On March 13, 2026, China published the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十五个五年规划纲要), which runs from 2026 to 2030. China’s 5-Year Plans (FYP) are strategic blueprints that set foundational policy, economic, and social development goals. They coordinate national priorities—including technological innovation, industrial upgrades, green energy, and national security—to guide economic growth and structural reforms over five-year periods.
Excerpts relating to technology and intellectual property follow. The full text is available here (Chinese only).
Chapter Five: Cultivating and Strengthening Emerging and Future Industries
Strengthen the supply of original technologies, accelerate the construction of application scenarios and ecosystems, cultivate more pillar and leading industries, and build new advantages for industrial development.
Section 1 Developing and Expanding Emerging Industries
Accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries such as next-generation information technology, new energy, new materials, intelligent connected new energy vehicles, robotics, biomedicine, high-end equipment, and aerospace. Build distinctive and complementary strategic emerging industry clusters tailored to local conditions, focusing on creating a number of emerging pillar industries with high growth potential, high technological content, and broad market penetration. Expand the development space for the marine economy and promote the healthy and orderly development of the low-altitude economy. Implement large-scale application demonstrations of new technologies, new products, and new scenarios, increase the cultivation and openness of application scenarios, and accelerate the large-scale development of emerging industries. Encourage the development of strategic products and services, promote the large-scale and serialized development of domestically produced large aircraft, strengthen the innovative application of the BeiDou system, and steadily advance key technology innovations such as intelligent driving, new solar cells, and new energy storage. Support the clinical use of innovative drugs.
Section 2: Forward-looking Planning for Future Industries
Targeting key areas that will lead future development, we will construct a comprehensive cultivation system for future industries, promoting quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embody intelligence, and sixth-generation mobile communication as new economic growth drivers. We will strengthen the identification and dynamic adjustment of future industries, and reinforce the layout of fundamental, cutting-edge, and disruptive technologies. We will establish a mechanism for increasing investment and sharing risks in future industries, organize and implement demonstration projects for future industry development, and explore diverse technological routes, typical application scenarios, feasible business models, and market regulatory rules. We will establish a number of national future industry research institutes and proof-of-concept centers, and build a number of future industry pilot zones based on regions with outstanding scientific and educational resources and strong industrial foundations.
Section 3 Improving the Ecosystem for Industrial Innovation and Development
We will focus on building a market environment and policy system conducive to the incubation and growth of emerging industries. We will implement industrial innovation projects, optimize the organizational model and evaluation system for strategic product technology innovation, and promote the integrated development of innovation facilities, technology research and development, and product iteration and upgrading. We will improve the intellectual property protection system in emerging fields, improve the public service system for intellectual property and the network of technology transaction service platforms, and implement a new industry standardization leading project. We will cultivate unicorn companies. We will establish an efficient and convenient access mechanism adapted to the development of new business models and explore new regulatory methods such as “sandbox regulation” and trigger-based regulation. We will improve the precision of low-altitude airspace management, strengthen airworthiness certification capabilities, and enhance low-altitude flight safety. We will promote legislation in emerging fields such as biomedicine, intelligent driving, and the low-altitude economy.
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Strengthen weak links in the entire producer services chain and improve the integration of modern service industries with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture. Vigorously develop science and technology services, enhance capabilities in R&D design, intellectual property, technology transfer, testing and certification, and cultivate internationally competitive industrial design centers. Utilize industrial clusters to establish a number of industry-wide common technology platforms, pilot-scale testing platforms, and integrated, efficient quality infrastructure. Improve the overall competitiveness of services such as financial leasing, logistics and warehousing, and human resources; expand services related to energy conservation, environmental protection, and digital transformation; and increase the proportion of value-added services. Strengthen and optimize business services, develop high-level third-party professional institutions, and enhance their credibility and international recognition.
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Promote the development of systems for property rights protection, market access, information disclosure, social credit, mergers and acquisitions, and market exit to meet the requirements of a unified national market. Protect the property rights of all types of ownership economies equally and sustainably according to law, and impose equal responsibility, equal punishment, and equal penalties for any infringement upon the property rights and legitimate interests of all types of ownership economies. Strengthen the protection and utilization of intellectual property rights, and formulate rules and guidelines for the protection of trade secrets in key areas. Improve the market access system, dynamically revise the negative list for market access, and strictly implement the “one national list” management requirements. Improve the rules and regulations for disclosing enterprise information on quality, safety, and the environment. Enhance the functions of the national credit information sharing platform, further promote the collection and sharing of credit information and the expansion of credit applications, and improve the mechanisms for rewarding good faith, punishing bad faith, and repairing credit. Improve the enterprise bankruptcy system and explore the establishment of a simplified exit mechanism covering all business entities. Improve statistical, fiscal, and assessment systems conducive to the construction of a unified national market, promote the use of location-based statistics for business activities, and optimize the sharing of benefits between enterprise headquarters and branches, and between production and consumption locations. Formulate regulations for the construction of a unified national market.
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We will promote the efficient linkage between high-level opening-up and in-depth reform, and accelerate the legislative amendments, policy adjustments, and standard revisions in key areas. We will improve the intellectual property protection mechanism to align with international rules, explore expanding the scope of trademark protection, optimize the copyright protection mechanism, and broaden channels for resolving intellectual property disputes. We will promote international mutual recognition of rules and standards for energy efficiency, water efficiency, and carbon footprint of key products, and promote the legal and voluntary disclosure of climate and environmental information by enterprises. We will explore and improve labor protection mechanisms that are suitable for my country’s national conditions and in line with international practices. We will accelerate the reform of the government procurement system and fully implement the principle of fair competition. We will take the lead in piloting the World Trade Organization’s e-commerce agreement and investment facilitation agreement, and improve the efficiency of cross-border payment and settlement and the level of electronic and standardized documentation.
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Effectively implement outbound investment management, improve the comprehensive overseas service system, promote trade and investment integration, and guide the rational and orderly cross-border layout of industrial and supply chains. Further guide and regulate the direction of enterprises’ overseas investment, support qualified enterprises to carry out mutually beneficial overseas investment cooperation, and encourage enterprises in emerging industries such as internet platforms and artificial intelligence to expand overseas application scenarios. Support professional service institutions such as consulting and evaluation, legal services, accounting and auditing, credit rating, and mediation and arbitration to expand their overseas service networks, and improve the system for protecting foreign-related intellectual property rights. Strengthen the protection of the legitimate interests of Chinese citizens and legal persons overseas, establish a system for responding to demands and providing protection and relief, and improve the system for protecting overseas interests. Leverage the role of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones and promote coordinated development with domestic industrial parks. Strengthen the security review of overseas investment. Improve the mechanisms and laws and regulations for monitoring, preventing, and handling overseas investment risks, and promote enterprises to enhance their risk prevention and compliance capabilities.
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Support Hong Kong in building an international innovation and technology center; deepen its development as an international legal and dispute resolution service center, a regional intellectual property trade center, and a center for cultural and artistic exchanges between China and foreign countries; and accelerate the development of the northern metropolitan area.
