China ramps up ‘high stakes’ tech race with US as economic imbalances deepen

China on Thursday set out a five-year roadmap to turbocharge scientific breakthroughs and embed AI across its industrial economic machine, framing technological dominance as a core national security goal in its sharpening rivalry with the US.

In its 15th strategic plan since adopting Soviet-style quinquennial policy cycles in the 1950s, Beijing has outlined a bet that technology – not consumption – will drive its next phase of development despite growing structural pressures.