This research project will investigate the principal elements of Xi Jinping’s thoughts on science and technology. Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung argue in The Political Thought of Xi Jinping (2014): “Since Xi Thought is now the highest guide for policymaking, it is important to take what Xi says into account seriously.” The promotion of science, technology and innovation is the key factor in Xi’s ambition to develop new quality productive forces and make China the world’s leading innovative country by 2050. Although Xi Jinping’s statements on S&T epitomize official Chinese political rhetoric, they also reveal fundamental ideas in the Chinese Communist Party about issues of S&T management and geopolitical priorities.
The research provides a critical assessment of Xi Jinping’s thoughts on S&T in a comparative context of international science policy scholarship. This will be based on an analysis of the elements that are similar to international theoretical understandings of the driving forces and effects of science, technology and innovation on the one hand, and the elements that are related to specific Chinese characteristics on the other. Thus, the research will contribute to international theoretical scholarship on varieties of innovation policies and to our understanding of the geopolitical and domestic factors shaping Chinese science and technology policy.