Germany’s Handelsblatt devoted detailed coverage to China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, reflecting strong German industrial interest in the trajectory of the Chinese economy. The plan—in which the word “innovation” appears 169 times—targets at least 7% annual growth in research and development spending, to be implemented through 109 major government projects coordinated by the National Development and Reform Commission.
State planners have identified six industries as future pillars of the economy: domestic chip manufacturing, space defense and commercial satellite networks, biomedicine (where China already hosts nine of the world’s 20 most valuable biotech companies), a “low-altitude economy” built around drones and air taxis, next-generation battery technologies, and embedded AI with a particular focus on humanoid robotics.
Beyond these near-term priorities, the plan targets breakthroughs in quantum computing, bio-manufacturing, green hydrogen, nuclear fusion, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G communications—areas where China is either already competitive or seeking to close the gap with the United States.
