From embodied AI to bio-manufacturing, and from new battery technologies to green hydrogen, a growing number of new technologies are transitioning from laboratories to diverse application scenarios, fundamentally reshaping the industrial landscape and the future of economic and social development. The "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China," released on March 13th, proposes that over the next five years, China will "cultivate and strengthen emerging industries and future industries." It specifically identifies ten key "new industries and sectors," including embodied AI, domestically-produced large aircraft, brain-computer interfaces, and low-altitude equipment. How will these goals be achieved? What impact will the strategic layout of these new sectors have on future industrial development?
According to a prominent economist and founding dean of a national research institute for the new economy, emerging and future industries represent the forefront of the technological revolution and industrial transformation. They are the core vehicles for cultivating new quality productive forces. Their designation as key industries for future development reflects a strategic vision of "planning for the future and making early arrangements."
The 14th Five-Year Plan outlines ten new industrial sectors. When technologies like brain-computer interfaces and embodied AI become increasingly integrated into daily life, they cease to be merely cutting-edge lab experiments and instead form the foundation of future-leading industries. The economist stated that this is precisely the rationale behind the national strategic layout of new technologies and sectors in the plan, "demonstrating the strategic choice regarding the drivers of economic transformation in the new development stage."
This strategic choice is an inevitable outcome of adapting to new international and domestic trends. The economist explained that emerging and future industries represent the direction of technological advancement and industrial change, serving as the core for developing new productive forces. Sectors such as aerospace, the low-altitude economy, green hydrogen, and new battery technologies are rapidly growing into emerging pillar industries. Internationally, with intensifying global technological competition, all countries are vying for dominance in frontier areas. China must follow this trend to secure a high ground in the global industrial division of labor. Domestically, the fundamental path to solving "bottleneck" problems and achieving high-level technological self-reliance lies in achieving breakthroughs and industrial transformation through these new sectors. Prioritizing them focuses on medium-to-long-term competitiveness, building strategic advantages for sustained and healthy economic development, and represents a precise and scientific response to the trends of the times.
Although some new sectors, like embodied AI and brain-computer interfaces, are still some distance from large-scale application, the economist believes that listing them as national priorities demonstrates a forward-looking strategic perspective. "The cultivation of future industries involves long cycles, significant investment, and rapid technological iteration. Strategic reserves must be initiated while technologies are still in their breakthrough phase to avoid constraints at critical junctures. These areas hold the potential for disruptive technologies; once breakthroughs occur, they could completely restructure industrial landscapes and create immense economic and social value. For example, the low-altitude economy can interconnect manufacturing, transportation, cultural tourism, and other fields, forming entirely new industrial ecosystems. From an industrial development perspective, emerging industries require a long incubation period from lab to market, where early policy guidance and resource support are crucial. Early layout, through policy direction, resource concentration, and scenario openness, can accelerate technological maturation and industrialization, creating a first-mover advantage. This is not only an investment in the future but also a means to gain initiative in future industrial competition and inject lasting momentum into national development," he said.
Regarding the goals and pathways outlined in the plan for these new sectors, the economist outlined clear, phased objectives. The overarching goal is to build a modern industrial system with international competitiveness and provide solid industrial support for achieving Chinese modernization. Specifically, the targets operate on three levels: technological, industrial, and ecological. The technological goal aims for key breakthroughs in core technologies within priority areas like embodied AI and bio-manufacturing over the next five years, narrowing the gap with international advanced levels and achieving leadership in some fields. The industrial goal is to establish emerging industries as key pillars of the national economy, with future industries achieving scale and industrial development, significantly increasing their contribution to GDP, and creating several globally influential industrial clusters. The ecological goal is to establish a number of industrial ecosystems characterized by factor aggregation, functional completeness, and open collaboration, nurturing a large cohort of innovative, market-competitive leading enterprises and specialized, sophisticated SMEs, laying a solid foundation for long-term healthy industrial development.
On August 7, 2025, the "Galaxy Capsule," a smart kiosk featuring the world's first embodied AI robot as a shop assistant, debuted at Zhongguancun Darong Mall. How are these targets to be realized? The 14th Five-Year Plan also provides a clear roadmap. The economist explained that the cultivation of new sectors emphasizes systematic advancement and precise policy implementation. Core pathways include strengthening top-level design and coordinated planning, building a national, local, and enterprise three-tiered cultivation system with clearly defined priorities and implementation steps. It involves adhering to innovation-driven development, increasing investment in basic research and frontier technology R&D, leveraging platforms like national laboratories and new R&D institutions to concentrate efforts on breaking through key core technologies, and solidifying the industrial foundation. Other pathways are deepening open collaboration, encouraging cooperation between domestic and international innovators, active participation in international standard-setting, and integration into global innovation networks; focusing on scenario empowerment, constructing dedicated application scenario demonstration bases and open testing platforms for specific sectors like the low-altitude economy and embodied AI to enable iterative validation of technologies in real-world settings and accelerate the commercialization of results; and improving factor support, providing preferential allocation of capital, talent, data, land, and other factors to foster a favorable ecosystem for enterprise innovation. "It can be seen that through these multi-dimensional measures in the plan's implementation path, new industries and sectors will be propelled from concept to reality, achieving healthy and sustainable development," he said.
Despite widespread attention and the emergence of trends around many new technologies, a significant gap remains before their universal and mature application. The 14th Five-Year Plan explicitly calls for establishing risk-sharing mechanisms. What risks do these new technologies and industries face? The economist identified several types of risks. First is uncertainty risk: technological pathways in frontier areas are not yet fully defined. For instance, R&D in areas like multi-modal perception for embodied AI requires large investments and has high failure rates, posing risks of R&D bottlenecks and rapid technological obsolescence. Second is the risk of an underdeveloped industrial ecosystem: weaknesses exist in the supply chain for core components, materials, and equipment. For example, supporting systems for key materials in new batteries are not yet fully established, hindering large-scale industrial development. Third is market risk: application scenarios for some sectors are not fully opened. The commercial operational models for the low-altitude economy, for instance, still require validation, and market acceptance remains uncertain. Concurrently, risks of international competition and technological blockade are intensifying amid fierce global tech rivalry, creating pressure from potential "chokepoint" technologies and equipment. Additionally, challenges include talent shortages, insufficient funding, lagging regulatory frameworks, and safety and ethical concerns, all posing real threats to healthy industry development.
On June 26, 2025, at the second Intelligent Medical-Engineering Industry Innovation Development Conference in Fengtai District, staff demonstrated brain-computer interface equipment. How should future challenges and risks be addressed? How can risk-sharing mechanisms be established? The economist argued that tackling challenges and risks requires a problem-oriented approach and multiple measures. Firstly, strengthen core technology攻关 (gōngguān, tackle key problems), leveraging the advantages of the national system to concentrate resources on breaking key bottlenecks in areas like new batteries, low-altitude equipment, and brain-computer interfaces. Secondly, improve the industrial ecosystem by enhancing coordination between upstream and downstream segments of the industrial chain, nurturing supporting enterprises, and perfecting the supply chain system for new sectors. Thirdly, optimize the market environment by increasing the openness of application scenarios and cultivating market demand through policy guidance and demonstration projects. Fourthly, strengthen international cooperation, actively participate in global governance, and enhance international discourse power.
Regarding risk-sharing mechanisms, a diversified system involving government, enterprises, financial institutions, and social capital should be constructed. At the government level, this could involve establishing special funds, providing risk compensation, implementing tax incentives to reduce early-stage R&D and trial-and-error costs. At the enterprise level, internal risk-sharing mechanisms should be established, dispersing risks through technological collaboration and intellectual property sharing. At the financial level, develop financial instruments like technology insurance, IP pledge financing, and venture capital to provide capital security for enterprises. At the societal level, guide industry associations, research institutions, and others to participate in risk co-governance, forming a collaborative pattern where multiple parties share the risks.
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