As U.S. rivalry intensifies, China pledges to advance self-reliance in science and tech

China’s Communist Party elite vowed Thursday to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technology self-reliance, which it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States.

BEIJING — China’s Communist Party elite vowed Thursday to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technology self-reliance, which it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States.

As expected, the Party’s Central Committee also promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people’s livelihoods — long-standing goals that in recent years have been little more than an afterthought as China prioritized manufacturing and investment.

The Chinese economy’s overreliance on exports at a time of heightened trade tensions with Washington might push Beijing to find a better policy balance in coming years, although analysts expect efforts to be slow.

A communique from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, after the Party leaders’ four-day closed door meeting, known as a plenum, outlined China’s priorities in its next five-year development plan, which will only be released in full at a parliamentary meeting in March.

“The country will be in a period (2026-2030) where strategic opportunities coexist with risks and challenges, and there will be an increase in uncertain and unpredictable factors,” Xinhua reported, citing the communique.