The heads of state of the two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation between the two sides in economic and trade, energy and other fields, and promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges. At the same time, the two countries have broad prospects for cooperation in cracking down on illegal immigration, telecom fraud, anti-money laundering, artificial intelligence, and responding to infectious diseases. Relevant departments of the two sides should strengthen dialogue and exchanges and carry out mutually beneficial cooperation.

1. 14th Five-Year Plan Period: The total assets of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) nationwide increased from 268.5 trillion yuan at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period to 401.7 trillion yuan by the end of 2024. Their owner's equity rose from 97 trillion yuan to 141 trillion yuan, and state-owned capital equity grew from 76 trillion yuan to 109.4 trillion yuan. The average annual growth rates reached 10.6%, 9.9%, and 9.5% respectively.  

2. October 29: The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) released 9 policy measures in 3 areas, including the "dual expansion" of trade facilitation policies and the "further upgrade" of settlement convenience for new trade formats, to further improve the facilitation of cross-border trade receipts and payments.  

3. October 29: The Ministry of Commerce and 4 other departments jointly issued the Action Plan for Upgrading Urban Commercial Services, putting forward 21 specific measures. These include promoting the renovation of facilities and upgrading of business formats in pedestrian streets (business districts), and expanding the supply of diversified goods such as trendy domestic products and high-quality foreign trade products.  

4. October 29: Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China’s Innovation Index stood at 174.2 in 2024, an increase of 5.3% over the previous year, maintaining a steady growth trend.  

5. Recently: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) jointly issued a notice. It arranges the application work for the 2025 "Open Bidding for Leaders" projects of intelligent manufacturing system solutions, and simultaneously launches the acceptance work for projects that have already won the bids.  

6. This year: A total of 449 cities across China have carried out urban assessment work. Urban assessment is a fundamental task for evaluating urban planning, construction, and management, and also an innovative measure to enhance urban governance capacity.  

1. Since the launch of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the transformation of traditional industries towards higher-end, smarter, and greener development has accelerated. The reputation of traditional manufacturing brands has significantly improved, and high-quality products are sold well globally. Taking the iron and steel industry as an example, 82.9% of enterprises have built intelligent centralized control centers, the proportion of industrial Internet platform construction and application has reached 95.1%, and the comprehensive energy consumption per unit of steel products has reached the world's advanced level.  

2. In the first three quarters, the added value of the intelligent equipment manufacturing industry increased by 12.2% year-on-year. The output of CNC machine tools, industrial control systems, 3D printing equipment, and industrial robots all achieved double-digit growth. Among them, the output of industrial robots increased by 29.8% year-on-year, reaching 595,000 sets in the first three quarters, exceeding the total annual output of the previous year.  

3. According to the National Energy Administration, as of the end of September this year, the country's cumulative installed power generation capacity reached 3.72 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%. Among them, the installed capacity of solar power generation was 1.13 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 45.7%; the installed capacity of wind power was 580 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%. - The robot industry maintained rapid growth, with operating income increasing by 29.5% year-on-year in the first eight months.  

4. In the first three quarters, the sales revenue of the national high-tech industry and equipment manufacturing industry increased by 15.2% and 9% year-on-year respectively. In particular, with the accelerated implementation of the "AI +" initiative, the sales revenue of integrated circuit manufacturing, robot manufacturing, and UAV manufacturing increased by 17%, 21.7%, and 69.8% year-on-year respectively.  

5. The 2025 project application targets the needs of digital transformation and intelligent upgrading in key industries such as raw materials, high-end equipment, consumer goods, and electronic information. It focuses on addressing bottlenecks and pain points in smart factory construction, explores and cultivates a group of professional suppliers that master core technologies, focus on segmented industries, and have industrial genes. It strengthens the "pearl-stringing" integrated innovation of intelligent manufacturing equipment, industrial software, and systems, enhances the in-depth integration of artificial intelligence technology and scenarios, deepens the development and application of national and industrial intelligent manufacturing standards, and promotes the formation, application, and verification of advanced, applicable, independent, controllable, replicable, and promotable intelligent manufacturing system solution products and services.  

6. Up to now, the number of valid patents in the global marine equipment industry has reached 306,400. From the perspective of the distribution of technology source countries or regions, the number of valid patents in China's marine equipment industry is about 166,600, accounting for 54.4% of the global total.  

7. Ministry of Commerce Regular Press Conference: From January to September this year, China's agricultural product imports reached 57.1 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%. Imports of mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products increased by 5% and 8.6% respectively. China has actively implemented the duty-free policy for 53 African countries.  

8. On October 29, the Ministry of Commerce and 4 other departments issued the Action Plan for Upgrading Urban Commercial Services, putting forward 21 specific measures. These include promoting the renovation of facilities and upgrading of business formats in pedestrian streets (business districts), and expanding the supply of diversified goods such as trendy domestic products and high-quality foreign trade products.  

9. On October 29, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China’s Innovation Index stood at 174.2 in 2024, an increase of 5.3% over the previous year, maintaining a steady growth trend. 

1. On October 30, the pouring of the last base slab of the core area foundation pit of Haimen North Station — a key control project of the newly-built Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei High-Speed Railway — was successfully completed. This marks the "bottom sealing" of the core area foundation pit of China’s currently longest, ultra-deep and ultra-large foundation pit underground high-speed railway station, and the project construction has achieved phased progress.  

2. The "Eastern Data and Western Computing" project continues to make efforts. The new computing power of the eight major computing power hub nodes accounts for more than 60% of the national total, and 4.55 million 5G base stations have formed a communication network.  

3. Tianjin Saihong Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd. Annual 100,000-ton Biomass Green Methanol Production Project: Located in Binhai New Area, Tianjin, it is in the project preparation stage with a project cost of 1.034 billion yuan.  

4. Inner Mongolia Energy Huade 500,000-kilowatt & 200,000-kilowatt-hour Independent Energy Storage Project: Located in Huade County, Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia, it is in the main construction stage with an investment of 106 million yuan. The project mainly involves the construction of one energy storage booster station.  

5. Yangtze River Delta Railway Construction Projects: In 2025, the Yangtze River Delta region plans to complete and put into operation 4 projects including the Hangzhou-Quzhou High-Speed Railway and Zhenjiang East Freight Yard, start construction of 2 projects including the Liuqing Railway and Shangyuanmen River-Crossing Tunnel, and advance the construction of 32 under-construction projects such as the Huai’an-Suzhou-Bengbu Intercity Railway, Nanjing-Huai’an Intercity Railway, and Jinhua-Jian’ou Railway. The annual construction investment is expected to exceed 130 billion yuan. 

1. On October 29, the regional joint drill for the Shenzhou-21 manned spaceship launch mission was conducted. All systems involved in the launch mission have completed relevant functional checks and made all preparations for the launch.  

2. A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai has achieved a scientific breakthrough: they successfully constructed an artificial heart-like structure in the laboratory using hydrogel and pluripotent stem cells. The structure, about 1 centimeter in diameter, can beat independently and has contractile force.  

3. A team from Tianjin University has made new achievements in the field of cartilage regeneration by developing a streamlined oxidized hyaluronic acid hydrogel. This material is flexible in application — it can be smoothly injected into the knee joint via a syringe — and has special properties: it becomes as tough as steel after entering the human body, making it suitable for cartilage repair.  

4. Professor Wang Wei’s team from a university has made a new discovery: they found the "switch" for mammalian regeneration — a substance called "retinoic acid synthase". Through experiments, after activating this "switch" in mice, the mice’s residual limbs could regrow complete cartilage, nerves, and hair follicles within 30 days.  

5. Professor Nie Zhensui’s team from Zhejiang University has made a breakthrough in the field of regeneration by developing a nanoscale calcium phosphate repair material. The core advantages of this material lie in its size and function: first, it is made of calcium phosphate with a thickness of only 2 nanometers; second, it is crafted into a "repair armor" that can be directly applied to the tooth surface. Moreover, it has a remarkable effect — it can promote the autonomous regeneration of tooth enamel within 48 hours.  

6. Professor Deng Hongkui’s team has developed a new therapy to help diabetic patients get rid of insulin dependence. The core method of the team is to first extract the patient’s own somatic cells, induce them into "hypersensitive islet" cells, and then infuse these cells back into the patient’s body. One diabetic patient completely stopped using insulin 75 days after the cell infusion, marking an important progress in the research of islet regeneration.  

7. A team from West China Hospital of Sichuan University and Army Medical University has collaborated to publish the world’s first human T-cell aging atlas in Nature Aging. The team conducted large-scale single-cell sequencing on the thymus and peripheral blood of subjects ranging from infants to centenarians. They found that aging leads to a decline in the potential of T cells in the thymus and the accumulation of inflammatory cells. Additionally, the team developed a tool that can accurately assess physiological immune age and discovered a "young immune state" in centenarians, providing a new path for intervening in immune aging and preventing/treating cancer and infections.  

8. The 2025 Beijing International Biomedical Industry Innovation Forum has concluded. With the theme "Innovation Knows No Borders, Health for a Shared Future", the forum gathered global regulatory authorities, scientific research institutions, and leading enterprises. The forum revealed that Beijing has approved a total of 81 Class III innovative medical devices, ranking first in China in the number of approved AI medical devices and surgical robots. Wang Hongwei, Vice President of Tsinghua University, proposed to promote the integration of medicine and artificial intelligence, break disciplinary barriers, build a full-chain innovation ecosystem, and enable AI doctors and robots to enter physical hospitals to serve patients.  

9. China has become the only country in the world to achieve breakthroughs in both quantum computing routes (photonic quantum and superconducting quantum), with the core achievements coming from Professor Pan Jianwei’s team at the University of Science and Technology of China. The team’s "Jiuzhang-2" photonic quantum computer solves the "Gaussian boson sampling" problem 100 million times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer, taking only 0.001 seconds to process the task. The "Zuchongzhi-2" superconducting quantum computer has 66 quantum bits with a bit fidelity of 99.2%, and its accuracy in HIV drug screening has increased from 73% to 97%. The former has fast computing speed, while the latter has programmable capabilities.  

10. At 11:55 on October 26, 2025 (Beijing Time), the Xichang Satellite Launch Center successfully sent the Gaofen-14 02 satellite into the scheduled orbit using a Long March-3B carrier rocket. This is the 603rd flight of the Long March series carrier rockets. As an important member of China’s high-resolution earth observation system, this "space surveyor" has outstanding performance: its panchromatic resolution reaches 0.6 meters, allowing it to clearly identify details such as ground bridges and buildings; the plane accuracy of single-route uncontrolled positioning is about 1.83 meters, and the elevation accuracy is about 0.93 meters. It has the ability to efficiently acquire global high-precision stereoscopic images, can produce 1:10,000 scale digital topographic maps and generate products such as digital elevation models. It can achieve global high-precision surveying and mapping without relying on ground control points, providing key geographic information support for the implementation of the "Belt and Road" Initiative as well as national economic and national defense construction.  

11. A forum hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences released an "Earth Health Check Report" titled Global-Scale Scientific Monitoring Report on Sustainable Development (2025). The report shows that the global sustainable development situation is urgent: among the 18 key monitored indicators, 11 are marked with "yellow lights" or "red lights" (indicating "significant challenges" or "major challenges"), and 8 indicators show a downward trend, involving core fields such as food security, water resources, and biodiversity. However, China has bucked the trend: in 15 indicators with the characteristics of national independent contribution, its average contribution rate reaches 5.84%, ranking first in the world, with outstanding performance especially in the fields of ecological protection and sustainable resource utilization. The monitoring method of this report is quite innovative: it integrates multi-source earth big data such as satellite remote sensing, establishes a unified global standardized scientific monitoring system, which is more objective and accurate than the traditional method of countries submitting data independently. It also simultaneously demonstrates related achievements such as the application of AI technology.  

12. Domestic AI companies Minx Xi and Jizhi jointly released the open-source text large model M2, which ranks among the top 5 in the global authoritative list and No. 1 in the open-source field. M2 has outstanding cost-effectiveness: its API cost is only 8% of that of Cloud Sonnet 4.5, while its inference speed is twice as fast. It can handle tasks such as code debugging and financial research report analysis, and also provides free API access for two weeks.  

13. Professor Peng Hailin’s team from Peking University published a paper in Nature Communications, solving the problem of chip photoresist. They used cryo-electron tomography to clearly observe the three-dimensional structure of photoresist molecules, which can reduce photolithography defects, point out the direction for the research and development of high-end photoresist, and contribute to China’s chip manufacturing. 

1. Recently, the Ministry of Education released the List of National Competitions for Primary and Middle School Students in the 2025-2028 Academic Year, which includes 47 competitions such as the "National Youth Artificial Intelligence Innovation Challenge".  

2. As reported on October 29, from January to September this year, 10.57 million new jobs were created in urban areas across the country, completing 88% of the annual target, and the employment situation remained generally stable.  

3. On October 27, "Xiao'an" — the world's first full-size bionic robot to enter classroom teaching scenarios — officially "gave a lecture" in a science education class at Hefei Normal University Affiliated Primary School. With a height of 1.4 meters, it is equipped with 34-degree-of-freedom dexterous hardware components and integrates the company's independently developed expression generation system and personality customization engine. This enables "Xiao'an" not only to achieve emotional synchronous interaction with children, but also to have the guiding ability of a professional science teacher, which can gradually inspire students to conduct in-depth learning. This "robot teacher" strictly aligns with the current science education syllabus and practical needs, and a complete semester of science education courses has been developed to match it.  

4. Major events in multiple regions: The "Hubei Entrepreneurs Conference" opened in Wuhan, reaching cooperation on 57 projects; the appointment ceremony of Bay Area Innovation Technology Managers was held in Guangzhou.

1. Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone (Beijing Yizhuang) organized four high-tech enterprises including Feida Jieneng and Ruihong Robot to participate in the 6th Southeast Asia Sustainable Development Exhibition. The participating enterprises had a total of over 2,000 customer communications and reached more than 80 cooperation intentions.  

2. Economic data of Shanghai in the first three quarters of 2025 shows that during this period, the output value of manufacturing in the three leading industries increased by 8.5% year-on-year, 2.8 percentage points faster than the total industrial output value of enterprises above designated size in the city. Among them, the AI manufacturing industry grew by 12.8%, the integrated circuit manufacturing industry by 11.3%, and the biomedical manufacturing industry by 3.6%. In addition,  

3. On October 30, Shanghai held events including the IHMD2025 7th High-end Medical Device Forum and the offline salon themed "Farewell to 'Blind Operation', Embrace 'Clear Information' — A New Paradigm of AI-Driven Financial Risk Control".  

4. Tianjin: On October 30, the website of Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau announced the list of the 6th batch of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises included in the database in Tianjin in 2025, with Tianjin Hezhi Youde Technology Development Co., Ltd. on the list.  

5. Nanjing: In accordance with the unified deployment of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology recently completed the public announcement of the 7th batch of national "Little Giant" enterprises (specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative). A total of 125 enterprises in Nanjing were on the list, with the number of new additions ranking 7th in China.  

6. Chengdu: The main building of the AMOLED display glass-based photolithography finishing project invested and constructed by Chengdu Vog Display Technology Co., Ltd. was capped in Chengdu High-Tech Zone. As a key project for "building industrial clusters and strengthening industrial chains" in the new display industry of Chengdu High-Tech Zone, the project has a total investment of 628 million yuan. After completion and operation, it will provide supporting services for BOE's 8.6th-generation AMOLED production line.  

7. From October 28 to 30, the 4th China (Western) Chengdu International Semiconductor Industry Expo was held at Chengdu Western China International Expo City.  

8. Wuhan: On October 30, the 2025 Forum on Digital and Intelligent Supply Chains Empowering High-Quality Development of Local Industries was held in Wuhan.  

9. In 2025, Wuhan has fully launched the development of the artificial intelligence industry through a series of measures. It focuses on five major application scenarios including AI and robots, automobiles, and mobile phones, promotes the evolution of large models to intelligent agents, ensures substantial progress in ten key fields, and helps the implementation of more than 40 commercial projects.  

10. The integration of the Yangtze River Delta has expanded to a deeper level. With national key laboratories and a large number of listed technology companies, it has formed an innovative industrial cluster with global competitiveness and has the conditions to build an industrial innovation belt with world influence. 

1. The 30th Macao International Trade and Investment Fair: Over 40 countries and regions participated in the fair. More than 50 economic and trade conferences and forums were held, including regional cooperation forums and professional meetings, which comprehensively strengthened Macao’s function as a regional economic and trade platform.  

2. 2025 China-Japan-ROK (Chengdu) SME Economic and Trade Exchange Conference & Western China SME Development Conference: The event focused on China’s "Little Giant" enterprises (specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative) and industrial fields such as biomedicine, digital cultural and creative industries, and modern education among China, Japan, and the ROK. It set up sessions including professional project roadshows, targeted matching negotiations, and characteristic park visits, and also featured a "Little Giant" enterprise exhibition area to showcase a number of innovative achievements.  

3. The 26th China International Education Annual Conference: The main events will be held in Beijing with the theme "Seeing the World Through Education", and New Zealand will be the Guest Country of Honor. As one of the most influential international education events in the Asia-Pacific region, the annual conference will gather education leaders, experts, scholars, and industry representatives from more than 60 countries and regions around the world to jointly discuss new trends and opportunities in global education development.  

4. The "Global Governance and Common Prosperity in Asia-Pacific" Dialogue was held in Beijing, covering international cooperation topics.  

5. Seminar Information: On October 28, the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum – Capital Frontier Academic Achievement Report Meeting (in the field of cell and gene therapy) was held in the Taishan Hall of Weishi International Cultural Exchange Center at Beihang University Science and Technology Park.  

6. The 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held from November 5 to 10. A total of 155 countries, regions, and international organizations will participate, along with 4,108 overseas enterprises. The total exhibition area will exceed 430,000 square meters, setting a new record in scale.  

7. On October 30, the 2025 International Symposium on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ISTS 2025) was held in Shenzhen.  

8. From October 28 to 30, NEPCON ASIA 2025 (Asia Electronics Show) was held at Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center. Centering on cutting-edge tracks such as AI, embodied intelligent robots, and IGBT & SiC power modules, the exhibition helped enterprises accurately capture technological trends through forms including core component disassembly, on-site production line demonstrations, and high-end forum salons. 

As the global landscape continues to shift, China’s strategic pulse beats with innovation, resilience, and ambition. From technological breakthroughs to international cooperation, each development reflects a nation charting its course toward a future of strength and sustainability. Whether observed by many or few, these movements matter. The blueprint is drawn, the breakthroughs are underway—and the momentum is unmistakable.