Backbone of its R&D capability, the PRC’s state laboratories play pivotal roles in advancing basic research, driving tech innovation, and realising national priorities. State labs sit in two tiers: National Labs on top and National Key Labs (NKLs) below. Each tier serves a distinct purpose within the R&D ecosystem.
State-market relations are changing. This was in full view at a Party-led symposium attended by top business leaders on 17 February 2025. They heard a clear message from Xi Jinping 习近平 that Chinese-style socialism, the PRC’s unique brand of state capitalism, creates opportunities for the private economy; firms must, in exchange, find their place within national objectives
Underscoring the symbolic status of the heartland, Beijing has for 22 years devoted a key policy text, formally designated the ‘No. 1 Document’ of the year, to agriculture, the countryside and the rural population (the sannong or ‘three rurals’). The latest, issued 23 February 2025, maintains the focus of recent years on food security. It also takes on current buzzwords flagging the concept of ‘new productive forces’ for ag.
In the first months of Trump 2.0, his claim that Beijing ‘runs the Panama Canal' grabbed attention; Hong Kong-resident shipping heavyweight Hutchinson Whampoa has managed ports on the canal since 1997. What is evident to many observers is the converse, the net effect, of Trump’s accusation: Beijing’s credibility, not least in the global south and, by extension, in the UN and other multilateral fora, is likely to rise.
Backbone of its R&D capability, the PRC’s state laboratories play pivotal roles in advancing basic research, driving tech innovation, and realising national priorities. State labs sit in two tiers: National Labs on top and National Key Labs (NKLs) below. Each tier serves a distinct purpose within the R&D ecosystem.
State-market relations are changing. This was in full view at a Party-led symposium attended by top business leaders on 17 February 2025. They heard a clear message from Xi Jinping 习近平 that Chinese-style socialism, the PRC’s unique brand of state capitalism, creates opportunities for the private economy; firms must, in exchange, find their place within national objectives
Underscoring the symbolic status of the heartland, Beijing has for 22 years devoted a key policy text, formally designated the ‘No. 1 Document’ of the year, to agriculture, the countryside and the rural population (the sannong or ‘three rurals’). The latest, issued 23 February 2025, maintains the focus of recent years on food security. It also takes on current buzzwords flagging the concept of ‘new productive forces’ for ag.
In the first months of Trump 2.0, his claim that Beijing ‘runs the Panama Canal' grabbed attention; Hong Kong-resident shipping heavyweight Hutchinson Whampoa has managed ports on the canal since 1997. What is evident to many observers is the converse, the net effect, of Trump’s accusation: Beijing’s credibility, not least in the global south and, by extension, in the UN and other multilateral fora, is likely to rise.
Backbone of its R&D capability, the PRC’s state laboratories play pivotal roles in advancing basic research, driving tech innovation, and realising national priorities. State labs sit in two tiers: National Labs on top and National Key Labs (NKLs) below. Each tier serves a distinct purpose within the R&D ecosystem.