China’s thirteenth Five Year Plan since 1953 was unveiled on Saturday, and it’s all about the internet and technology. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Five Year Plans are a series of regularly implemented initiatives that are designed to help develop China both economically and socially. This time around, China wants to focus on expanding and improving internet access in the country, especially in major urban areas, and reducing its dependence on foreign technology. China is hoping that this will help breathe new life into its slowing economy, as well as turn it into a technology powerhouse on the same level as the United States.
China has been making Five Year Plans ever since Chairman Mao’s regime in the 1950s, but their latest promises to be the most tech-forward yet. On Saturday, Beijing unveiled its 13th such strategy to catapult China into the leading position in terms of “advanced industries,” including semiconductors, chip materials, robotics, aviation equipment, and satellites, Reuters reports. Named “Internet Plus,” the policy sets a series of goals for China to follow from this year through 2020, and depends heavily upon the power of the web and technology as a whole to reinvigorate a slowing economy and turn the nation into a digital power house. As part of Internet Plus, China plans to bolster its research and development spending to a total of 2.5 percent of gross domestic product through 2020. This represents an increase of 0.4 percent, as such spending accounted for 2.1 percent of GDP from 2011 to 2015. In a speech announcing the new way forward, Premier Li Keqiang called this growth a “remarkable achievement.” China will also look to decrease its dependency on foreign imports and non-domestic tech innovations, instead investing more resources into homegrown companies. Needless to say, this has already drawn protests from countries like the U.S., for whom China’s relatively untapped market presents a huge opportunity.
