Another weakness of China is "stuck in the neck" of the United States, and how should domestic industrial software develop?

Over the years, China has been stuck on the chip and has been continuously "stuck in the neck" by the United States. Recently, some media have exposed that in addition to chips, another weakness of the mainland also has the risk of being "stuck in the neck" - that is, industrial software. And we are also aware of the weaknesses in this field and are trying to make up for the shortcomings.

The Americans are not only "sanctioning" us on chips, but also not ambiguous about industrial software. For example, a software development company in the United States once stopped providing a design software for Chinese mainland according to the "latest import and export control list of the US government". This has had a big impact. Because, this software is a common software for many science and engineering college students. In fact, from airplanes and ships to the research and development and design of a car, it is inseparable from industrial software. Unfortunately, most of this software is in the hands of the United States and a few Western countries. This means that 95% of the R&D and design industrial software used in the Chinese mainland manufacturing industry is in the hands of others. The tools you use in your hands are people's hands, and they will confiscate them at any time, which is too dangerous for China-US relations today, when Sino-US relations are becoming more complicated.

We have not paid attention to the development of industrial software before. This has resulted in the development of industrial software, which has lost financial support.

"It is better to build than to buy, it is better to buy than to rent" has become a popular practice, and everyone directly uses money to buy foreign industrial software simply and rudely. Some domestic experts have realized the seriousness of the matter. At the 24th China International Software Expo, Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, issued a warning on software shortcomings. He gave the example of Apple. "From the perspective of the iPhone value chain, most of China's companies are in a low-end manufacturing position," he said. "If you can't get to the top of the value chain through industrial software, through the advanced work of the industrial base, then the work can only be at the low end." "We must not only solve the modernization of the industrial chain, but also solve the problem of advanced industrial technology." Therefore, our previous idea of "building is better than buying, buying is better than renting" is a detour, and now we have to make up for the shortcomings. The software market is monopolized by foreign companies, and China desperately needs to break out of their control. Since we realize that we have to catch up, we naturally need the strong support of the state. Ni Guangnan suggested that industrial software should be included in major national software projects and vigorously supported by the software fund.

On January 12 this year, the 19th China International Software Cooperation Fair kicked off in Chengdu. Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, continued to express his views on the issue of industrial software. He said that at present, the industrial software industry in the mainland is facing three major problems.

First, the core technology of industrial software is not in our own hands. Moreover, enterprises are "bulk" and fight each other. According to statistics, there are 841 industrial software companies in China, plus an estimated 1,000 or so that have not been acquired, and these companies basically do not have the ability to develop key core technologies. Second, our last wave of manufacturing upgrades has been completed. In the next step, we need to vigorously develop Industry 4.0, intelligent manufacturing, and realize the integrated development of intelligence and industrialization. At this juncture, we need a new generation of industrial software, and only when the tools in hand are updated, what we do can be updated. However, in this unconnected stall, our industrial software is not ready. Third, the high-end core technology of mainland industrial software has long been monopolized by foreign countries. So, it's a very tricky question.

Over the years, we've heard too many big words. For example, what "intelligent manufacturing", "Internet of Things", "blockchain big data", etc., last year, also fired a "metaverse" concept. The new terms appeared one after the other. But to implement these things, you need more advanced industrial software. There must be software that is more in line with the future of intelligent manufacturing, only in this way, the "big words" we often mention can be realized one day.

Now, we have to soberly admit that the industrial software Chinese mainland is 30 years behind the international highest level. Moreover, the special thing about industrial software is that its volume is small, the research and development cycle is long, and the investment is large, which makes the capital market really "can't love it". You think ah, the small volume, indicating that its market prospects are not good; the research and development cycle is long, the investment is large, indicating that its initial investment cost is large, it is likely that the software has not been developed yet, and it cannot be sustained first. This makes many companies prohibitive.

Industrial software has become the only industrial technology field with a growing gap with foreign counterparts since the reform and opening up of the Chinese mainland, but now, we must solve it. We have upgraded our own manufacturing round. Can we safely monopolize software tools in the hands of Western countries in the next round of intelligent manufacturing? This will have a fatal impact on our next round of manufacturing upgrades.

So, how should our domestic industrial software develop?

Now, if you want to "take it" from the United States, you can't do it, and people "stuck their necks" and cut off the supply. This has forced us to embark on the road of independent research and development. At present, the mainland industrial software industry is in a stage of rapid development, after all, it has just started, so it must be fast. According to estimates, the mainland will cultivate 1 million industrial apps in 2025. In fact, the domestic industrial software is not only an industrial problem, but also a national strategic issue. Without state support, it is really difficult for us to break through the market on its own. As I said earlier, the natural characteristics of this field are destined to be unpopular with capital. It is necessary to have the support of national policies in order to properly develop China's industrial software. Now, the problem we face is that the foundation is too weak. In 2018, China's industrial added value accounted for nearly 30% of the world, but the industrial software market accounted for less than 6% of the world. The top ten industrial software suppliers in the domestic market, Chinese software companies are absent in terms of R & D and design. Moreover, the market environment is not good. Piracy squeezes the living space of domestic software, and the income of industrial software talents is not high. As a result, it is more difficult for us to get out of this predicament.

In itself, "industry" and "software" are mutually influential. Industrial software is by no means a tool problem. Advanced industrialization determines the advanced degree of industrial software; on the contrary, the advanced degree of industrial software determines the efficiency of industry. Intelligent manufacturing, pay attention to the "four basics": one soft, one hard, one network, one cloud. "One soft" refers to industrial software. "One hard" refers to the industrial control system, "one network" refers to the industrial Internet, and "one cloud" refers to the industrial cloud service platform. Industrial software is the brain of intelligent manufacturing, industrial software supports and defines intelligent manufacturing, so we must take it into our own hands.

With the in-depth development of digitalization, networking and intelligence, industrial software is a core foundation of China's manufacturing industry. Experts say: The basis of Made in China 2025 is industrial software and chips as well as several strategic emerging industries. In order to improve the quality of our industrial software, in fact, as early as 2020, the state issued the "Several Policies for Promoting the High-quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry and the Software Industry in the New Era", which enhanced the confidence of the mainland in the development of industrial software in the form of national policies. Industrial software, especially R&D and design industrial software, is the pain point of mainland industrialization and is one of the 35 key technologies of mainland "card neck". This matter is not only an enterprise issue, but also a national strategic issue, and also a problem for China's future.

We have an old saying: it's not too late to make amends.

We took a detour before because we were eager to develop, and we also had limited vision, and we felt that "take-ism" was convenient and practical. In fact, during that period, China was developing rapidly, and the "take-ism" really kept up with our progress. Moreover, the international environment at that time was not the same as it is now. However, times are different. Now, China and the United States have fully "torn apart," and the United States regards China as its number one strategic opponent. At this time, we discovered the drawbacks of "take-ism". So, now we have to take back the "lost twenty years", although industrial software is not as easy to break through as other fields. We did hit a bottleneck. However, after all, we now have a certain ability, and the foundation of thinking about it is completely different. Since the United States has also tried to card our necks in terms of software, we will follow the trend and take advantage of the development of our country's industrial software.

In fact, the problem of development is solved by development. Because of our limited vision and limited times, there must be many choices that are not suitable for now. When you see a problem, you change it in time. Seeing the backward place, they quickly tried to catch up. We have caught up with more fields, so we are not afraid of falling behind others, which is the strength of the bottom line. In the future, our industrial software research and development, there may be a difficult road to go, since we have decided to embark on this road, then try to cross all the ditches and bumps, take this road through!