In order to break the technological containment of Europe and the US, China needs to develop independent innovation through international cooperation

At present, China's access to advanced foreign technology is becoming increasingly difficult. China's high-tech industry development has been contained by the United States. The European Union has announced its new framework for the screening of foreign direct investments. Moreover, Europe and Japan have joined hands with the US to complain to the World Trade Organization about China's so-called discriminatory technical patent licensing regulations. Only by enhancing the capacity of independent innovation and enhancing the core competitiveness of its enterprises, can China avoid being contained.

China's scientific and technological innovation has entered the fast track of development. In 2018, China ranked No 17 in the Global Innovation Index, five places higher than in 2017, and excelled in terms of business maturity, knowledge and technical output.

China's science and technology funding has continued to grow. In 2018, China's R&D intensity was 2.18 percent. The R&D intensity of the developed eastern coastal provinces and cities has exceeded the average level of members of the OECD. If this development momentum lasts for 10 or 20 years, these provinces and cities will emerge with a number of first-class universities and first-class scientific institutes, innovative enterprises, common technology and public technology service platforms, which will also drive the development of science and technology innovation in other regions

China's regional innovation has formed a new pattern of coordination. The central inland cities, such as Wuhan, Hefei, Zhengzhou, and Changsha, are forming independent innovation industrial clusters, university clusters and so on.

While the western and northeastern regions are continuously increasing investment in research and development and accelerating their transition toward innovation-driven economies.

But China's technological innovation still faces many challenges.

In terms of innovation capacity, due to the long-term conventional thinking of "being a follower", China lacks original ideas and capability in many areas of scientific and technological innovation.

And it is not yet ready to plan and lead its global science and technology development. In terms of resource allocation, there's a lack of integration among innovation elements such as technology, capital and talents at home and abroad. The synergy among these innovation elements needs to be further strengthened.

In terms of innovation costs, the cost of urban transportation, life, education, human capital, and housing continues to rise, pushing up the cost of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Also China's innovation mechanism is not yet mature. Enterprises have not really become the main body of innovation decision-making. And the administrative barriers that restrict enterprise innovation still exist.

Therefore, in order to break the technological containment of Europe and the US, China needs to develop independent innovation through international cooperation. Unlike mature technology, independent technology cannot be blocked by any country.

China needs to create and promote an ecosystem of "government, industry and research coordination" and build a scientific innovation network of "enterprise concentration+ multi-industry cooperation + R&D cluster development". The connections among industrial streams in the process of innovation will improve the commercialization of research results.

It should also set up a commercialization platform for research results and should focus on the introduction of major national project installations to promote innovative enterprise clustering.

A good example is Dongsheng, which has introduced China's largest major national technological infrastructure, China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS). Since then, a large number of relevant research institutions and enterprises have gathered around it, which has formed a complete CSNS industrial chain and innovation ecosystem.

The efficiency of investment in R&D should also be improved. Emerging industries and traditional industries should form a two-wheel drive for innovation. There is no sunset industry, only sunset technology. Traditional industries can promote technological transformation and overall quality improvement.

At the same time, local governments need to help address common technology issues. They should increase their investment in the R&D of key technologies and public technology research fields, and build a group of nonprofit support platforms to solve common problems such as sourcing materials and key components. The public technology research institute set up by Jiangsu province is a good model that other local governments can learn from.

A cross-border innovation network should also be constructed to promote open and innovative cooperation across geographies and cross-disciplines, and create a globally open innovation chain. The capital chain should form around the innovation chain, and the innovation chain should be deployed around the industrial chain.

The connections between technology and the economy, innovation results and industry, innovative projects and productivity, as well as innovation and the global talent pool should be strengthened in the construction of a global innovation network.

Last but not least, China needs to improve its innovation environment using the San Francisco Bay Area as the benchmark. It should draw on the experience of the Bay Area, replicate the Silicon Valley model and build its own international science and technology innovation center. It should improve the intensity of knowledge and technology and establish a virtuous circle of "capital-talents-research results" that includes universities and institutes.

It should promote the marriage of university research teams and industry, create an innovative environment and innovative culture to inject strong vitality into enterprise innovation. It should make full use of venture capital to promote the growth of high-tech enterprises and achieve industrialization. It should practice innovative ideas with broad inclusiveness, and inspire people's enthusiasm for innovation.