(Xinhua/Shen Hong)
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called for accelerating efforts to raise the level of independence and achieve greater progress in science and technology, and taking advantage of scientific and technological innovation to support and boost China’s modernization.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a meeting in Beijing that brought together the national science and technology awards ceremony, the general meetings of members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CEA), and the 11th national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology.
He declared that the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) constituted a crucial phase to meet the major challenges linked to the construction of a powerful State in the fields of science and technology.
“We must seize this historic opportunity, meet the challenges of the times, accelerate efforts to raise the level of independence and achieve greater progress in science and technology, and steadily advance towards the goal set for 2035 of becoming a powerful state in science and technology,” he said.
At the meeting, Xi presented China’s highest science and technology award for the year 2025 to Chen Liquan, a researcher at the CSA Institute of Physics and a member of the AIC, as well as Ben De, a researcher at the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation and also a member of the AIC. After presenting the medals and certificates to the two scientists, Xi shook their hands and extended his congratulations.
Xi and other Party and state leaders, accompanied by the two highest honor winners, presented certificates to representatives of winners of other awards, including the National Natural Science Award, the National Technological Invention Award and the National Scientific and Technological Progress Award.
(Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)
