China’s new Communist Party body to drive tech self-reliance is up and running

Name: What to expect from China under third-term President Xi Jinping | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo
Uploaded: 2023-08-26T12:00:14.000Z
Duration: 30 min 39 s
Description: What to expect from China under third-term President Xi Jinping | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

Central Science and Technology Commission held first meeting in July, ministry post cited by state media says

Commission is final body set up under sweeping overhaul plan announced in March to assert direct party control over multiple policy areas

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The science commission will oversee Beijing’s technological self-sufficiency drive as the United States doubles down on its containment of China. Photo: Shutterstock

William Zheng

Published: 8:00pm, 26 Aug 2023

China’s ruling Communist Party has set up a new commission to oversee development of science and technology, as it wraps up a massive overhaul of government and party bodies announced in March.

Cadres were studying outcomes from “the first meeting” of the Central Science and Technology Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a post on its official website on July 17.

The post – which was the first public reference to the new party body – went unnoticed until state media highlighted it last Sunday.

No other information was provided about the members of the commission or its head.

The reshuffle of state and party institutions, proposed during the annual legislative sessions in March, is aimed at asserting direct party control on a wider range of policy areas.

30:39

What to expect from China under third-term President Xi Jinping | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

The science commission, which will oversee Beijing’s technological self-sufficiency drive, is the final one to be set up under the overhaul plan. It comes as the United States doubles down on its containment of China’s tech sector, including the suspension of hi-tech exports, over what it says are security concerns.

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