China Transforms Artificial Intelligence into a Pillar of Its New Economy
Artificial intelligence is mentioned more than 50 times in China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), compared to 11 times in the previous one. Adopted on March 11, 2026 at the National People’s Congress, this plan is the first to explicitly place artificial intelligence at the heart of economic strategy. Prime Minister Li Qiang used the term “intelligent economy” for the first time in his work report.
This quantitative evolution reflects a profound qualitative transformation. China is no longer merely seeking to develop AI as a technological sector, but to make it the fundamental infrastructure of a new economic model. The numerical objective is clear: AI-related industries must exceed 10 trillion yuan (approximately 1.45 trillion dollars) in value by 2030, compared to an estimated 1.2 trillion yuan in 2025. This systematization of AI as a national economic pillar tests the effectiveness of centralized planning against technological innovation.
From 1.2 Trillion Yuan to the Intelligent Economy: A Revolution by the Numbers
The value of China’s artificial intelligence sector production reached 1.2 trillion yuan in 2025, with more than 6,200 companies operating in this field. More than 30% of manufacturing enterprises have implemented AI applications. The projected leap to reach 10 trillion yuan by 2030 represents an annual growth rate exceeding 50%.
This growth is built on an ambitious digital infrastructure. The document details a three-component architecture for AI-related digital infrastructure. The government plans the construction of national computing hubs, described as “intelligent computing clusters.” It specifically targets the development of high-performance AI chips, research into model architectures (multimodal, agents, embodied AI), and the establishment of “intelligent computing clusters” on a national scale.
Industrial results are already tangible. Rapid progress in embodied intelligence has enabled Chinese companies to unveil more than 300 types of humanoid robots in 2025, representing more than half of the global total. This quantitative dominance reveals the effectiveness of the Chinese planned approach to transform research into mass production.
The “AI Plus” Initiative: 90% Economic Adoption as a Strategic Objective
The “AI Plus” initiative, launched under the previous five-year plan, becomes the operational instrument of this transformation. By 2030, the penetration of intelligent terminals and AI agents will exceed 90%, and the intelligent economy will become a major driver of growth in the Chinese economy. AI will comprehensively fuel high-quality economic development.
This strategy unfolds in two phases. By 2027, the adoption rate of next-generation intelligent terminals, agents, and other applications will exceed 70%. In simple terms, in just three years, what still seems new today—AI assistants, AI “employees,” sectoral AI agents, AI hardware—will become as common as smartphones and mobile payments are now.
The 90% adoption target by 2030 far exceeds Western standards. At 90% adoption, AI essentially becomes infrastructure, like electricity or the internet. Thereafter, if you are not competent in using AI at work or in daily life, you will feel like the few people who still insist on paying in cash today. This vision transforms AI from a technological tool into a social and economic prerequisite.
Centralized Planning Facing the Innovation Challenge: Efficiency or Rigidity?
The Chinese model tests the limits of centralized planning applied to innovation. This methodical rise in power has been accelerated by centralized planning and massive state support. This financing sustains a structured ecosystem where universities, businesses, and the state cooperate around common objectives. This centralized approach contrasts sharply with the fragmentation of innovation policies in the West.
The results of this coordination are spectacular. China now dominates 37 of the 44 critical technologies analyzed on a global scale. According to the ASPI report published on December 1, 2025, China controls 70% of the major research laboratories in critical technologies. This dominance stems directly from the Chinese system’s capacity to concentrate resources and objectives.
Yet tensions emerge between planning and creativity. The immediate efficiency of planning masks the fragility of a system where innovation still depends on political allocation of resources. These methods are hardly likely to foster technological breakthroughs. The mechanisms that Chinese companies adopt to accelerate innovation are more effective for products where a dominant concept has emerged, so that the innovation process is defined and can be easily industrialized.
This limitation appears in certain key sectors. A recent survey (2018) on the source of supplies for 130 key components and materials, conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology among 30 Chinese conglomerates, revealed that 95% of central processing units and associated microprocessors were imported, as were virtually all advanced equipment used for manufacturing and quality control.
Three Priority Strategic Emerging Industries
AI is only the most visible part of a plan that identifies eight strategic emerging industries: next-generation information technology, new energy, new materials, intelligent connected vehicles, robotics, biomedicine, high-end equipment, and aerospace. To these industries are added six “future industries” to cultivate: quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion, brain-machine interfaces, embodied AI, and 6G. China aspires to develop a “real quantum computer” capable of solving concrete problems by 2030, and an operational fusion reactor by the same deadline.
This diversification reveals a strategy of technological sovereignty. The objective is clear: China wants to reduce its dependence on foreign supply chains in these sectors and build an autonomous technological ecosystem. AI becomes the cross-cutting infrastructure that irrigates these priority sectors.
Concrete applications are multiplying. In electric vehicle manufacturer Nio’s intelligent manufacturing plant, the use of intelligent robots increased production efficiency by more than 30%, reduced labor costs by 25%, and decreased defect rates by 40%. UBTech announced having obtained orders worth more than 100 million yuan and plans to deliver more than 1,000 of its Walker S2 humanoid robots in 2026.
Budget and Investments: 1.3 Trillion Yuan for R&D in 2026
Chinese ambition is accompanied by considerable financial resources. National R&D spending must increase by at least 7% annually, with 1.3 trillion yuan allocated to science and technology in 2026. In 2024, China devoted 2.69% of its GDP to research and development, a level comparable to or exceeding several G7 countries.
This investment intensity produces measurable results. China’s major open-source models ranked first globally in downloads last year, thereby improving the accessibility of AI technology. Currently, China accounts for approximately 60% of global AI patents, ranking first globally. In terms of practical application, several world-class AI models have emerged in the country, and more than 100 reference application scenarios have taken shape.
Contrary to European fragmentation in the face of AI challenges, the Chinese approach coordinates all actors around common national objectives. This coordination enables a speed of execution that Western democracies struggle to match, where debates on regulation often slow down innovation.
The Model’s Limits: Technological Dependencies and Social Risks
Despite these successes, the Chinese model reveals structural vulnerabilities. This results in growing local debt, persistent rent mechanisms, unresolved technological vulnerabilities, and reinforced territorial hierarchization. Planning can accelerate adoption but struggles to guarantee breakthrough innovation.
Western restrictions expose these dependencies. Faced with international technological restrictions, particularly in the fields of semiconductors and advanced technologies, China seeks to strengthen its strategic autonomy. Sino-American tensions, with trade wars and competition for access to cutting-edge technologies, are not negligible.
Massive AI adoption also raises social questions. Rapid AI integration risks widespread job displacement, particularly in labor-intensive industries. Broader implications include spikes in unemployment as AI automates jobs faster than workers can adapt.
The 15th Five-Year Plan represents a full-scale test of planned economies’ capacity to steer technological innovation. Its results in 2030 will determine whether centralized coordination prevails over decentralized creativity in the global race for artificial intelligence. This experiment could redefine the economic models of the twenty-first century, depending on whether the efficiency of planning exceeds or falls short of the limits of directed innovation.