Xi Stresses China Needs Independent Innovation as World Changes

China must “vigorously enhance the capability to conduct innovation independently,” President Xi Jinping told a meeting of experts in Beijing, in the latest emphasis on using technological self-reliance to counter a more hostile external environment.

“The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, which are being accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Xi said at a symposium on economic and social work on Monday, calling for “breakthroughs in key and core technologies as soon as possible.”