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High technology and low incomes were in sharp focus in China late last week as two of its senior officials visited opposite ends of the country.
On a trip to the eastern province of Zhejiang from Thursday to Saturday, Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing urged manufacturers to apply new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to research and development, design, product manufacturing and process optimisation.
Zhejiang is home to some of the country’s most innovative companies – firms that Beijing hopes will spur the kind of “new quality productive forces” that will propel China up the industrial value chain.
“Enterprises that use specialised and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products constitute a vital force in building manufacturing power and developing ‘new quality productive forces’,” state news agency Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying on Saturday.
These technologies include all-solid-state batteries for new energy vehicles, optical instruments and components and large language models (LLMs).


“[We must] support these specialised firms in pursuing technological innovation, increasing R&D investment, and cultivating expertise in niche areas of their industries,” Zhang said.
“Leading enterprises should be encouraged to deepen collaboration with them so that larger enterprises will become more innovative, resilient in supply chains and competitive in the international market.”
Zhang’s trip was part of China’s broader push for technological self-reliance in the face of US export controls restricting Chinese access to advanced American chip technology.
That push includes efforts to expand the use of home-grown LLMs. In a plan presented to the top legislature in June, the National Development and Reform Commission said it would promote the use of LLM-based AI across various industries, strengthen data governance and improve frameworks for data property rights, trading and income distribution.
Meanwhile in southwestern Sichuan province, Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong was putting the spotlight on HIV/Aids and the need to shore up gains in easing poverty.
During a stop in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, one of the country’s poorest regions, Liu said China should step up the prevention and control of major infectious diseases such as HIV/Aids, giving priority to prevention as well as treatment.

Health researchers in Sichuan have called the province “the most painful area for the Aids epidemic in China”, pointing to its high incidence and mortality rates of HIV infection.
“The epidemic among individuals aged 50 years and above in [an unnamed] southern Sichuan city is particularly severe, posing a more significant challenge than in other parts of the province,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports in March.
Older people in rural areas with lower literacy levels might lack awareness of HIV and condom use, they said.
Liu was in Sichuan from Wednesday to Saturday and used his stop in Liangshan to assess the status of compulsory education, basic medical care, housing security, drinking water safety and employment initiatives.
He said vocational skills training and employment services should be improved to give job opportunities to individuals who had overcome poverty.
“[We should] support underdeveloped regions by improving infrastructure and public services in line with local conditions to strengthen county-level economies,” he said.


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Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing (third from left) visits an enterprise manufacturing all-solid-state batteries for new energy vehicles, in Zhejiang province on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong has completed a four-day visit to Sichuan province. Photo: AFP

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Politics

Zhang Guoqing and Liu Guozhong have visited Zhejiang and Sichuan, one driving China’s hi-tech hopes and the other battling high Aids deaths


Zhang Guoqing and Liu Guozhong have visited Zhejiang and Sichuan, one driving China’s hi-tech hopes and the other battling high Aids deaths.


Poverty in China

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Liu Guozhong

Zhang Guoqing

China’s hi-tech push, Aids and poverty fights in focus as vice-premiers tour provinces

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Zhang Guoqing and Liu Guozhong have visited Zhejiang and Sichuan, one driving China’s hi-tech hopes and the other battling high Aids deaths

Zhang Guoqing and Liu Guozhong have visited Zhejiang and Sichuan, one driving China’s hi-tech hopes and the other battling high Aids deaths