In the hundred years since the founding of the party, what achievements have been made in China's scientific and technological undertakings under the leadership of the party? Facing the future, how will we achieve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance? The Economic Daily reporter interviewed Wang Zhigang, secretary of the party group and minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Scientific and technological innovation has made historic achievements
Reporter: What major achievements have been made in the field of science and technology under the leadership of the party, and what important progress has been made in the cause of science and technology under the leadership of the party?
Wang Zhigang: The Communist Party of China has gone through a glorious course of one hundred years, and this is also a hundred years of unremitting struggle of our party in leading the development of science and technology in China. Our party has always attached importance to giving play to the role of science and technology in advancing the party's cause, and in different historical periods, in accordance with the party's mission and central tasks, it has put forward the development strategy and tactics of science and technology. Under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, China's scientific and technological undertakings started on the basis of being poor and white, experienced arduous exploration, and achieved brilliant achievements, providing solid and powerful support for the Chinese nation to usher in the great leap from standing up and getting rich to becoming strong.
Especially since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has accurately grasped the general trend of world scientific and technological innovation and development, based on the characteristics of China's new development stage, adhered to the path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics, attached great importance to it, the intensity of policies, and the strength of promotion was unprecedented, forming a complete system from guiding ideology to strategic deployment to major actions, and China's scientific and technological innovation has made historic achievements and undergone historic changes.
The overall strength of basic research has been significantly strengthened. Quantum information, iron-based superconductivity, stem cells, synthetic biology, brain science and other frontier directions have achieved a number of major original achievements. "Chang'e 5" realized the return of extraterrestrial object samples, "Tianwen-1" opened Mars exploration, and the space station "Tiangong" accelerated construction. A number of major scientific and technological infrastructures with world-class level, such as spallation neutron sources, have passed the acceptance test.
New leaps have been made in the strategic high-tech field. Actively seize the commanding heights of science and technology in the fields of deep sea, deep space, deep earth and deep blue. "Haidou-1" completed the 10,000-meter sea test, the Beidou satellite navigation system was fully opened, the "Long March 5" Yaosan carrier rocket was successfully launched, and the world's strongest deep-earth nuclear astrophysical accelerator was successfully beamed.
Science and technology have effectively stimulated the endogenous driving force of economic and industrial development. Major scientific and technological achievements such as mobile communications, oil and gas development, and nuclear power have supported the rapid development of emerging industries, and new technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence have promoted the vigorous rise of the digital economy, platform economy, and sharing economy.
The ability of scientific and technological innovation to support the improvement of people's livelihood has been significantly enhanced. Cancer and other fields have broken the monopoly of foreign patented drugs, and major progress has been made in the localization and replacement of high-end medical equipment such as color ultrasound and CT. 850,000 science and technology commissioners have gone deep into the frontline of poverty alleviation. Promote and apply many key technologies such as clean and efficient combustion of coal。
The "four beams and eight pillars" of scientific and technological system reform have been basically established. Further strengthen the overall allocation of scientific and technological resources, and continuously optimize the management of scientific research projects and funds. Implement a distribution policy oriented to increasing the value of knowledge, expand the autonomy related to scientific research, deepen the reform of scientific and technological evaluation, and reduce the burden on scientific researchers. Improve the legal system and policy environment for science and technology, build a large supervision pattern of science and technology, and continuously improve the governance system and governance capabilities of science and technology.
The layout of regional innovation is constantly optimized. Beijing, Shanghai and guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area international science and technology innovation centers have accelerated construction. Accelerate docking and cooperation in scientific and technological resources and innovation elements in the eastern, central and western regions. The development speed and quality of 21 national independent innovation demonstration zones and 169 national high-tech zones have been double-improved.
The depth and breadth of scientific and technological openness and cooperation have been continuously expanded. Strengthen intergovernmental bilateral and multilateral scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation, and establish innovative dialogue mechanisms with many countries. Actively participate in and lead the organization of international big science plans and big science projects, and the "Belt and Road" science and technology innovation action plan has achieved fruitful results. The opening up and cooperation of science and technology has effectively promoted the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.
The main target indicators of scientific and technological innovation have been basically completed
Reporter: Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, what are the important changes in the development of China's scientific and technological undertakings?
Wang Zhigang: Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's scientific and technological undertakings have achieved historic, integrated, and structural changes: Scientific and technological strength has entered a new stage of leaping from quantitative accumulation to qualitative leap, breakthroughs in points to the improvement of system capabilities, and new historic achievements have been made in scientific and technological innovation; important technological fields have entered the stage of coexistence of "three runs" from comprehensive backwardness to follow- and run, run and lead, and the proportion of running and leading has been expanding, and some frontier fields have begun to enter the leading stage; innovation-driven development strategies have been implemented in depth, and talents are strong, science and technology are strong to industries. The innovative development path of strong economy and strong country is accelerating.
In the past five years, the research and experimental development (R&D) funding of the whole society has increased from 1.42 trillion yuan in 2015 to about 2.44 trillion yuan in 2020, and the intensity of R&D investment is expected to be about 2.4% in 2020. Among them, basic research funding has nearly doubled compared with 2015, and it is expected to exceed 150 billion yuan in 2020. In 2020, the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress is expected to exceed 60%, achieving the expected goals; the proportion of citizens with scientific quality exceeds 10%. According to the Global Innovation Index released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China's ranking jumped from 29th in 2015 to 14th in 2020. On the whole, decisive achievements have been made in the construction of an innovative country, and the main target indicators of scientific and technological innovation have been basically completed.
Reporter: Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, scientific research has provided important technical support for fighting the epidemic, what important role has the party's leadership played in it? What is China's long-term layout in the field of biomedicine for people's life and health in the future?
Wang Zhigang: After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, General Secretary Xi Jinping made a series of important instructions on epidemic prevention and control, personally planning, personally deploying and personally promoting. In accordance with the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the Ministry of Science and Technology, together with 12 departments and units, has set up a scientific research group of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, formed an expert group led by Academician Zhong Nanshan and composed of 14 experts, set up 10 special work classes, systematically laid out to promote scientific research on epidemic prevention and control, and more than 4,300 scientific researchers in 13 departments at the national level participated in anti-epidemic research, involving 378 scientific research teams in 61 second-level disciplines. From sharing viruses and gene sequences for the first time, realizing large-scale nucleic acid detection to rapid research and development of vaccines, science and technology has provided strong support in controlling infection, tracing the origin of viruses, disease treatment, vaccine and drug research and development, and resuming work and production, and China's scientific research has shown a "hard core force against the epidemic".
Inactivated vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, attenuated influenza virus vector vaccines and nucleic acid vaccines have all entered the clinical trial stage, a total of 21 as of now, of which 4 vaccines have been approved for conditional marketing in China, 3 vaccines have been approved for conditional emergency use in China, 8 vaccines have been approved to carry out phase III clinical trials abroad, and 1 mRNA vaccine has been ethically approved abroad. Whether it is the R&D technical route, the number of vaccine varieties, the richness of variety types or the progress of research and development, China's new crown vaccine research and development is in the world's first party.
In the next step, we will give full play to the supporting and leading role of scientific and technological innovation in protecting people's lives and health. The first is to further give play to the role of the new national system, strengthen the capacity building of the scientific and technological innovation system, and establish a scientific research system and rapid support mechanism that combines peacetime and wartime cooperation. Focus on key areas such as the prevention and control of major diseases such as infectious diseases, reproductive health, and population aging, and continuously increase the deployment of scientific and technological tasks. The second is to continue to promote scientific research on epidemic prevention and control, strengthen the analysis and judgment of the development of the epidemic situation and risk early warning, and accelerate the research and development of vaccines and antibody drugs, the iterative upgrading of detection technologies and products, and the tracking and research of virus mutations. The third is to accelerate the completion of pathogenic research and high-end medical equipment shortcomings, and realize the independent control of the support and guarantee technology system.
The "four efforts" to achieve a high level of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology
Reporter: The Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed that scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement should be regarded as the strategic support for national development. In the future, how will we achieve scientific and technological self-reliance?
Wang Zhigang: Facing the future, we must transform the high expectations and trust of the Party Central Committee for scientific and technological innovation into a powerful driving force for accelerating the pace of scientific and technological innovation, focus on achieving a high level of self-reliance and self-improvement, and coordinate the urgent and long-term needs of the country, focusing on the "four efforts".
The first is to focus on breaking through key core technologies, making up for technical shortcomings in key areas, deploying innovation chains around the industrial chain, laying out the industrial chain around the innovation chain, establishing first-mover advantages in the forefront of the new scientific and technological revolution, establishing a long board of technology, and ensuring the security of the industrial chain supply chain with scientific and technological innovation. The second is to focus on strengthening basic research and original innovation, strengthening the condensation of basic scientific problems from production practice, encouraging curiosity-driven basic research, and promoting the coordinated development of basic research and applied research. The third is to focus on strengthening the strategic scientific and technological strength, accelerating the construction of national laboratories, reorganizing the state key laboratory system, giving full play to the role of the national team of universities and scientific research institutes, cultivating more innovative leading enterprises, and creating a number of regional innovation highlands with international competitiveness. The fourth is to focus on promoting the reform of institutional mechanisms, in accordance with the positioning of grasping strategy, grasping reform, grasping planning, and grasping services, with greater courage to promote the transformation of scientific and technological management functions, strengthen the guidance of planning policies, reform the evaluation and incentive mechanism, give scientific research units more autonomy, give scientists greater power to decide on technical routes and the right to use funds, and liberate scientific research units and scientific research personnel from the shackles of cumbersome and unnecessary institutional mechanisms.
Reporter: The 14th Five-Year Plan and the 2035 Long-term Goal Outline propose to "strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength", what trend does this reflect?
Wang Zhigang: At present, the internal and external environment of China's development has undergone profound changes, the instability and uncertainty of the external environment have increased significantly, the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic has brought about a wide and profound impact, economic globalization and scientific and technological globalization have encountered adverse currents, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation have developed in depth, and scientific and technological innovation has become the wrestling field of the great power game. Entering a new stage of development, seizing major strategic opportunities, and effectively responding to risks and challenges, we urgently need to build a "scientific and technological ace army" that embodies the national will, serves the needs of the country, and represents the national level. As a national strategic scientific and technological force, in order to be able to produce great results and make great contributions, at the critical moment of safeguarding national strategic interests, we must be able to rush forward, recruit and fight, and win the battle. The influence and support of strategic scientific and technological forces are directly related to the improvement of China's comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness, and are the "ballast stones" for promoting economic and social development and ensuring national security, which can provide sustained innovation for achieving high-quality development and building a new development pattern.
In recent years, China has achieved "latecomer first" in a number of strategic areas, the key core "card neck" technical research has been fully implemented, and the scientific research on epidemic prevention and control has enabled the national scientific and technological community to experience an unprecedented "big test", which has further highlighted the importance and urgency of cultivating and building a national strategic scientific and technological force. In the next step, in accordance with the deployment of the Party Central Committee, we will implement the requirements of the "four aspects", strengthen the systematic planning and top-level design of the national strategic scientific and technological forces, and strive to produce more strategic and key major scientific and technological achievements. (Economic Daily reporter She Huimin)
Source: Economic Daily
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