(Yicai) March 31 — China’s central government expenditure on science and technolocy is expected to break through CNY400 billion (USD58 billion) for the first time in 2026, with a greater emphasis on basic research, as the country ramps up funding to drive innovation and strengthen technological self-reliance.
The central government’s budget for science and technology has surged 10 percent this year from last year to CNY426.42 billion (USD61.7 billion), according to the latest central fiscal budget recently released by the Ministry of Finance.
This growth is well above the average 5.5 percent increase for all spending by the central government and is the fastest growth rate among central government expenditures, which refers to fiscal expenditure directly used for central government-level affairs, that are over CNY100 billion (USD14.4 billion).
Most of the science and tech budget still goes toward basic and applied research. However, spending on basic research has jumped 16.3 percent year on year to CNY116.9 billion (USD16.9 billion), while that on applied research has slumped roughly 13.3 percent to CNY156.9 billion.
This year’s boost in basic research is mainly due to more lab funding and central budgetary investments, while the drop in applied research spending is because last year was the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan for the country’s social and economic development, so the base was higher, the Ministry of Finance said. This year is the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan and some projects are still being finalized.
Within the basic research budget, spending on special basic research projects has increased 44.2 percent from last year to CNY22.8 billion (USD3.3 billion), expenditure on the Natural Science Foundation has gained 6.1 percent to CNY41.9 billion and spending on other basic research has jumped 50.2 percent to CNY20.5 billion.
One of the top 10 tasks in this year’s government work report is to accelerate high-level, self-reliance in science and technology. This includes strengthening original innovation and tackling key core technologies. The country should leverage the advantages in the national system to promote breakthroughs in core technologies along the entire industrial chain, implement major scientific and tech projects, strengthen the layout in cutting-edge fields and produce more original results. The aim is also to keep raising the share of basic research spending and provide long-term, stable support.
Editor: Kim Taylor